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In $1M move, UrbanScreen's digital art now animates new site in Surrey

'Liquid Landscapes' is projected nightly at Surrey Civic Plaza, followed by 'We Are the Clouds'
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Surrey's new-look UrbanScreen digital art display at Surrey Civic Plaza in December 2024.

Surrey's award-winning UrbanScreen has been plugged in at its new home near city hall.

The outdoor digital art gallery is now located at Surrey Civic Plaza (10350 University Drive), where images are shown on the east wall of the City Centre library building, starting with Nicolas Sassoon's Liquid Landscapes.

Work to install the digital-art projection system at the new downtown site was projected to cost just over $1 million, mostly with federal funding, according to a report before Surrey council last February.

After 12 years of operation at Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre, UrbanScreen was decommissioned in May 2022 due to expansion plans at the rec facility, on 107A Avenue. The 30-metre-wide “screen” was obscured by some doors and windows, a similar look at Surrey Civic Plaza.

Programmed by Surrey Art Gallery, UrbanScreen aims to showcase "innovative, site-specific, digital art made by artists from around the Lower Mainland and further afield." More details are posted on surrey.ca/urbanscreen.

Curated by Rhys Edwards, Liquid Landscapes is projected nightly 30 minutes after sunset until midnight, ending Feb. 16, followed by the virtual "community of clouds" of Vavara & Mar's We Are the Clouds, starting Feb. 27.

Sassoon’s Liquid Landscapes is described as "a mesmerizing series of pixelated digital animations that captures the colours, motions, and shapes of seven different geographic sites around Surrey," namely Serpentine River, Redwood Park, Crescent Beach, Nicomekl River, Boundary Bay, Serpentine Fen and Fraser River. The seven animations, accompanied by "audio responses" created by local music producers and sound artists, are displayed on different nights of the week.

Shown at UrbanScreen in 2018, Liquid Landscapes has since been acquired as a part of Surrey Art Gallery’s permanent collection.

UrbanScreen's move was made possible by a $750,000 grant to Surrey Art Gallery Association from PacifiCan Canada Community Revitalization Fund, with the remainder from Surrey's Public Art Reserve.

In a report to council last February, Surrey’s general manager of Parks Recreation & Culture recommended the city enter into a contract of $1,050,000 with ShowTech AVL for the supply, delivery and installation of UrbanScreen at Surrey Civic Plaza.

The work was to involve “a large-scale projection venue with interactivity supporting, for example, capacity for sensory tracking and electronic surfaces, along with motion activated and/or directed sound speakers,” the report noted, along with “existing plaza poles to support infrastructure with projection” on the library wall.

The new-look UrbanScreen could be connected to Surrey’s plans for an interactive art museum, pitched in 2018 as a “cultural catalyst” for the downtown core. In December 2021 the city sent out a request for expressions of interest (RFEOI) noting a budget of $60 million and plan to have the museum opened by 2025. No other details have since been made public, but the project remains on the drawing board at city hall.

Once billed as “Canada’s largest art-dedicated outdoor screen,” UrbanScreen was subject of the 2020 book Art After Dark, marking its 10th anniversary.

In 2017, programmers of UrbanScreen received an award for outstanding achievement from the Canadian Museums Association (CMA), in the New Media category.

 



Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news for Surrey Now-Leader and Black Press Media
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