The Skeena
A brand new stunning carved sculpture has appeared at Gate 8 in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.
Hand-crafted by Haida Gwaii artist James Hart, a massive Canucks logo has been sculpted into wood, towering over three metres on its platform.
“We’re all fans of the Canucks. I’m hoping they’ll enjoy it and feel something,” Hart says in the video posted on the Canucks’ Youtube page.
The Canucks official Twitter posted, “Our orca is home.”
Hart grew up in Masset, Haida Gwaii, and is the great-grandson of legendary Haida artist and carver Charles Edenshaw. He has been carving since high school, and trained with another iconic Haida artist, Bill Reid.
Regarding his own work, Hart says, “I focused totally on our [Haida] art and our culture, and so I started creating pieces that had meaning behind it.”
His work now sits in the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canadian Museum of History, and UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. He received the Order of British Columbia in 2003, and last year received the prestigious Audain Prize of $100,000.
“Our people come from these lands for many thousands of years,” says Hart in the video, “so it’s nice to be connected to stuff that’s going on – especially hockey because it reaches out like that.”
“They’re asking us to be part of it now, so I’m pretty excited about all that.”
