Public Art: Your Neighbour Who Doesn't Mow the Lawn
A Critical Review on Steven Shearer’s Untitled, 2020
The way we view art is largely informed with our personal visual lexicon. When an artist
exhibits a work in a gallery, there is a certain expectation that a visitor will arrive with
an understanding of the signs being recalled, and the references being made. When art
enters a public sphere, the viewer is no longer the nuanced gallery-goer but a member of
the general public. This viewership implicates greater consequences, is it appropriate for
children? Does it enhance the aesthetics of the space, or hinder it? Will it affect the value
of the surrounding property?
Steven Shearer's Untitled, 2020 is a series of images on billboards that exhibited as a part
of the Public Art programming of the 2021 Capture Photography Festival. However, it
was taken down 48 hours following its installation, a day ahead of the formal opening of
the festival due to community complaints. This review will take a look at Shearer’s work,
evaluate the public’s response, and consider the impact of a localized, urban visual
lexicon.
The site-specific work is along the Arbutus Greenway, a popular bike and walk path on
the west side of Vancouver, where property values can reach $2.5 million for a decrepit
home (Pablo 2021). Seven billboards display seven images of sleeping bodies, laying
with their mouths agape in deep slumber; the people in the images are strangers -
depersonalized bodies, some appear to be reclined in a car, another on a field, some
sitting up with a head tilted back. The images have a flash-film like aesthetic quality to
them, reminiscent of 90’s grunge culture and the photography work of Nan Goldin.
Comparably to Goldin, Shearer seems to be concerned with the sense of vulnerability
depicted in these images. However, instead addressing themes of vulnerability with a
visual autobiographical approach, Shearer uses images appropriated from his personal
archive of more than 63,000 images, including photographs purchased on eBay and
images found in print and online (Shearer and Wall 2021). He sees this contemporary
image archive as an extension of all historical images: in an interview following his
participation as Canada’s representative at the 54th Venice Biennale he says, “I’m
interested in making things that explore how we all remember and idealise each other.
Today’s images are echoes of how people have always been depicted, throughout
history.” (Shearer 2011)
Per the artist’s statement on Capture’s website, in Untitled the images are meant to echo
the depiction of people in religious painting and sculpture, bodies are in a state of
ecstasy, almost floating, giving way to physical desire for sleep (Shearer and Wall 2021).
This is where the site-specific work began to falter in the eyes of the public; the musing
of ethereal aesthetics in religious artworks was missing in these cold, stark images.
Instead of a consideration of vulnerability and public/private space, viewers were
disgusted. Kim Spencer-Nairn, the founder and board chair of Capture, cites complaints
ranging from “it made me want to vomit” to “it reminded me of dead people.” (Ditmars
2021). Drawing a new attention to an alternative visual lexicon, outside of the contemporary
and historical imagery referenced, that Shearer and the curators with Capture failed to
consider.
In Vancouver, there are two worlds: a world where Canadian real estate has reached
record breaking numbers, with sales rising 72.6 percent above last year’s levels (Pablo,
2021); and a world where illicit drug deaths in BC topped 2020 numbers by 107 percent,
with 2021 marking 5 years since BC declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency
(Thom, 2021). The stark imagery of Untitled is reaching into the local urban lexicon,
echoing the sleeping bodies of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside residents, a
neighbourhood ravaged by the opioid crisis and a significant lack of housing. Now,
the billboards invoke a confrontation with the ongoing overdose and housing crises, a
reality many in this relatively affluent neighbourhood don't have to face. Their
discomfort begs the question: are people uncomfortable because they pay a premium to
be far removed? Commenters on public forums across local media outlets such as Daily
Hive, CBC, and Georgia Straight referred to the bodies in the images as “needle jockeys,”
“drugged out junkies,” “the homeless and the drug addicted,” amongst more. Residents
along the Arbutus Greenway get to enjoy the lucrative fruits of the booming property
prices, rather than the heartbreaking confrontations of the opioid crisis
Obliging with community concerns, the works were taken down and replaced with stock
images. However, Spencer-Narin does not falter in her decision of this public art
programing, stating that the work operating as it was intended, to start conversations
about the divide between public and private space (Zeidler, 2021). There is a
demonstrable failure to acknowledge the source of discomfort and disgust inflicted by
these images, diminishing the opportunity to hold the space Vancouver’s distance
between 2 worlds, where along the Arbutus Greenway, property value takes precedent.
Public art invites a particularly charged viewership. Through it’s public programing,
Capture Photography Festival has a unique opportunity to offer viewing experiences that
can lead to a true reckoning of how images are consumed. Steven Shearer’s Untitled
series did not intend to draw connections to a greater local cultural context, and yet it
serves as a reminder that art, especially public work, does not exist in a vacuum; the way
the public views images will always be informed by a localized lexicon.
Steven Shearer, Untitled, 2020, Courtesy of the Artist. Photo: Dennis Ha
Ditmars, Hadani. 2021. "They see ‘dead people’: billboard works removed from
Vancouver photography festival after locals complain." The Art Newspaper. April 2.
Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/they-seedead-
people-billboard-works-removed-from-vancouver-photography-festival-afterlocals-
complain.
Pablo, Carlito. 2021. "Vancouver real estate: unlivable home previously auctioned by city
hall sells over asking price for $2.5 million." The Georgia Straight. February 14.
Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.straight.com/news/vancouver-real-estateunlivable-
home-previously-auctioned-by-city-hall-sells-over-asking-price.
Shearer, Steven, interview by Vanessa Nicholas. 2011. INTERVIEW WITH STEVEN
SHEARER (July).
Shearer, Steven, and Emmy Lee Wall. 2021. "Untitled Statement." Capture Photo Festival.
Accessed April 22, 2021. https://capturephotofest.com/publicinstallations/
untitled/.
Thom, Shelby. 2021. "Virtual vigil planned in Penticton, B.C. to mark 5-year anniversary
of overdose crisis." Global News. April 11. Accessed April 22, 2021.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7751452/virtual-vigil-planned-in-penticton-b-c-tomark-
5-year-anniversary-of-overdose-crisis/.
Zeidler, Maryse. 2021. "Photography festival billboards taken down after complaints
about 'horrible' pictures." CBC. April 2. Accessed April 22, 2021.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-capturephotography-
festival-billboards-steven-shearer-1.5974583.
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