Have you ever noticed the drastic difference between Financial District and Downtown Eastside when you walked by? Do you wonder what caused it? The reason behind the division might be complicated, entangled within urban context, but without discussion and participation, it will always remain unsolved.
Artist Toni Latour took the first step by installing a 30-foot wide neon sign, “Let’s Heal The Divide”, at the corner of Hamilton and Pender Street, hoping to spark the dialogue within the community. “When people start talking to each other, and sharing their experiences, hearts change, and people transform,” said Latour. The divide is not specific to only the wealthiest and the poorest area in Vancouver but also in gender, race and other aspects.
Latour told CBC, “there are so many points of division in terms of poverty, in terms of politics, divergent communities and histories. There’s gender inequality. There are many issues and concerns in this area, and it [the artwork] doesn’t specifically tell you what those are, because that’s for people to discuss and engage in a dialogue around” [1].
By making people question, “What is the divide?”, the artwork already marches toward further conversation. Planting this seed in people’s minds will be a breeding ground for fostering change by simply beginning with the acknowledgment of the drastic divide. Instead of taking the division for granted, “Let’s Heal The Divide” reminds Vancouverites of their duty to acknowledge the existence of problems and do something about it.
The video of the installation can be found on Vancouver Biennale. There are also multiple videos interviewing community members, artists and scholars, sharing what they think about the artwork and the discussion it embodies. Constance Barnes, NDP MLA Candidate, talked about her experience of racial division and how she perceived the district as a juxtaposition of wealthy culture and poverty street culture.
Power and space will continue to interact and shape each other in Vancouver. To end the polarization of classes, it takes more than government policies. Hopefully “Let’s Heal The Divide” will be a wake-up call and will ignite change.
[1] Vancouver Biennale: New public artwork hopes to ‘heal the divide’ By Elaine Chau, CBC News, Mar 10, 2015 8:52 PM PT
Murality 
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