Email: doug@dougtaylor.co
Website: www.dougtaylor.co
Awards and Distinctions
2009 Art in America
Bird Song Listening Station, Seattle Center, is selected in 19 top international public art works. Also selected: Chris Burden, Olafur Eliasson and Barbara Kruger
2002 Canada Council for the Arts
Senior Research / Media Arts Grant
1981 Emily Carr College of Art and Design
Honors Diploma , Bachelor of Visual Arts
Award of Merit
- 1976 BC Federation of Artists Award
- 1975 BC Ceramics, first prize award
- 1974 Canada Council for the Arts
Artist Practice
I love to build weathervanes, mobiles and kinetic sculptures that reflect the spirit and storyline of a site. The use of wind, water or solar power to animate sculpture recognizes the deeper and eternal powers at play on earth… it helps us reconnect with the elements and stand in awe of them. My installations have also generated their own electricity ! by means of wind and solar energy, thus erasing their own carbon footprint over time. For example, Seattle Centre’s Bird Song Listening Station selected in 2008 by Art In America as on of 19 top international public art works.
Its taken 30 years of trial and error, but I now produce mobile works of all sizes that require no maintenance….its all about achieving graceful movement and self governing against high winds.
My Vancouver installations Khenko and the WindSwimmer are works deeply rooted in the genre of whirligigs our pioneer settlers used to make for their back yards (woodchoppers and wing flappers ). Seattle Centre’s Bird Song Listening Station uses wind and solar to generate sound samples of birds, once native to the site. All three works use wind for their motive power and govern themselves by means of uniquely designed engineering.
The function of the repetitive motions in these pieces serves to heighten the existential nature of daily life. The power of repetition is something G.K. Chesterton wrote about in the Everlasting Man when he talked about the beauty of the sun coming up every day – far from being boring, it is the repetitive aspect of this action that makes it so powerful.
Public Art Commissions
2014 – Nautilus
Client: Rize Alliance
Location: Wave, Surrey, BC
Facilitator: Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
2010 – Pioneer Spirit
Client: City of Coquitlam / Maillardville Centennial
Location: Makin Park, Coquitlam
Funding: Heritage Canada
2008 – Bird Song Listening Station
Client: City of Seattle
Location: Seattle Center .Fischer Pavillion
Facilitator: Seattle Arts Commission
2004/2007 – Frog & Moonshell
Client: Dale Bosa
Location: Hygate Burnaby BC
Facilitator: Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
2004/2006 – Khenko (Great blue Heron)
Client: Lt. Gov. Dr. David Lam
Location: George Wainborn Park , False Creek ,Vancouver
Facilitator: Board of Parks and Recreation
2005/2006 – Bumble Bee and Magnolia
Client: City of Burnaby , Embassy Corp.
Location: The Renaissance,Burnaby
Facilitator: Ryan Bosa / Leesa Strymbicki
2005/2006 – Spotty the Dog
Client: City of Richmond
Location: Hamilton Fire Hall, Richmond
Facilitator: Kari Huhtala, Public Art, City of Richmond
2003 – Purple Martin Spiral
Client: Jawl Corporation
Location: Selkirk Waterfront, Gorge Harbour, Victoria, BC
Size : 30 ft.x 25 ft.x20 ft.
Installation December 4 2004
2002 – West Coast Raven
Client: Sound Symposium 2002
Location: Signal Hill St. Johns Newfoundland
Funding : Canada Council for the Arts
Installation : July 2002
2001 – Whiskey Jack Balance
Plaza of Champions / Creekside / Whistler Mountain
Installation: Due date December 2001
Client : Intrawest Resorts
Size : 40 ft.x 16 ft.x20 ft.
Material: aluminium, steel,lead, delrin , acrylic resin, air
2000/1952 – Ford Grove
Coppersmith Corner / Richmond BC
Installation: a 1952 Ford pickup truck with Trembling Aspen trees
Size: 30ft. x 15ft
Client : Westbank Inc.
2000 – Experience Music Project / Seatlle WA
Three Figures: aluminium wire frame
Architect : Frank Gehry
Completion : June 2000
1999 – Wind Swimmer
Installation: Vancouver , B.C.
A Wind Propelled Kinetic Sculpture
Redesign Project / Sponsors: Herb and Mary Auerbach
Material: Stainless / Aluminium / Lead / Fiberglass / Air
1998/1999 – Florida Museum of Natural History , Gainesville , Florida
11 life-size superreal figures
Calusa and Seminol Natives
Material: Polychrome / fully tattooed
1996 – D.N.A. Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbour, Long Island, New York, N.Y.
2Portraits / ‘Barbara McClintoch’ and “New Guinean”
High realism Finish
1992 – Space Center Houston
N.A.S.A.’s Museum, Houston, Texas
Consultant: Imagination Arts/Bob Rogers & Co.
5 figures: Life size superreal astronauts designed for Skylab and Apollo capsules.
Robotic movement in three figures.