Electric blue
I got an oblique view
Can you feel it too?
When you walk through this neighbourhood
Beyond the sights of lantern light
Could you believe in neon tonight?
So why be sad? Some say
It’s not the Chinese way
Stand below the blue sky
And the new buildings strung up high
So then the question is…
What kind of hue?
Well…
Fuck you
The Blue Eagle cafe used to sell drugs
The Blue Eagle cafe used to show my grandpa love
The blood still runs blue
In old wives
Who slow down
When passing through this small town
That was once out of bounds
Here the Art Deco still tries
To shape old lies
That cover up the power station’s high
Alongside new luxury rental suite lives
This is inscrutable change
Especially when the BBQ pork still tastes the same
I hate this colour now
I hear it buzzing loud
Even though the lantern’s LEDs
Will never make a sound
And the power station’s lines
Will soon be decommissioned into condo ground
Blue, blue, blue
Can you feel it too?
Other Colours
Other Colours was conceived in response to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s True Colours, a program that offers grants to incentivize homeowners to restore heritage homes to their ‘true’ Victorian, Edwardian and War Time era (1880–1930) colours, with paint swatches such as “Oxford Bluff” and “Edwardian Pewter”. Canada’s colonial history is a violent history that must be questioned, not ceremoniously replicated. The True Colours program has been deployed largely in support of the gentrification of inner city neighbourhoods, particularly those with a history of immigrant struggle where homes were painted colours that represented diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences of the city. 221A led a Research Initiative with 10 contributors who were asked to provide a swatch for an “Other Colours palette” that would offer alternatives to the True Colours program based on the contributors’ lived experience, cultural traditions and artistic practices. Each Other Colours palette selection is detailed by the contributor with an original text or artwork. This collection of short prose, poetry and social history, printed by Brick Press as an Artist’s Book, offers a more pluralistic account of the city’s built environment and identity.
