Environmental Art by Caffyn Kelley

Caffyn Kelley has created a number of environmental artworks that link culture, memory and environmental restoration. She uses engraved rocks, native plants, poetry and simple images. Her work includes small ponds, a private meditation garden, bowls and engraved rocks, as well as large-scale public projects. In addition, Caffyn has developed and presented many community projects linking art and environment. She has written on environmental art by other artists (see her book Art and Survival on the work of Patricia Johanson, Islands Institute, 2006).

See essay:  Reading and Writing (Women) on the Land.

Below are her reflections on a large-scale environmental sculpture built at Trout Lake in Vancouver, B.C.

Water Dream / Water Memory

 Trout Lake is a beloved community park in East Vancouver. It was once a tangle of bushes and beaver dams. Salmon spawned in clear-running creeks. Today, impervious surfaces and short-cropped lawn dominate the park. Garbage is everywhere. Animals and birds have almost vanished. Creeks were buried in large sewer pipes in the 1950’s.

I was hired to be an “Environmental Artist-in-Residence” at the Trout Lake Community Centre. For over a year I worked with schools, artists, naturalists, citizens and community groups to map nature at the lake. We created a 400-foot long environmental sculpture for permanent installation in the park. The piece was built out of plants, earth, and river rocks. It was an image of Trout Lake in a natural or restored state, with creeks flowing in and out. Engraved rocks incorporated into the sculpture formed a poem about water. Water Dream / Water Memory was designed to provide habitat for birds, small mammals and amphibians. Grass in the area of the sculpture was allowed to grow long, and native shrubs were planted along the line of rocks, creating a “river” of wildness flowing along the line of a buried creek, in a park where nature was buried, simplified and overbuilt.

More than a year was spent shepherding Water Dream / Water Memory through various agencies, securing the many approvals required to build and fund the project. Yet as the piece was in the final stages of its construction, the Parks Board decided suddenly – without consultation – to partially dismantle the sculpture, stating that the work impinged on a baseball outfield.

In the ensuing months, there was a public outcry supporting the work, and some media coverage for the controversy surrounding its destruction. The Parks Board remained obdurate. In the fall of 2003, they began to finally dismantle the piece.

Tiny remnants of the sculpture remain in the park. In these small areas, trees grow tall. Wildflowers blossom. Grasses go to seed. Looking at these remnants, I feel thrilled by their beauty, and I ache for what might have been. I wonder “What really happened?” “How could I have approached things differently?” and “What remains?” I feel like I got caught up in “fighting City Hall” – a battle I could not win. Was there a better way to approach this?

Or perhaps the fact that the piece exists only in memory is peculiarly appropriate to the subject and site…