Monday will mark the 30th anniversary of the opening of Expo 86. Seen three decades later, it's clear the world's fair was a giant coming-of-age party for Vancouver and for all of B.C.
It was also a pivotal moment for a Canadian sculptor and for me personally.
Inside my office at The Citizen hangs a 11x14" print of a photograph I took at Expo of Transcending The Traffic, the colourful 26-metre high sculpture by William Lishman that featured 55 figures circling round and round a pole of blue sky and white clouds. The figures were vehicles at the bottom that changed shape into people riding animals and bicycles, ending at a point at the top with humans running and the last figure leaping jubilantly into the sky.
My family attended Expo opening week. Dad had to head back up to the Arctic for work and we didn't want to miss the event of a lifetime. I was 18 years old, six weeks away from high school graduation, eight weeks away from a summer job in Tuktoyaktuk and three months away from moving to Ottawa to study journalism at Carleton University. I was on the edge of my own personal transition into adult life, so a sculpture about change and progress spoke to me. I also liked its counter-intuitive take on evolution, as if our ability to build motorized transportation was holding us back from the real human journey of exploration and imagination.
During my school years, I kept the photograph close and I continue to look at it for regular inspiration, yearning to be that final character, defying gravity and flinging myself into the unknown.
Meanwhile, Lishman was about to begin the journey that would make him world famous.
Two years after Expo, he lead a flock of birds in the air with his ultra-light aircraft, the first time such an occurrence was documented. In 1993, he led a migration of birds. For his work with migratory birds, he won numerous national and international conservation awards.
If that story sounds slightly familiar, perhaps you've seen Fly Away Home, the 1996 movie based on Father Goose, Lishman's autobiography.
Lishman continues to create. He unveiled a large iceberg sculpture made of stainless steel in front of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa last fall.
As for Vancouver, it became a world city in the wake of Expo, setting in motion the development of False Creek and culminating in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Across B.C., the idea of taking flight took hold in 1986. In Kelowna, a sleepy farming community began its evolution into world-class wine country. In Prince George, a group of residents dreamed of a university for the north and started pursuing their dream.
They transcended the traffic.
The challenge lies before the present generation of British Columbians and Prince George residents. What are we doing and dreaming now that will be looked back on in 2046 as changing the course of our history for the better?
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
