Evergreen: A synopsis from the proposal

The project Evergreen features a series of text-based sculptural objects that will be installed within the environs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). The individual pieces will in effect be garlands or more accurately, festoons of sculpted and shaped, foliage letters spelling out the first names of the 26 women who have thus far been ‘found’ and whose murders have been attributed to one man. The sculpted names depicted in Evergreen will be randomly installed throughout the neighbourhood to both perpetuate the memory of these women and promote a continued civic awareness of and response to the ongoing violence and abuse which is, in reality, pandemic.

As in most serial murder situations, the name of the murderer gains a notoriety and immortality usually denied the victims. Their names and lives typically become further disappeared. Such is the case with the ‘Missing Women’ of Vancouver’s DTES. With this project I hope to keep fresh the memory of the individual women. It is not my place to speak for them or their families and I’m not attempting to do so. First names only will be used to acknowledge the private nature of individual grief and also to challenge the acceptance of the circumstances that has contextualize the deaths of these particular women. These 26 names will of course be shared by others from all walks of life, signifying that ultimately, there is no particular logic to violence against women and that the issues that surround the murders of these actual women are of concern to everyone.