Soon you will be able to put gum on Douglas Coupland's head.
Well, sort of.
A new public art piece by the famed Vancouver author and artist features a seven-foot tall sculpture of his head. The interactive work is meant to be covered with people's chewing gum, thus letting the public continuously shape and transform its design.
The work will be located outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the Howe Street side, according to a project update.
"It becomes time-based art, social sculpture, landscape, still life, a lot of things," Coupland told vulture.com of the piece.
"Gumhead" is part of Coupland's new solo exhibit, "everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything," running at the gallery from May 31 to Sept. 1. It refers to "Coupland's deep engagement with place and cultural identity and, simultaneously, his recognition of a growing ubiquity as access to information, images and technology becomes more readily available to the masses," states the gallery's website. A launch party is being held there on May 30.
Coupland is no stranger to having the public influence and even help create his art. In January he hosted a Lego building party at the Vancouver Art Gallery, asking attendees to create towers based on a word that was given to them. (We have a hunch that the finished products will show up in this exhibition.)
His work is often as playful as it is thought-provoking, which isn't surprising when you consider the man underneath all of that proverbial chewing gum. When asked by vulture.com why he chose to make the work of his own head as opposed to someone else's, for instance, he responded in perfect Coupland fashion:
"Because it’s my show!" he said. "I don’t mind having the piss taken out of me; it’s fine."
Well, sort of.
A new public art piece by the famed Vancouver author and artist features a seven-foot tall sculpture of his head. The interactive work is meant to be covered with people's chewing gum, thus letting the public continuously shape and transform its design.
The work will be located outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the Howe Street side, according to a project update.
People of Earth... Resistance is futile... pic.twitter.com/wSemyL1UVL
— Doug Coupland (@DougCoupland) May 14, 2014"It becomes time-based art, social sculpture, landscape, still life, a lot of things," Coupland told vulture.com of the piece.
"Gumhead" is part of Coupland's new solo exhibit, "everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything," running at the gallery from May 31 to Sept. 1. It refers to "Coupland's deep engagement with place and cultural identity and, simultaneously, his recognition of a growing ubiquity as access to information, images and technology becomes more readily available to the masses," states the gallery's website. A launch party is being held there on May 30.
Coupland is no stranger to having the public influence and even help create his art. In January he hosted a Lego building party at the Vancouver Art Gallery, asking attendees to create towers based on a word that was given to them. (We have a hunch that the finished products will show up in this exhibition.)
His work is often as playful as it is thought-provoking, which isn't surprising when you consider the man underneath all of that proverbial chewing gum. When asked by vulture.com why he chose to make the work of his own head as opposed to someone else's, for instance, he responded in perfect Coupland fashion:
"Because it’s my show!" he said. "I don’t mind having the piss taken out of me; it’s fine."
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