Totem: signpoles and markers
December 12 – 23, 1989
Exhibition
About the Program
If you were at the beach or walked through the woods on several of the Gulf Islands in the summer of 1989, you may have seen one of a number of large wooden poles with enigmatic signs nailed to it. Ed Varney calls his works contemporary symbolic totem poles and places them in specific locations as indicators. He says they signify that a particular site is special and deserves closer attention. For Totem: signpoles and markers, Varney created a group of these poles to be shown in the gallery. They draw their imagery from Indigenous totem poles, highway signs, and location markers, as well as from found pieces of wood, metal, and urban debris. They are presented as sculpture, with drawings and sketches, which hint at their intended environmental context but are also at home in the gallery space as well.Artist
Ed VarneyIdentifier
1989.1212 TOTCollection
grunt gallery Programming ArchiveLocation
grunt gallery (first location)209 E. 6th Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5T 1J8
Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations
In copyright. For uses beyond Fair Dealing, research requests, corrections, takedown requests, or other inquiries, please contact grunt gallery: archives@grunt.ca