Flower Bed, ceramic frit, 2022 3.3 meters x 1.06 meters
Commissioned by The City of Surrey, Anthem Properties in collaboration with Ballard Fine Art and GoldRay
Flower Bed takes inspiration from the artist’s personal experience immigrating to Canada and settling initially in Surrey, BC in the early Spring of 2005. The memory of this transformative period is marked by negotiation of a new cultural landscape and filled with a feeling of abstraction within a new environment. The artwork includes hundreds of flowers collaged together to allegorically portray the divergent juxtapositions of cultural and historical layers present in the area. The metaphor of flowers underscores the divergent cross-pollination of co-existing cultures, traditions, and customs that transpired and continuously shape the cultural fabric of Surrey.
If the garden is our cultural landscape, the flowers are its people. The flowers in this composition are all indigenous to British Columbia’s rich flora such as White and Pink Lilies, Menzies Larkspurs, Yarrows, Camas and nodding onions. The artist recognizes this reference as a gesture of paying respect and acknowledging the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen First Nations Peoples who have been stewards in this land since time immemorial.