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Phoenix Society Community Murals

A STEPS PROJECT

As part of the 2022 CreateSpace Public Art Residency, Surrey-based artist Tina Nguyen worked with staff and residents at the Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Society to paint the building’s exterior pillars.

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Location: Phoenix Society, 13686 94A Avenue, Surrey, BC

Artist: Tina Nguyen

Year: 2022

Photographer/Videographer: Bee Hoss

Services: Artist Capacity Building

 

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artist-in-residence

4

artist mentors

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bird species in the murals

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Inspired by the diversity and resilience of local bird species, this set of collaborative murals brightens the brick pillars in front of the Phoenix Society’s treatment center with renderings of bird’s wings. Tina took inspiration from the Marsh Wren, Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron and other native birds to design murals in the color palette and stylized aesthetic of the Phoenix. Staff members and residents were involved in the creative process, from the proposed designs to the painting process, in order to make something that represents their communal space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It represents a diversity of people coming together to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.”
– Tina Nguyen, Lead Artist

ABOUT THE ARTIST(S)

Tina Nguyen

Tina Nguyen

Lead Artist

Tina Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist based in so-called Vancouver (unceded territories of the Tseilewatuth, Squamish, and Musqueam peoples). Her practice centres upon reframing public spaces for communities, based on research of historical and contemporary local immigration and globalisation, through sculpture, mural, installation, and social practice. Her work aims to deconstruct access barriers to arts by appropriating nontraditional, nonwestern, outsider elements in fine art settings. Friendly and approachable colour schemes, images, and animals are often used to relieve pre-existing tensions between the atypical fine arts consumer and the work produced.

@tinannersart
tinanuwin.wixsite.com/website

PROJECT PARTNERS AND FUNDERS

The 2022 CreateSpace Residency is supported by the City of Toronto as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021 – 2022, TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment, Canada Council for the Arts, and Ontario Arts Council. We also acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation with funding provided by the Government of Canada.

CreateSpace Public Art Residency funder logos including City of Toronto, TD Ready Commitment, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Canadian Race Relations Foundation

STEPS believes that public art should reflect the diverse identities and perspectives of the communities that host it. Artists have a critical role to play in shaping cities, and our Artist Capacity Building Programs are designed to amplify the work of Black, Indigenous, Persons of Colour, female, LGBTTQQIAAP and newcomer artists in public spaces.

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