This $5M Chandelier Under a Vancouver Bridge Will Start the Class War

The city of Vancouver decided to hang a multi-million dollar chandelier underneath a bridge and it’s exactly as class war(y) as you thought it would be.

Like, just look at this shit.

LOOK AT IT SPIN!

The so-called Torqued Chandelier, which cost an absurd $4.8 million, was paid for by condo developer Westbank Corp. Of course it was.

It was unveiled Wednesday night in its home underneath the Granville street bridge.

Vancouver artist Rodney Graham created the glittering monstrosity which is over seven metres tall and weighs 3,400 kilograms (that’s more than two cars). We wish we could say it's some sort of ironic social commentary, but it seems it's just a brazen flex.

Seemingly giddy about the opulent display, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said it’s “the most important piece of public art in the history of our city,” and declared Graham a “legend,” according to the National Post, Then they all presumably took a nice long chug of Soylent Green.

Developer Westbank Corp. foot the bill for the chandelier as part of the deal for resurrecting its adjacent 52-storey condo Vancouver House. (If you want to live there, there’s a penthouse suite up for sale for around $9 million.)

Now, I’m no mathematician but I feel like $4.8 million in one of North America’s least affordable cities could probably do a lot of good at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen or literally anything other than a giant chandelier.

As someone who has recently pointed out he doesn’t understand art—especially public art that’s all about hogs—I can’t see this as really anything other than a fuck you to the poor in the city. There’s something a little slap-you-in-the-face absurd about putting this up in a city where rental prices can only be afforded by yacht owners. The mayor’s tone deaf drooling doesn’t help.

Subtlety died years ago though, so here we are with Vancouver, a town with one of the “poorest postal codes” in Canada and a goddamn chandelier under a bridge. The only good thing about this piece of art is that we don’t need to wonder where the richies will kick off their inaugural purge any more.

In a way though, the chandelier and its location under a bridge is the perfect metaphor for Vancouver itself. Sure there’s a dire housing crisis and an overdose epidemic but look at the mountains! So pretty.

Anyhoo, I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up, there’s no way that this shit doesn’t get ruined by vandals before the end of the new year, right?

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