Ken Lum
Monument for East Vancouver

A new sign looms large over the city of Vancouver. Seated high on a promontory in the city’s Eastside is a 20-metre high illuminated crossword that spells out the words “East” “Van,” joined by their common vowel to form a crucifix. Ken Lum’s recent addition to the city’s public art program, Monument for East Vancouver, is a large-scale replica of a well-known tag that has quietly circulated on sidewalks and buildings, t-shirts and tattoos in Vancouver’s Eastside for decades. It is a signifier of those living in the Eastside, and is a commonly understood gesture of defiance against the city’s more affluent centre of economic and political power to the west. Indeed, Lum’s sleek facsimile pointedly faces west and, with its glowing LED lights, is clearly visible for miles. 

Monument for East Vancouver monumentalizes an unofficial marker of identity. By giving the sign a sanctioned status and permanent place, Lum gives authority to a symbol that has otherwise circulated fugitively. Though Lum was raised in Vancouver’s Eastside, his decision to appropriate the sign is deliberately ironic—in the sense of having multiple meanings—rather than simply as a symbol of Eastside pride. Both irreverent and sacrilegious, Monument for East Vancouver points to the complex construction and assertion of difference, formed here along the lines of class and race, and is exercised across territory and public space. Since the launch of the artwork earlier this year, it has become immediately iconic.