Uneasy Figures in Our Streets

Lupo's Guerrilla Sculptures Are Reaching Out in the Dark

In the back of the old City Centre Motel (now The City Centre Artist Lodge) is a shadowy hunched-over figure. Upon first glance, it may seem like a person in a hoodie hunched over in pain, or sadness, but it’s neither. The figure is a statue and the creation of Lupo.

Another of Vancouver’s unintentional street artists, Lupo is transcending the traditional realm of ‘paint on walls,’ with guerrilla sculptures that began as a coping mechanism and not art. In chatting with the artist it was clear that the uneasy feelings the statues leave one with are intentional. They are also meant to put people who are often overlooked, front and centre.

What’s your process for creating the sculptures?

These sculptures weren't supposed to be "art" when I started making them, I was just trying to cope and didn't know what else to do. A lot of good people in my life were dying from overdose, suicide, and violence. Most of this was connected to systemic oppression and people being erased and forgotten by the world. For a lot of reasons, talking about this stuff usually isn't an option. So you spend a lot of time with ghosts...sitting alone in the dark, seeing all these faces...sometimes TRYING to see them, trying to remember what they looked like when they smiled or trying to imagine what they would tell you if they were still here.

One night I just started making these figures out of wire, I think I just needed to keep my hands busy. That night I made about 60 figures, and then I walked all over the city and left them in different places. I was out until about 8 am. They had all disappeared by next afternoon.

So I made more, and made them bigger. I hoped that if people found them, it might help them to know they weren't the only one feeling alone and hopeless. But it felt like reaching out in the dark: I really didn't know if this work would reach anyone or if anyone would care. To my amazement, people started leaving notes on the sculptures, writing names of their own lost loved ones, leaving flowers. Seeing that helped me a lot, and kept me alive in my work. So I think the biggest part of the "process" is collaborative, I make them and put them out there but they don't mean much until the community connects with them. 

I use whatever materials I can get my hands on, cardboard, cement, drywall, wire. For "references" I usually just sit in the position I'm trying to recreate and pay attention to what my body is doing, where my shoulders are, things like that, and then apply that as best I can to the sculpture.

How do you choose locations for placing your work?

Sometimes I am thinking of someone specific who I'm missing, so I pick a spot they spent time in or where they might have found some peace. Other times, I pick a spot that's more visible and more part of the city's movements.

But the sculptures also move. People move them, and they will end up in all kinds of new locations that I don't know about. The one that's at City Centre Motel was originally part of a three-figure statue, and people have moved it all over the place. Most people probably have no idea where it came from, but it's been on quite a journey.

What’s it like, as an artist, to put your work into the world and not know if it will be there the next day?

Well, if you're going to put art out in the street you have to expect it to get destroyed, get taken, or get removed by the city. And there are always risks involved in any kind of street art, especially in a city so heavily policed and with so many ways of criminalizing art. Most of my work gets taken down before anyone sees it, usually within a couple of hours or less. I'd say about 1 in every 8 sculptures I make actually gets seen by anyone. And yes, when you pour your heart and soul into something and no-one ever sees it, it's pretty hard to keep going. But the thing is, our city treats real human beings much worse, removing them by force and making it illegal for them to exist in any public space, disappearing whole communities and depriving people of basic human rights.

We are also in a city that arrests community workers, silences activists, and puts kids in jail. So we can't be surprised when street art is removed, and we should never be more heartbroken over art than we are over people. I will say that street art can create a kind of dialogue within the community in ways that gallery art never can. You are going to find out pretty quick if the community accepts your work or not. But also sometimes when you put art in the street, people contribute to it, add to it, change its meaning somehow, and make it into something bigger and more beautiful than anything you could have made on your own. Street art goes in the street, but it's also created by the street itself. That's all part of the magic.

There have been discussions by the city to create sanctioned areas for graffiti. Should this extended to allow for guerrilla sculpture gardens?

I have very mixed feelings about this. I fully support anything that will prevent artists and writers being arrested, and anything that will let their work be celebrated and recognized. @f_u_c_k_i_t spoke about how criminalizing street art really targets artists who are marginalized and don't have the privilege, resources, or access to things like mural applications or gallery spaces. Racism, ageism and anti-poor hatred are among the many reasons graffiti is policed instead of exhibited.

Some amazing people like Smokey D, Trey Helten, and Vancouver Native Housing Society have worked so hard to make things like the first legal wall. That work comes from a long legacy of graffiti, activism and community work, in spite of the city. It would be amazing to have many more spots like that. But also, the laws around street art need to change. It is absurd that writing your name on a wall is called "vandalism," but bulldozing whole neighbourhoods and unhousing, displacing and erasing entire communities of vulnerable people for profit is called "development". And all that on unceded stolen land that is being destroyed by industry. We live in a world where real estate is valued more than human life, in which someone who is not old enough to vote can go to jail for writing their name. For that reason I would say unsanctioned street art is still both necessary and inevitable: anywhere you have landscape-based violence (like gentrification), you will have graffiti and guerilla art. Many of us have no other way to speak out. We are trying to hold onto our humanity in a dehumanizing world.

Land defender Ts'ake ze' Sleydo' Molly Wickham has spoken beautifully about how activism does not ask oppressive systems for permission. And although street art is nothing compared to the monumental work of fighting a colonial pipeline, it is important to bring those teachings into our work. In terms of permits for the sculptures I make...this city has destroyed people I love. I will not ask it for permission to express my grief. If permission is given at all for street art, I feel like it should come from the community itself (and not necessarily property owners).

So in terms of a sculpture garden, it would really depend who it's for, who's behind it, what the purpose is. If it's something that will benefit the real community, I'm all for it. If it's to get votes, or to turn artivism into garden ornaments and dilute their message, nope. Street art needs to occupy public spaces where it can generate dialogue and open minds.

What would you create with infinite money or resources?

Well that money could go a long way for other things right now, like housing and resources for a lot of people, support for activism, saving lives. But if all that was magically taken care of already, and the infinite resources could be used for art, then I would love to do projects that are immersive and experiential, stuff that you can just walk or move through and be taken somewhere you've never been before. I'd like to experiment with projections, light installations, stuff like that. And I think my biggest dream is to do work that brings people together, something really big like the Walk with Amal project, collaborating with other artists and activists and reaching people all over the world. But to be honest I'd settle for a space to do some work, and some supplies.

Do you have any gallery shows or projects coming up?

Mostly just hope some of my work stays up and that people get to connect with it around the city this summer; I have lots planned, but I think a lot of street artists don't talk too much about their next moves. I hope to do another show in the fall, nothing confirmed yet.