Carol Sawyer’s video segments collectively titled Wood Work provide a fragmentary glimpse into the history of the logging and lumber industries in BC, employing historic local 16mm film footage shot in the 1930s by Alfred E. Booth.

These images will be shown on the video screens at Robson and Granville from June 6 to September 4. The source films show first growth trees being cut down by hand with axes and hand saws, sorted in booming grounds, and sawn into lumber. All of these activities are at the heart of Vancouver’s history – a town founded on the site of a sawmill. The artist’s careful selection and processing of these source images brings this history back into the present.

Carol Sawyer attended Emily Carr College of Art and Design and received her MFA from the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts in 1998. She produced previous pubic art projects as part of Memory Palace: Three artists in the Library in 2008 and an earlier piece for the Cambie Works Yard, 2004. Her practice includes music performance and interdisciplinary collaborations as well as photography and video.

The 2011 Public Art Program focuses on opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy unique images, objects and perspectives on Vancouver and British Columbia for the City’s anniversary year. Details about Vancouver’s Public Art Program can be found at vancouver.ca/publicart. The program has facilitated over a hundred projects in the past ten years, spanning large-scale permanent installations, design-team collaborations and artist-initiated artworks.