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Oct. 7, 2011
Visual history in transit
Firestone’s new work has a pop-art esthetic.
OLGA LIVSHIN
“I’m a designer of imagery,” said Vancouver-based artist Andrew Firestone. His two-day exhibition, Vancouver in Motion: A Photographic Journey Through Vancouver’s Transit History, will include eight large photographic images, which, according to promotional materials, “introduces Vancouverites to a public transit system that was at one point the envy of cities across North America and today represents the largest fleet of trolley buses in Canada.”
To create his bright, complex pictures, the artist used not only photos of old buses, but also old transit maps, bus passes, stop signs and even obsolete operating manuals. “I manipulate the images, insert different backgrounds, sometimes several at once,” he explained of his technique. “I experiment with Photoshop and Illustrator. My studio is my computer.” When his 21st-century touch is applied to historical images, the end result is usually full of light and mischief, reminding viewers of the past but beckoning to the future.
Firestone first stepped on the road that led him to this show when he graduated from the Savannah College of Design, with a BFA in graphic design. After graduation, he worked for eight years as a graphic designer in the United States and, in 2006, he decided to make the move to Vancouver. For seven weeks he was on the road, driving cross-country and taking photos. He photographed old towns and colorful advertisements, bridges and window displays. Fascinated by the American history revealed in the images, Firestone began manipulating them in ways inspired by his artistic role model and father of the pop-art movement, Andy Warhol. Thus his first series, Americana, was born.
When he arrived in Vancouver, he began looking for work, but “there is not a lot of work for a graphic designer in Vancouver,” he told the Independent. He took whatever freelance jobs came his way and, in his unoccupied time, wandered around his new city. His meandering took him to East Hastings Street, where the old neon signs captured his imagination. The juxtaposition of British Columbia’s natural beauty and the gaudiness of the neon signs drove him into further investigations. He started photographing the signs and doing research about their history in the city. Eventually, the historical significance of the old signs combined with their funky esthetic spurred the artist to do his next series, City of Neon and Glass.
“I wanted big pictures,” he said of the 2009 exhibit’s unusual origins, “so I decided not to develop and print them myself but to do it with a commercial printer. The printer put them on his walls, where the owners of the Eastwood Onley Gallery saw them.” Impressed by the photographer’s unusual approach and subject matter, Eastwood Onley offered him a show.
The history of Vancouver continue to intrigue the artist. “I was born in the wrong time,” he lamented. “I should’ve lived in the ’50s.… Art Deco is my biggest influence. I love history and historical collections of any kind. I went to antique shops when I was 12. I have a collection of Depression glass, about 50 pieces. Now, I want to bring history to the new generations, show them that it doesn’t have to be boring. I always want to put a new spin to the old things.”
His search for another historical avenue to explore eventually brought him to the theme of transit in Vancouver and he discovered the Transit Museum Society. When Firestone explained his project to them, the society invited him to their yard in Burnaby, where about 20 historic buses are being kept and restored. Firestone was given permission to step inside the buses, to spend time on them, sit in every seat and take photos. They also shared with him their extensive photographic collection, generated during five decades of Vancouver transit.
“There were old Buzzers [transit newsletters] there, old tires, old signs,” he recalled. “I participated in a bus tour on one of the old buses with a similar society’s members from America. Our driver, Angus McIntire, was a retired driver with 40 years of experience in Vancouver transit. He knows every bus model. He knows every street in Vancouver, had been on every bus route in his 40 years as a bus driver.”
Besides exploring the society’s materials, the artist also talked to retired bus drivers. He roamed the city’s libraries, archives and second-hand shops for vintage photographs, postcards and bus tokens. Armed with all this material, interweaving realistic photos with his signature imagery shuffling and overlapping, he created his new series, Vancouver in Motion.
The show hasn’t gone up yet, but the artist is already looking into the future. His new project is inspired by the sky. “I want to do a show of old airplanes from World War Two, Royal Air Force planes. I’m looking at their memorabilia. I want to travel the country, see what I can find and take photos.”
Vancouver in Motion is open Oct. 15-16 at the Eastwood Onley Gallery, 2075 Alberta St. For more information, visit eastwoodonleygallery.com.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
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