Farewell to Vancouver

 

Monday 26 May 2025

Monday was my last day in Canada and it dawned a bit grey and rainy, though it did brighten up later. Toni was due to fly back to Toronto early afternoon, so we took the opportunity to visit the light and airy Vancouver Art Gallery which was very close to the apartment. 

It has a modern art focus, so right up my alley. I enjoyed the very Japanese artist Otani Workshop's work, a collection entitled Monsters in my Head - it's kind of cute and savage all at the same time (reminded me a bit of a Jeremy Dellar piece at the summer exhibition a while back when he had given teddy bears sharp bloodied teeth and chain saws in a woodland scene).

I was also blown away by the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle, the Canadian version of Jackson Pollock - his abstract expressionist work was new to me and the colours and textures were visceral and amazing. There was a lovely collection by lots of different contemporary ceramicists, and I was mesmerised by the Lucy Raven video installation of Murderers Bar, which showed from start to finish the blowing up of a concrete dam, right from charges being set to the flooding created for many miles as the water cascaded through the ravines.

After lunch at the gallery, we picked up Toni's luggage from the apartment and walked her to the Canada line to say goodbye, then Lucy and I went to Pacific Central station on the Expo line (nice clock)

to pick up our tickets for the following day and find out about check-in for the early train to Seattle. A handy bus nearby then took us to English Bay where we enjoyed a couple of cocktails (mine's a Pina Colada, but I didn't get caught in any rain) at the Cactus Club and a chat with our server about Canada, wine and everything.

We went back to our downtown neighbourhood and I did a bit of shopping, including a cheap dress from Muji to prepare for the unseasonably warm weather which lay ahead once we got further south. We finished off some leftovers at the apartment for supper, then went for a stroll down Burrard Street so that I could get a glimpse of the Chrysler-style building (currently closed for renovation), and had a drink at Joey's before retiring for an early night ready for an Uber picking us up at 0555 to take us to Pacific Central for the Seattle train.