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Here's how and why the East Van Cross sculpture got built (VIDEO)

Ken Lum's artwork is ‘religious and sacrilegious at the same time’
east van cross
It’s been nearly 10 years since Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver, a.k.a. the East Van Cross, went up on the corner of East 6th Avenue and Clark Drive. File photo Dan Toulgoet

It's been nearly 10 years since Ken Lum's sculpture went up on the corner of East Sixth Avenue and Clark Drive in Vancouver.

Commissioned by the City of Vancouver as one of their legacy projects around the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympics, it instantly garnered reactions from residents.

While not as divisive as the chandelier that recently went up under the Granville Street bridge, it is a symbol of pride for some and ire for others.

In a video released by the City in 2010, Lum talks about the origins of the cross, how it used to only appear in alleyways and why he decided to turn it into a giant sculpture. He also addresses how it's "religious and sacrilegious at the same time."

The video also shows the actual fabrication process and the construction of this massive, "formalized" version of a once-underground Vancouver icon.

Read the original article here.