A Wander Round the Gallery for a Little Art...

When it comes to culture Vancouver certainly lacks galleries and museums, and its no real suprise - after all, the most valuable artworks in history are in Europe! So Vancouver's premier Art Gallery, at Robson Square, is almost entirely short-term exhibits on loan from elsewhere. The Leonardo da Vinci exhibit - the Mechanics of Man - for instance, is on loan from Windsor Palace. Now add the fact that it's FREE entry over the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics - and it's well worth seeing!

Sadly, everyone realised this, and over the Olympics queues went down the whole block, with over an hour's wait to get in. The gallery was closing much earlier than expected, around 3pm, making it one of the most in-demand attractions, with probably only the Zip-Line for competition!

Luckily for me I managed to get in after only 20min or so, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't too crowded inside. The first level had the Mechanics of Man, displaying the pages of da Vinci's Anatomical Manuscript A and though it was short/small, it was a really well put-together exhibit! They managed to give a few good examples for the historical context, as well as displaying translations of da Vinci’s mirror-script on the walls, so that you could better understand his thoughts. Most of them were scientific, mathmatical, logical, but then, occassionaly, there'd be this surprising glimmer of philosophy. A few short lines, showing da Vinci trying to deal with the fact that his anatomical studies were taboo. I it found utterly fascinating.

On the same floor the Visceral Bodies exhibit continues da Vinci’s theme almost seamlessly, adding a more modern twist. Innovative artists such as Wim Delvoye, Wangechi Mutu and others have provided some truly fascinating works, encouraging us to look at how we represent the body in new and intriguing ways. Particularly grusome but interesting were the wax-sculptures of limbs, which were suprisingly realisitic. And I particularly liked the stain-glass windows which used x-ray sheets.

Further on up in the building Visions of BC houses many of Emily Carr’s expressionistic landscapes, alongside more modern works. I loved the full-sized whale-skeleton made of plastic chairs, and the Murder Research installation, both offering very different aspects of life in BC. Then at the very top was BC Pavillion, which has a few technological marvels and gadgets to entertain, though the "3D immersive experience" was a little... erm, underwhelming.

For a modern-art collection the gallery is fantastic! And you know what? For these particular exhibits I'd say it was better than the Tate Modern, because you see, the exhibitions are well thought out, and even though it lacks the big names, it has something to suit everybody. If you don’t like videos – there’s sculpture, if you don’t like your art too abstract or conceptual, then there’s something a little more literal. Even though the gallery is small, it’s more than enough to take up a few hours at a leisurely pace and I would highly recommend it.