Lion Pickers

When tourists walk down Duke Street they rarely see NSCAD. Instead they see two lions up on pink pillars that tower over them. Then a common reaction is complete confusion because between the two lions is an unexplainable sculpture of a garbage bag.

Many myths about the lions have been circling the Granville Mall since they were erected in 2005. The majority of people I have spoken to believe the lions were purchased in 2004 by the NSCAD President of the time, Dr. Paul Greenhalgh and that he bought them from England. Neither of these are true, the lions were in fact purchased in 1967 and came from The New Custom House’s clock tower located in Halifax. They were stored inside a church on the Coburg Campus at the time but ended up in a Dalhousie University professor’s backyard from the early seventies until the summer of 2004. Not reall a sensational story.

The garbage bag, which was placed between the lions during the year they went up, was sensational however. It provoked passion in NSCAD staff, students and faculty. It was infuriating to some, but others thought it was clever. For some, the Lions are a symbol of authoritative British imperial power. This is not an image that most contemporary NSCAD students want have representing their school. Originally, these lions were to be placed against a wall on the clock tower because they have no back. It takes bold indifference, say the critics, to place these lions in the middle of the Granville Mall.

In my informal surveys of passersby, I'd say the lions have the same (forgettable) impact on most viewers, but the ambiguity of the garbage bag irritates or delights everyone. Sometimes, when drunken men stumble out of the Split Crow pub and attempt to move the garbage bag, both irritation and delight appear on the same stage. Big enough guns will nudge the garbage bag a few inches, but it would take some seriously big guns to move it away from the lions.

Neil Antoine Raymond Lapierre

- Student/ Artist/ Poet Amore and more

People who told me things:
Garbage artist. Personal interview. October 3 2008.
Anonymous (NSCAD Faculty Member). Personal Interview. October 8 2008.
Anonymous (NSCAD Faculty Member). Personal Interview. October 9 2008.
NSCAD Printmaking Student. Personal Interview. October 6 2008.
Cameron, Linda. Personal interview. October 9 2008.
NSCAD Printmaking Student. Personal Interview. October 6 2008.
“The Split Crow Story.” History. October 16, 2008.
http://www.splitcrow.com/splitcrow
Welter-Noland, Becky. Personal Interview. 30 September 2008.