How do commemorative monuments fit in our contemporary society? What place do reminders of colonial history have in the current world?
An artist is inviting community members to join in a public roundtable discussion on that topic on Tuesday, Oct. 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Anvil Centre Theatre.
Artist Maddie Leach will be on hand for the discussion titled Anyone Seen Simon?, moderated by Kamala Todd.
The discussion centres on Leach’s work Lowering Simon Fraser, a public art project that includes a book, text on the Queensborough Bridge billboard and a “temporary sculptural intervention” at Westminster Quay.
Leach’s project focuses on the Simon Fraser monument on the boardwalk at the Quay. The column and bust commemorate the early-19th-century fur trader and explorer who’s credited with charting much of what is now known as British Columbia. In 1808, with the aid of many Indigenous communities, he explored the river that now bears his name.
The monument was commissioned early in the 20th century by the New Westminster branch of the Native Sons of B.C. In 1908, a tall granite column was unveiled by Premier Richard McBride on a mound in Albert Crescent Park, overlooking the river. A bronze bust of Fraser was completed in 1911 by Montreal-based sculptor Louis-Phillipe Hébert and positioned on the column.
Over the following decades, the monument underwent several relocations due to the construction and reconstruction of the road approaches to the Pattullo Bridge, gradually moving downhill towards the river.
“When the monument arrived at its current site on the Quay in 1988, its granite plinth had been substantially reduced in height, the bust turned 180 degrees to face away from the river and its gaze directed towards a waterfront pub,” says a write-up about the project.
“This series of unacknowledged ‘lowerings’ have quietly taken place alongside, on the one hand, continued circulation of heroic narratives of Fraser’s 1808 expedition and, on the other, increasing calls to re-examine those colonial histories and acknowledge the way they perpetuate erasures of Indigenous presence, particularly given the profound significance of this body of water for local First Nations’ cultural practices and sovereignty.”
Leach originally asked city council for permission to remove a narrow slab of the granite plinth and transport it to the source of the Fraser River in the Rocky Mountains – allowing it to be reshaped and reduced by the effects of weather and water and slowly carried downriver.
“The artist imagined that one day, the granite slab may have arrived back in New Westminster as a small, insignificant stone,” says the write-up.
That imagined alternate future is now chronicled in a limited-edition bookwork, with illustrations by Michael Kluckner, in tandem with text displayed on the north-facing electronic billboard at the Queensborough Bridge. The artist has also created a temporary sculptural assemblage at the Simon Fraser monument site, which will be in place from today (Sept. 30) to Oct. 4.
It’s designed to help catalyze public awareness around the historical purpose of acts of commemoration and the complex implications of their continued presence in the contemporary moment.
Seating for the talk is limited. RSVP through www.eventbrite.ca or find a link through www.contemporaryartgallery.ca.
