ATLANTEAN TIMEPIECE AT UNIT/PITT


Kevin Murphy, Atlantean Timepiece symbol

Opening tomorrow night at UNIT/PITT is Kevin Murphy's Atlantean Timepiece

Part of UNIT/PITT's current series of commissions, What Future, Murphy's Atlantean Timepiece proposes a public monument to the Vancouver that is yet to come. In keeping with previous themes of humans and their relationship to nature found in Murphy's work, Atlantean Timepiece is envisioned as a crystalline or skyscraper-like geological clock, which will activate only once flooded. While the structure degrades "at different rates in seawater, [its] materials would transform into a chemical timeline, giving potential observers in the distant future a window into the elapsed time since the city’s submersion."

To think of Vancouver is a future Atlantis is not a far stretch; with climate change and rising sea levels already a part of our daily reality, the endangerment of coastal cities is an issue that will soon have to be confronted. In this work, Murphy highlights this impending environmental calamity and strikes our cultural imagination in the same breath. The mythology around Atlantis is a beautiful one that hinges around the hope for life and rediscovery after great disaster, and it is one that becomes especially relevant to the volatile Pacific Rim region, which has seen countless tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons and floods over the years.

Opening reception begins at 8pm on Friday, March 22, at 15 East Pender St.
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