Those strolling down Hampshire Road in Oak Bay may have noticed something out of the ordinary.
Causton’s Green, which sits just behind the library, is now home to a life-sized sculpture of a man perched atop a toilet.
It’s one of nine works on display as part of Oak Bay's Arts Alive Exhibition, a program spearheaded by the district's former arts laureate Barbara Adams, which has brought creatives’ creations to the community's streets since 2014.
Brainchild of Burnaby artist Ron Simmer, the sculpture, titled Modern Man Does Research, is made out of recycled stainless-steel cookware, welded together – piece by piece – by Vancouver sculptor and painter Ezra Larsen.
On Monday morning, a few passersby stopped to examine the sculpture's intricate details, from its shiny boots and designer sunglasses to the smartphone locked in its right hand.
"The essence of it is that we're kind of prisoners of our online activity or prisoners of the society," said Simmer, who heads ReVision the Art of Recycling – a group of Vancouver-area creatives focused on crafting art from recycled materials. “It is a commentary on modern society, which, from my point of view, looks like it's going downhill."
Online, the sculpture has received mixed feedback.
“I walk by it every day and cringe,” said one Facebook user. “Toilet humour as public art is not my thing.”
Another commenter said, “I have a video of my six-year-old son's reaction seeing it and [his] high-pitched giggle made me appreciate it so much more."
No matter the reaction the sculpture receives, Simmer explained he’s happy to have his work on display in the district.
“People in Oak Bay – they are really wonderful people because they really comment on this stuff and they discuss it, and it's really rewarding to see,” he said. “Quite often, I just put something up there and nobody cares.”
This isn’t the first time the artist's work has appeared in the district. As part of a previous Arts Alive Exhibition, Simmer installed a 250-pound, 10-foot-tall heart, which – with a mini, computer-controlled LED at its core – mimicked a human heartbeat. The artist’s popular What Does the Nose Know sculpture – a work the creative described as a symbol of the overall nosiness by governments and corporations to collect information from citizens – was displayed in 2017.
As in previous years, each of the sculptures was selected by a peer jury and will be displayed for a year, during which time the public is invited to vote for their favourite. The district will consider purchasing the top three works.
To find out more about the other works on display, visit: oakbay.ca/community-culture/arts-culture/arts-alive.
