Either in spite of or due to my wholehearted pursuit and support of artistic initiatives, I found this installation by Toni Latour at the Brighouse Skytrain Station in Richmond personally insulting to my integrity as an artist and a writer, as well as a member of the community taking it in on an introspective level:
Did you spot it?
You reap what you sew.
Maybe she means, you rip what you sew, as in, you did a bad job lining up the pattern markers and had to start over. Drat, take better care next time. Quite literally, you can’t argue with this sentence in that if you are skilled in making clothes, you enjoy the benefits of your deft hand with fashionable new clothes every weekend.
But I’m pretty sure the idiom here should be “You reap what you sow,” as in, you will harvest the benefits of the seeds which you plant.
I thought of potential justifications: perhaps this was an angle, artist subbing homophonous words within the cliches, thereby putting a new spin on these age-old adages. But this was the sole error in the piece, so that theory was out. I consider how many stages and eyes this work must have passed through, and yet no one caught the mistake. How is this possible?
Toni Latour is a long-time artist who developed this piece, Homage to Parenthood, which reflects 100 popular cultural sayings parents often use to teach their children, as part of the Vancouver Biennale, whose mandate is to install and celebrate public art of many forms within community spaces and encourage discussion and education around those works.
…the artist edited and ordered the sayings in a poetic fashion, considering literary flow and sometimes considering narrative connection between each line. Once her list was complete, Latour entered the 100 lines of text into Photoshop and hand selected each colour to replicate the colour spectrum of a rainbow.
I once worked as a production and development assistant in film; part of my job was to read script submissions, write coverage (basically ‘grade’ them in a one page summary), and pass them on to my superiors. Nothing less than an impeccable review from me would reach their eyes. And any time I received a script with grammar, spelling, or other lazy errors it went immediately in my trash can. This is your livelihood, your dream, your passion. Take the time for a g-damn edit, people. Anything less than that is an absolute insult to the people who do.
The 2009-2011 Biennale comes to a close this week, after which wealthy art enthusiasts and investors can bid on any of the pieces within the catalogue. Monies collected from this auction will go towards funding the next Biennale – which is unarguably an integral part of our culture and community. I just hope more attentive eyes examine the work they are showcasing next time around.
