Since its opening in 1931, the Vancouver International Airport has been a site
where significant representations of the city, its geography and its population have been
made. Instead of being utilitarian structures the airport terminals have been purposefully
designed and decorated with art chosen specifically to communicate Vancouver's distinct
qualities and culture to travelers. As culture is never static and changes continuously, the
representations have also shifted over time.
By considering the specific history of Vancouver's airport in conjunction with the
wider history of Canadian and international airport development, patterns (such as the
continuous use of symbols from native cultures to represent aspects of the colonizer's
culture) and tensions (such as Vancouver's relative position as a major Canadian urban
centre and the growth of visible immigrant populations) which accompany the
representation of locality at the airport become apparent. Henri Lefevbre's
understanding of space as an active social product, David Harvey's assessment of the
impact of globalization upon the local and Siegfried Kracauer's interpretation of
architecture as illustrative of broad social trends underpin my analysis.
The adoption,of an historical and theoretical framework within this thesis is
directed at developing an interpretation of the current art program at the Vancouver
International Airport which can move beyond the point where debate regarding
"authenticity" and the agency of the native artists or their communities constricts the
discussion. Through an examination of airport design, both theoretical and actual, the
genesis of and reactions to art programs executed at the airport since the 1960s, as well
as aspects of the city's social history, I illustrate that the current art program is
representative of more than a superficial thematic strategy. Instead, it points to a
complex and ongoing struggle to define and represent Vancouver both to its residents and
the rest of the world. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/11830 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Rorke, Rosalind Alix |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 15539941 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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