Elk for c̓əsnaʔəm

Photo by Cam Andrews

The City of Vancouver Public Art Program is pleased to announce a new artwork for the Canada Line City Centre Station by artist Dana Claxton.

Elk for c̓əsnaʔəm by Dana Claxton, 2015

Vinyl on glass, 2.7 m x 7.5 m

Canada Line City Centre Station

Commissioned by the City of Vancouver Public Art Program

Curated by Rita Beiks

When asked to conceive an original work for this downtown site relating to the theme of c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city, Dana Claxton considered pre-colonial landscapes and animal nations such as elk, deer, bear, beaver, mink, raccoon, skunk and wolf populations that circulated through these lands by their own natural logic. In particular, elk forms a crucial aspect of First Nations subsistence and spiritual economies. In the artist’s Lakota Sioux community they hold power as a source of…