Water Words (2014)

Joanne Arnott

4151 River Road

Area: Thompson
Location: No. 1 Road North Drainage Pump Station, south facade

Materials: 1/4" thick aluminum, Mathews Paint

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

Description of Work

Water Words is a collection of ten text panels on painted aluminum panels embedded into the concrete facade of the No. 1 Road Pump Station, with words responding to the natural environment and impressions of water. The words used on these panels include (rain), nature, powerful, shimmering, glistening, (life), flowing, environment, pumping, splashing.

Artist Statement

'Water Words' was a creative collaboration between artist Joanne Arnott, City engineering staff and grade four students from Spul'u'kwuks Elementary School. Through workshops, students touched on matters of engineering, water management, ecology and public art in our island location and generated ten words which contain both Musqueam and English language.

The history of our region told by Musqueam First Nations leaders tells of the many incoming nations, gathering seasonally, and later around the fishing industry, the canneries and the agricultural industries, in a changing pattern of confluence over time.

What remains vivid is the estuary as a place of being and in continual change, and a wide eyes view of the importance of accepting, honouring and celebrating our confluence.

Acknowledgments:

The City of Richmond, situated on the traditional territories of the Musqueam peoples, gratefully acknowledges the Musqueam Indian Band for the assistance and permission in the use of the words in the Musqueam dialect for this project