An evolving exhibit about the city of Coquitlam — and its place from the nation’s eye — added a third chapter last week.
But not all the gallery pieces paint a rosy picture of the municipality.
The latest round, as curated by Greg Elgstrand, the visual arts manager at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre, offers a few dark reminders of the city’s past.
For example, the same year Port Coquitlam hero Terry Fox was running across Canada on his Marathon of Hope, in 1980, 20-year-old Coquitlam native and Playboy Playmate model Dorothy Stratten was murdered. Later that year, Coquitlam resident Clifford Olson started his killing spree of children and young adults.
In his show, Elgstrand represents these sensational stories through creative means: Olson through a newspaper clipping, and Stratten through origami art (the Lover’s Knot, a Star City pin-up poster, is courtesy of artist Myfanwy MacLeod and the Catriona Jeffries Gallery).
He argues 1980 can be seen as a turning point for the city as it was thrust into the international spotlight while there was also a loss of innocence.
Like in his two previous chapters, Elgstrand uses the narrator “C” — meaning Coquitlam or Canada, depending on the viewer’s take — to navigate the exhibit, telling or testing time and distance as measured by past events and landmarks.
Chapter 3 has “C” removing his or her “salmon-coloured glasses to see” the past, present and future, Elgstrand said.
“We tend to romanticize about the past,” he said. “We can often see the past as fantasy because we just want to remember the better times but the scars are there. We have to be honest for culture’s sake.”
Still, despite the reckoning, there are fond memories, too.
The Westwood Motor Speedway, on Westwood Plateau, is represented twice in Elgstrand’s show: First, with a shiny silver wheel rim and mirror pedestal, designed by Josephine Meckseperm, called American Racing (Venom), and by a copy of a Tri-City News article, which photographed the last race on Oct. 10, 1990.
As well, Elgstrand makes the link to the United States — not only with the rim artwork and Stratten, who moved to Los Angeles to be a star, but also with American coins, which continues to be an accepted form of currency in Canada. He presents Micah Lexier’s 41 (cents) — a penny, nickel, dime and quarter — in an enclosed box.
Elgstrand said the response to the exhibit is mixed: Some viewers find it arcane while others can connect the dots. “This is not a tourism brochure,” he said. “This is one interpretation of how Coquitlam, Canada came to be.”
• The Art Gallery at Evergreen (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) is open Wednesday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m., Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
ROLL OUT
Chapter 1: May 20 to June 11
Chapter 2: June 14 to July 2
Chapter 3: July 5 to July 23
Chapter 4: July 26 to Aug. 20
