The Meniscus Series – Marpole bus shelter fun by the Emily Carr University of Art + Design

The Meniscus Series – Marpole bus shelter fun by the Emily Carr University of Art + Design

One of the seven bus shelters part of the Meniscus Series commissioned by commissioned by chART: Public Art Marpole (Photo: Emily Carr University of Art + Design)
One of the seven bus shelters part of the Meniscus Series commissioned by commissioned by chART: Public Art Marpole (Photo: Emily Carr University of Art + Design)

In the past, we have shared with you neat and cool bus shelters from around the world in our Links & Tidbits. I’m here to tell you we have ’em here in Vancouver too!

The Meniscus Series, commissioned by chART: Public Art Marpole, an Emily Carr University of Art + Design research project, has transformed seven Marpole bus shelters along Granville Street between West 63rd Avenue to SW Marine Drive.

The bus shelters, managed by the City of Vancouver and CBS/JCDecaux, have been wrapped with vinyl inspired by a photograph series from Emily Carr alumna Nathalie Lavoie!

The Meniscus Series … depicts two bodies of water merging: fresh water from the Mackenzie River as it is dropped into the salty waters of the Pacific Ocean. By mixing these specific waters, the artist is referencing her own experience of moving back and forth between her home along the river in the Northwest Territories and Emily Carr University on Granville Island. This movement between the two waters challenged her sense of place, her understanding of site, and what it means to carry history from one location to another.

The scientific term “meniscus” refers to the curved surface of a liquid in a container. In this series of macroscopic photographs, one type of water is dropped into a container of another type, thus disrupting the meniscus and making it impossible to accurately read the measurement. As the two waters mix, the transformation alters the solutions in a process that is simultaneously creative and destructive. These photographs makes visible the transformation, capturing the moment at which it is most noticeable but not measurable.

» Click here to learn more and see more pictures of The Meniscus Series

chART is a research partnership between the Marpole Business Association and Dr. Cameron Cartiere of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

More cool bus shelters!

* Note: Most bus shelters, including this one, are managed by the municipality they’re found in and not TransLink. The majority of TransLink managed bus shelters are found in or around exchanges and stations.

Know some yourself? Share them with us in the comments section, tweet them to @TheBuzzer, or email it to thebuzzer@translink.ca! We’d love to see them.

Author: Allen Tung