Login / RegisterEast Van cross symbol has been around for decades, says Vancouver artist Ken Lum
There’s no dispute over the copyright of the East Van cross at Sixth Avenue and Clark, according to Vancouver artist Ken Lum, who based the art piece on a symbol that he said has been around for decades.
The Vancouver Sun reported today (July 12) that Rocco Dipopolo, who they say is a former Hells Angel prospect, approached a Commercial Drive business owner who was displaying photos of the East Van cross, claiming he copyrighted the symbol.
Lum said the City of Vancouver owns the trademark on the neon cross design, which is officially titled Monument for East Vancouver.
“I don’t think this is much of a dispute,” he told the Straight in a phone interview.
“The city owns that particular trademark, so he doesn’t have it.”
The artist said he has not been contacted directly by Dipopolo.
Dipopolo told the Sun that the cross dates back to the early 1990s, when it was used by a club that he was a member of.
But Lum said according to some Vancouver residents he has spoken to, the cross dates back to at least the late 1940s, meaning the symbol “well precedes” its adoption by any East Van gang.
“You talk to a lot of people, they’ll remember that symbol as being around a long time—a lot longer than the 1990s,” he said.
Lum noted he also modified the original symbol, by rounding the corners of the cross. While he said there have been many variations on the cross over the years, it has almost always featured hard corners.
He said it’s the modified version that has been copyrighted by the city.
“It now belongs to the City of Vancouver, which I think is proper,” he said.
“It’s part of the history of the city. So I don’t think anyone should be able to own that sign, not even myself.”
Lum remembers seeing the symbol as a child in East Vancouver. The artist lived in Strathcona until he was seven years old, and then moved to the Knight and Kingsway area. He recalls seeing it frequently around East Vancouver in the 60s, and occasionally in the 70s.
“It was always a marker of East Van,” he said.
“It was never formalized as a physical form, and that’s what makes it so interesting was that it had this kind of organic life you might say of appearing and then re-appearing over the decades.”
“It just had this kind of staying power,” he added.
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E. Van 'Punks n Skins' with the cross as two coffins has been around since the late 60s when it said Mods n Skins or something lame like that.
Anyways Vatican already copyrighted the cross about 2 thousand years ago so good luck with that
not like you 'aren't allowed' to wear it, but more like you better be a tough guy if you are and walking home at night. a skinhead crew and some other meatheads may single you out. some native gangs use it too around broadway station and may want to test you.
My biggest peeve with the whole copyright debate, is why take something that obviously most people love, which has been around for decades (much more than 20 years, or wanna be gangs) and turn it into such a huge negative.
People really do need to get things in perspective.
http://alturl.com/dnwgc
doesnt anyone at the Straight do any research.........
sad days indeed
van halen
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Yes, we do. Happy days, indeed.
Please read the second paragraph in the above story.
You have a nice day.
Growing up, I never saw it as a gang symbol but as a symbol of our identity, especially from a time when the city was much more divided along East West lines by class and race. It says something about East Vancouver that has more to do with the subversiveness of graffiti than the appropriation of a religious symbol.
It's been tagged not just all around Vancouver since I can remember but in many places, probably by East Vancouverites, all over the world.
I love Ken Lum's piece and everytime I see it I beam with pride. It reminds me of when I was in high school and a west side school came to play us at a sporting event, and they always made fun of our cars, our clothes, our cheaper school facilities, the fact we had less than them by accident of birth, and we always had to take it because if we got into a fight with them, we would always get into more trouble than they ever would because they were rich and connected and we were just East Van kids. But we were always proud of being from East Van, even though it was constantly the subject of derision.
So now that the East Van Cross stands there, I am touched that someone else was as proud of being from East Van, even though the things that were said about East Van were nothing to be proud of. And that's all changing now. People have started the recognize that East Van is the cultural heart of Vancouver and the more diverse and exciting part of the city. So I hope the gentleman with the copyright issue chooses to let this one
go. The fact that this once "gang" symbol can mean so much more, speaks to how much East Van has grown and transformed, mostly for the better.
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