Esther Shalev-Gerz Unveils Art at UBC

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Esther Shalev-Gerz, "The Shadow," 2018

a public art project that embeds a ghostly silhouette of a first-growth fir tree across the expanse of UBC Commons Plaza outside of the AMS Nest.(photo by Hassan El-Sherbiny)

A new installation by international artist Esther Shalev-Gerz on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver shows the shadow of a giant tree. 

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Esther Shalev-Gerz, "The Shadow," 2018

a public art project that embeds a ghostly silhouette of a first-growth fir tree across the expanse of UBC Commons Plaza outside of the AMS Nest.(photo by Robert Keziere)

The Shadow is pixelated through the use of different shades of paving stones. It engages pedestrians through its varied texture underfoot, but its totality can only be grasped from higher ground at a distance.

Shalev-Gerz's previous installations in public space, such as Monument Against Fascism, 1986, and White Point/Meeting Point, 2004, explore specific sites through the horizontal plane.

The Shadow, like these earlier works, presents absence as a hovering memory beneath our feet. The old-growth forest on the UBC campus was logged heavily by settlers in the late 1800s. The Shadow speaks to the scale of the trees that once existed on the site. 

Shalev-Gerz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and was raised in Jerusalem. She has lived in Paris since 1984, but spends her summers on Cortes Island in British Columbia.

Her work investigates the construction of knowledge, history and cultural identities. She has exhibited and created public art projects around the world.

For more information, visit www.shalev-gerz.net.

Source: Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery