Close to Transit

Close to Transit
By Tina Nguyen, Yue Ming Hong, Owen Patterson, Nicola Williams, Max Yang
CLOSE TO TRANSIT
As our city expands and develops, the concept of a living space changes. The colours of this piece reflect a time in postwar North America, in which the idea of the nuclear family and home was large and expanding.
Many of us have stories about difficult or irksome circumstances that are shrugged off and accepted as the trade-off of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities – windows painted open, half-mile walks to the nearest laundromat and outdated living standards. In response to this, Close to Transit, represents a single room containing all the necessities of
a home; however, it is far from comfortable. For example, the bathtub is placed right next to a sink and stove, making all three amenities difficult, if not impossible, to access. The almost life-sized objects refer to the viewers body and relationship to the space. We chose to mount the floor plan to a grid to represent every square foot of the space.
Our frustrations with the difficulties of becoming independent in the place we wish to exist are realized in this piece, Close to Transit. Although there’s an excitement that comes with living here, many of us do not live in Vancouver for its “global prestige”. This is a struggle that most of our peers face, not to mention the many longtime and new residents of Vancouver. Our work not only represents the shift in our perspectives on domestic living, but also colourfully visualizes our resentment.