This surreal art installation was placed there before the pandemic, and as I went by it the other day, it struck me that the 'flowers' kind of look like viral particles, if viral particles had long penises instead of short spike proteins.
Vancouver is no stranger to risqué art pieces. Who can forget our homage to erect satan, which some guerrilla artists placed right on the path to the train station. Imagine the surprise of morning commuters as they went by what can only be described as a viagra happy satan.
We're not just crass, we can also be a bit whimsical. After a statue of a reclining figure was placed in a local park, some prankster created an official looking sign that christened the park "Dude Chilling Park". It was rather well made and very impressive that one of our local pot-heads had in him to finish the whole thing. The city eventually took it down, but the legend lived on. More recently, the city put up a sign near a barge that got lodged on the rocks on the shore after a powerful storm. The barge quickly began attracting attention as a landmark, and even trip reviews popped up online. As the city apparently doesn’t have enough on its plate (like dislodging said barge), they put up a sign near the beach.
I have to admit that this is funny, and so I don’t mind my tax dollars helping raise it. But as we can never have nice things, some malcontent spray painted the sign using an indigenous script that refers to the original name of the area by the natives. The city took it down and put up a fresh new one. Everyone rejoiced! Until the second one was vandalized too with the same ugly graffiti. The city gave up and decided to leave the graffiti up, so we can have a “conversation.”
We embrace the tacky and the silly. The creative and destructive. A lot of our outrageous behavior begins with the boundary pushers. Then, as a collective, we embrace the wacky. Which is the reason why if you're ever in this city, you shouldn't be surprised if you end up in a veritable garden of penile delights.
