Art Underfoot

Art Underfoot

The City of Vancouver Art Underfoot competition invited anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in Vancouver to submit design ideas for new manhole covers, the lids that mark the entrances to our underground network of sewers. The Public Art Program received more than 640 entries from Vancouverites of all walks of life and ages. An independent panel of judges reviewed the submissions and short-listed their top-30 choices. From this short-list, the two winning designs were chosen.

You can see these 2 designs in the cross walk at the south-east corner of 1st and Commercial.

Storm Sewer Design - Kelly Cannell & Susan Point

The mother/daughter team of Susan A. Point and Kelly Cannell designed the winning look for new storm sewer covers. Both are Vancouver-based Coast Salish artists who work in a variety of media. Point is a recognized master carver, and has completed numerous major commissions including work for the Vancouver International Airport, the UBC Museum of Anthropology and the Smithsonian. Cannell has incorporated painting and wood carving with traditional Coast Salish elements in her work. She was commissioned by Canadian Airlines to create the logo for their team’s shirts in an international world airline road race; has collaborated with her mother on screen prints; and has worked on a number of her own private commissions.

Sanitary Sewer Design - Jen Weih

Jen Weih is a multi-media artist who works with installation, sculpture, video, and sound. Jen graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1999 and subsequently worked as the Exhibitions and Programming Coordinator at the Video In. She established Signal and Noise, Video In's annual festival of Video and Sound and initiated the Mercury Theatre, a series of open air video and audio events, first presented for Swarm 2003. Her own work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.