Child of the Fraser (2012)

Area: South Arm
Location: On the rise near the southeast corner of the building, and at the building's east entrance.

Materials: Ceramic mosaic and waterjet-cut aluminum sculptures

Program: Civic
Ownership: Civic
Sponsored By: City of Richmond Public Art Program

Description of Work

Ceramic mosaic and waterjet-cut aluminum sculptures.

Child of the Fraser is essentially a fragmentation and subsequent

reassembly of the components of the City of Richmond’s unique coat of arms, whereby

these elements are re-configured on and around the building, such that the whole site is

essentially wearing the elements of the crest.

Richmond’s coat of arms and its accompanying descriptive, Child of the Fraser, are

rather unusual in that they depart somewhat from the typical Latin mottos and visually

stiff European-inspired style of medieval knights and masculine symbolism and instead

employs two classically dressed goddesses in flowing robes (identified as Fortuna),

each holding a cornucopia, with a shield and an a helmet being the nod to standard

heraldry. But the shield has jumping fish on it and the helmet is topped by a cedar

waxwing, standing in for the conventional dove. The image is a bit goofy and maybe

even Pop Art (50 years before its vogue) but it is undeniably catchy and describes

Richmond very specifically, in mythic terms.

The fish sculptures are based on those of the original coat of arms and refer to the

abundance of salmon that still swims up the Fraser River, and which at one time, along

with farming, formed the economic backbone of Richmond. This coat of arms wears its

name poetically on its sleeve: Child of the Fraser (mounted in a set of identical signs on

the sides of the building) is a line from a poem by original settler and city father

Thomas Kidd. It is a beautiful and simple explanation of true creator of the land we call

Richmond. The landscape of Richmond is inescapably the product of a river, and it is still

very much defined by its origins.

The entry plaza is a virtual map of the island, framed by the North and South Arms of

the Fraser, the green glass representing the shadow of the verdant primeval landscape we

pass through daily. The technique of scattering colourful aggregates onto a wet concrete

slab echos the formation of a delta and its ensuing vegetation. In the mosaic, the river

flows out from under the robes of the goddesses, with cornucopias of abundance spilling

over the plaza and bog cranberries rolling alongside the stream.