It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...Pethick's Time Top

Sometime between the summer and a couple of weeks ago, aliens landed in False Creek. Well, if not aliens, then certainly something other-worldly...how about "Time Top" by artist Jerry Pethick?

Vancouver's newest public art installation manages to re-capture a childlike sense of wonder, because coming across it in the fog is like discovering a space pod on the beach - for real. Well, almost as good anyways. What a treat for the early morning dog-walkers trying to jolt themselves out of sleep with a triple Americano! The artist, who died in 2003 without seeing his work in situ, based the piece on a comic strip from the 1930's that featured a time machine, the Time Top. There are a series of frames from the comic dremmeled into the granite around the piece that give a bit of context and add to the fun.

To find the Time top, go to the north promenade of False Creek, just west of the Cambie Street Bridge. According to the Vancouver Public Arts Program, it was commissioned by the Concord Pacific Group in 2006; installed in August and commemorated officially in October. Jerry Pethick is represented by the Catriona Jeffries Gallery. Check out the Time Top page for some great photos of the construction porcess. The top itself was forged in bronze, then submerged in a Gibson's Marina bay with a low-voltage electrical charge for two years in order to get the barnacled, "well-travelled" look it has now. Pretty cool.

I thought I had been down to North False Creek more recently than last summer, but regardless I'll be making a point to stop by, because in a city with some hideous public art, this is a piece I love.