A Closer Walk ( Scarlet Stilts) | Divine Flight | Beyond The Break | Bridge (2021)

Aman Aheer

Lansdowne Canada Line Station

Area: City Centre
Location: North side of plaza at base of concrete pillar supporting guide way.

This Artwork is no longer on display

Materials: Digital print reproductions of mixed-media works

Program: Unique Programs
Ownership: Civic
Sponsored By: City of Richmond

Description of Work

Divine Flight (pane 1) focuses on a group of eyes directing their gaze upwards while surrounded and framed by white birds. Beyond The Break (panel 2) presents a set of intertwined arms amidst the clouds and pointing towards the sky. Bridge (panel 3) depicts figures either lifting up or catching others as they fall, depending on how it is viewed. A Closer Walk (Scarlet Stilt) (panel 4) presents a community walking through water with the help of stilts.

Artist Statement

This series of work reflects upon the idea of adaptation amidst rapid change, but also on the resilience of human spirit in the context of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic. While I approach these themes from the perspective of Richmond, I believe they extend well beyond its city limits. These works highlight moments of adaptation and defiance through depicting the intimate relationship between the spirit and the human body.

The four paintings exist in pairs, or as mirrors, with one corresponding to at least one other. All the panels play with and explore moments of double or hidden meaning, gesturing towards how the idea of resilience itself is often interpreted in opposing ways. All of these works focus on a single part of the body presented in multiples, gesturing towards the embodied nature of resilience in the present moment. Each are painted in a deliberately crude and gestural manner, which I feel refracts the ineffable and immediate quality of adaptation itself. These are not necessarily instrumental or anticipated events but moments that emerge in flashes or glimpses, but are always rooted in the present.