Coast Salish artist Thomas Cannell has finished an art installation for the City of Burnaby. Working with city officials over the past year, Cannell created a basalt art piece that will be erected in Burnaby’s Spirit Square today (May 26).

Spirit Square is located in Deer Lake Park, the arts and culture core of Burnaby. The park houses the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Burnaby Art Gallery and the Burnaby Village Museum.

The installation is the fourth installment of the independent public-art project known as the Necklace Project. The project links 10 Metro Vancouver municipalities together by an artwork that celebrates each destination.

Cannell’s piece involves four basalt sculptures and depicts a family arriving at the Shadbolt Centre in a canoe. Each column weighs over 10 tonnes and stands 3 metres high.

Cannell was selected out of a mass of interested artists and artist groups. Burnaby Art Gallery curator Darrin Martens created a shortlist of prospective artists and chose Cannell with the help of an ad-hoc committee.

“I looked at roughly 45 to 50 interested artists and artist groups,” said Martens. “What drew me to his work was the fact that he is a young artist who is creating some really interesting things – [he’s] looking at traditional Coast Salish imagery and design and really pushing the boundaries of what that can mean in a contemporary context.”

New Westminster, Richmond and Port Coquitlam have all completed their portion of the Necklace Project.

Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, Port Moody, Surrey, and the District of North Vancouver will unveil their contributions later in the year.

The entire art project was supposed to be completed in time for the Olympics but it proved to be a deterring force as well as a deadline.

“At the last minute they [the artists] were commissioned to do some work for VANOC, so that basically put everyone else at the back of the line,” explained Martens. “The site [Deer Lake Park] also had some changes, so we just wanted to go with the flow of the whole thing.”

While Cannell’s artwork will be installed today, it won’t be officially celebrated until Burnaby’s Discover Day Festival (July 18).