Vancouver's giant sparrows getting much needed repairs

Two giant birds that tower over a square in Vancouver's Olympic Village will be heading south for the winter to get some much-needed repairs.

The sparrow statues, named simply The Birds,are in need of a serious fixthanks to their unexpected use as playgrounds, according to Vancouver's manager of public art, Eric Fredericksen.

"Kids love climbing on them, more significantly skateboarders have found that one of the birds in particular, the male sparrow,is in a great place to ollie up onto or skate off of," Fredericksensaid.

"Ollie" is a skateboarding move where the rider and board leap into the air without the use of hands.

Fredericksen says the statues, installed in 2010, were made out of a combination of foam, paint and a covering over a frame of metal.

All the activity over the years has taken atoll and the coating has started to crack and let water in.

Comingback stronger

SoThe Birdswill be taken down sometime this fall, shipped south to Surrey to have the cracks repaired, then moulds will be madeandboth statues recast in aluminum over a new steel frame.

Fredericksenexpects this will give them a much longer life.

WhenThe Birdsreturn sometime before Vancouver hosts the 27th International Ornithological Congress next August theywill be just asinteractive as they are now.

"It's not a museum," Fredericksensaid, "Weexpect that when we put things out in the public realm that people are going to get handsy with it."

People at the Olympic Village on Tuesday agreed that part of the joy of public art is the ability to interact with it.

"I think the whole point of art is to invite us to explore and engage in the artists' expression of who they are and what they're trying to share," said Madelyn Mulvaney. "I think to make it interactive is really a beautiful invitation."

Jeff Oddleifson said he has seen the damage to the male sparrow's tailbut feels it's fitting.

"You look at birds in the wild they're often a little bit damaged too...I get joy out of watching a bunch of kids climb up and down it," he said.

Incorporating interaction

The artist herself is also thrilled with the way the birds have become part of the life of the area.

Myfanwy Macleodsays she hadn't given much thought to how people would interact with the statues before they were installed, since it was her first piece of public art.

"I'm super happy about it," Macleodsaid in an interview. "Whenever I'm down there, it's always so great to see kids interacting with them."

She adds that some of her later works have incorporated the idea of play into the design, particularly Playtime, an installation attheB.C. Children's and B.C. Women's Hospital and Health Centre that was a collaboration with fellow artist Shannon Oksanen.

The repair bill for The Birdscomes with a budget of around $400,000. That's between two and four times more than the city typically spends all year to maintain and repair public art, but Eric Fredericksensays the works are among the most damagedpieces in thecity's collection.

The money will be coming from a reserve maintenance fund that Fredericksen says is usually made up of contributions from developers.

He addspublic art is usually expected to lastabout 30 years, "so amortized over the life of the piece, it's actually not that much money."