OPS Mural Captures The Heart Of The City
OPS Mural Captures The Heart Of The City
By Stick Vancouver
Recently a larger-than-life mural appeared at the corner of West Hastings and Abbott St. Now the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) site the piece drove outrage from the Daily Hive and praise from just about everyone else. This collection of graffiti artists features “LANDBACK” prominently in the center.
We had a chance to ask the organizer, OPS Manager Trey Helten a few questions about it and why Graffiti is an important part of the fabric of the city. If you would like to donate to OPS you can do that here https://www.vancityops.com/
Can you tell people about the project? How did it come together?
My name is Trey Helten. I've been working at OPS since 2018. We are a DTES safe consumption site. I write Graff myself and started using street art as a form of expression when I stopped using drugs and alcohol 5 years ago. Graffiti is one of the things that’s saved my life and has kept me from doing more serious forms of thrill-seeking behaviors. Smokey Devil, Copy, Notok and Heph took me under their wings and encouraged me to continue doing Graff. This project is a continuation of the original OPS Graff mural wall located at 60 E Hastings on the side of the Shaldon Hotel. Back in 2019 - The Shaldon Hotel was slated for demolition... OPS was getting the boot and we said - why not raise the money for a lift and paint this wall. It was a shit show. So many fights, big egos and petty squabbles. This new wall on the Arco was a shit show too - but there was a bit more quality control. It was invite only. Not an open call to hit the wall. We also encouraged more female writers to come throw down on the Arco. When OPS moved and took over the lot on 99 W Pender - we saw a blank canvas and said - looks like another opportunity. The Graff writer "COPY" was heavily involved in wrangling the writers on this wall.
A lot of murals go up and get accused of being sort of gentrification/corporate sponsorship things. This seems different how did you work with the community, OPS and artists to get this done?
Initially - I wanted to start this project without any legal mural paperwork. OPS Executive Director and founder Sarah Bylth said - we have to have all the T's crossed and I's dotted. People hate Graff. And there would eventually be some blowback. So, we applied through the Vancouver Mural Program legally. We were approved for the go ahead. We raised the money ourselves for an 80-foot boom lift, we slowly started reaching out to Graff artists writers and they were told if they want a spot - BYOP (Bring your own paint). There was community consultation on this wall. We made posts through a group we created on Facebook. Vancouver's Coalition for Graffiti Writers - we submitted questions to the DTES Updates, News and Events group (6K DTES Community members). We asked the community what they would like to see for the center piece. The overwhelming response was something that showed indigenous people’s strength. A land acknowledgment of some sort.
Can you talk about the “LANDBACK” in the center, where did that come from, why was it important to feature in the Mural?
Well.... Like I said community consultation. The DTES community said they wanted something indigenous themed. Originally it was a land acknowledgment... But to fit a land acknowledgment into 80 feet space - and 10 feet high - it would have been crammed and had to read from far away. We figured. LANDBACK... 8 letters... 10' x 10' per letter... Simple is sometimes the best route. Let's do it. It was hard task. There were overhead wires on the lot. There was a low voltage wire going from the Pattison Group sign to the alley telephone poles that needed to be covered. BC Hydro wanted to charge us $6K to safely cover that line with safety covering (essentially foam pool noodles). There was no way to get a lift or scaffolding safely anywhere near the 3rd story of the building. I reached out to Adrian Sinclair from Vancouver Mural Fest to see what how VMF deal with wires near walls blocking murals. He said when they look at a wall - they factor in wires and covering. BC Hydro are tyrants and won't give discounts to anyone who wants to cover the wires for artistic expression. It's either raise the money for wire coverage - OR - what VMF would do was do a paint color blend that was a sprayed on with a spray gun or a roller piece that could be done from a ladder or a safe distance away near any wires... detail work is done far away from the dangerous wire. So that was the solution. We had to so a roller on the 3rd story of the Arco Hotel. Just to see if I could - I reached out to the Pattison Group to ask if they would kindly disconnect the power to the advertisement sign for two weeks. I never ever did hear back from them. In the end the roller LANDBACK took a month to complete. It was done by myself and the old bouncer from the Regent/Balmoral Hotel (who had also been a house painter on the side for 22 years) Bruce Robertson. We did all from a 40-foot ladder. Once the LANDBACK was completed and we acquired the lift to finish the top 3 stories - Indigenous Artist "Maskwa" added a raven perched on the last letter.
From what I can see, the public response to this piece overwhelmingly stoked. Is that what you’re seeing? How about the response in the downtown east side?
The people who are stuck in the SRO's and low-income housing that surround the OPS wall love it. They say it has improved their quality of life and love seeing the beautiful colors when they look out the small windows of the Micro suites, they live in. We are going to bring more tourism to Chinatown, the DTES and Gastown with this wall.
Graffiti gets a bad reputation. It seems like the local media have been really latching onto stories of vandalism downtown lately. Why do you think they’re so fixated on what’s sanctioned and what’s vandalism?
Local media seems to have an article about how Graff is bad come out almost bi-weekly. I expect it. It's almost like I can look at the calendar and know that two weeks from today - oh look another "Graffiti is bad and it's costing small business owners money" - Vancouver Councillor Pete Fry just passed a motion to identify and charge prolific taggers. He's trying to get re-elected by getting on the good side of business owners. Here’s a crazy idea Pete! Why not drop the fines to small businesses for having Graffiti on their walls altogether and instead encourage businesses to hire Graff artists to create beautiful piece on the walls. Graff artists generally respect others work. If there were something nice there by a respectable artist - it would never get touched and that business would probably never have to deal with paint removal costs or fines from the city again. But I know that's too simple of a solution... Instead let's keep criminalization of street art and keep throwing city funds at Goodbye Graffiti... Haha
How important is it to celebrate graffiti and graffiti artists in this city in less structured ways than just the Vancouver Mural Festival?
Super important. So many of these Graff artists are entrenched in street life. Many will never have an opportunity to showcase their talents with an enterprise like VMF. There needs to more opportunities at street level for these artists to thrive, grow and succeed. I know for many Graff artists the statement stands true - "if I didn't have painting - I'd be getting into a lot more serious problems"
The DTES is so often cast as a problem by politicians and the media. How important is it that we celebrate it as a vibrant part of our city? Is this piece part of that celebration?
It's so important we recognize street art. The DTES is so colorful, vibrant, strong, resilient and - and has always been the epicenter for Graff within the city (In my opinion). There is no place I'd rather be - or feel like I fit in. This is a good time for Graff art within Vancouver. It's good opportunity to keep it going now that we have some legitimacy and support from the DTES community and the City of Vancouver with the Arco Hotel Wall. This wall was mostly paid for by Graff artists and organized by Graff artists. The dream is that one day we have more legal spots and the City recognizes that Graff is a good thing and that it should be celebrated and encouraged. Graff Art can save lives; it can make others quality of life better and give people opportunity. Let's keep it going.
