''Spinning Chandelier'' is a public artwork by

Rodney Graham William Rodney Graham (January 16, 1949 – October 22, 2022) was a Canadian visual artist and musician. He was closely associated with the Vancouver School. Early life Graham was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on January 16, 1949. ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Canada. The work is situated under the

Granville Street Bridge The Granville Street Bridge or Granville Bridge is an eight-lane fixed cantilever/truss bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, carrying Granville Street between Downtown Vancouver southwest and the Fairview neighborhood. It spans Fal ...

Downtown Vancouver Downtown Vancouver is the central business district and the city centre list of neighbourhoods in Vancouver, neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada, on the northwestern shore of the Burrard Peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. ...

. It was unveiled in 2019.

Attributes

The work is located in a formerly underutilized space, hanging from beneath the

above the intersection of Beach Avenue and an unnamed alley. The work was designed by artist

. It is the public art component of

Vancouver House Vancouver House is a neo-futurist residential skyscraper in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Construction of the skyscraper began in 2016 and was expected to be finished by the end of 2019, but completion was postponed to summer of 2020. O ...

, a 60-story condominium building designed by

Bjarke Ingels Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels (; born 2 October 1974) is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). In Denmark, Ingels became well known after designing two housing complexes in Ørestad: VM Houses and Mountain Dwe ...

. The chandelier has a cyclical show that takes place three times a day, at 12 p.m., 4 p.m., and 9 p.m. The cycle involves the work lighting up, lowering to its lowest point, rotating for four minutes, slowing down, stopping, and rising back to its original place. The chandelier is styled like those made in the 18th century. It weighs about and measures . The work is made of stainless steel,

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

lights, and 600

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) is a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethane term ...

crystals. It was manufactured by Walla Walla Foundry in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

of Washington. The work was meant to "be in dialogue" with Vancouver House, a corresponding commission seen by the work's art consultant as another giant sculpture. The artist matched the chandelier with the bridge underside, which he viewed as an area with a large volume and a grand presence. The budget for the artwork was initially $1.2 million, the minimum amount required for Westbank Corp. to invest, as it had rezoned a space of over . Due to its complex design and fabrication process, the final cost of the artwork rose to $4.8 million. The city waived Westbank Corp.'s requirement for public art in three other developments, as funds were pooled into the chandelier project. The artwork was inspired by an earlier work of Graham, titled ''Torqued Chandelier Release''. That work was inspired by an experiment by scientist

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

, involving a half-filled bucket of water suspended from an unwinding rope.

History

A public unveiling ceremony was held on November 27, 2019.

Reception

The public's response to the artwork has been mixed. Its $4.8 million cost and symbolic grandeur has been seen by local residents as excessive, especially in an area with a housing and homelessness crisis. Other local residents expressed positive views of its design, including its programmed cyclical motion.

References

* https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185060/torqued-chandelier-release * https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/giant-chandelier-hanging-from-granville-bridge-1.5370663

External links

* {{Public art in Vancouver 2019 establishments in British Columbia 2019 sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Vancouver Stainless steel sculptures Steel sculptures in Canada Works by Canadian people Bridge light displays

Attributes

History

Reception

See also

References

External links