Digital Orca

"Digital Orca" 2010, by Douglas Coupland

As I found myself inevitably wasting time flipping through friends photos on Facebook, I happened upon wedding photos taken at the new convention centre, and in the background was a sculpture I was sure I hadn’t seen on my endless walks throughout downtown during the Olympics.

So I ventured down to the site of the cauldron, (which by the way they are keeping in situ, and they lit again on Canada Day an will again on other important dates in the future), with camera in hand, to see this sculpture up close and personal. What I found were black and white metal cubes stacked to form an almost life-sized killer whale breaching (or jumping out of the water). 

In contemplating why artist Douglas Coupland would chose this form as opposed to a more common pose in west coast art in which a whale is leaping forward, I decided to look up the definition of ‘breaching’. “Whales are more likely to breach when in groups, suggesting social reasons, such as assertion of dominance, courting or warning of danger”. In coming back full circle back to the title of the sculpture “Digital Orca”, and although the artist gave his own soft interpretation of the reason behind his cubic and pixilated orca, what resonated with me is that this whale was breaching alone.

In the digital age of sitting alone, at home, in front of our computers for social interaction, I can’t help but think that we like whales seek to ‘breach’ as we yearn to relate to others; even if it is just to look at photos of people and places we may never know.