Wherever You Are, 2026

Michelle Sound’s multidisciplinary practice explores cultural identity and knowledge, often highlighting the ways in which family and community are instrumental in building our sense of self. Wherever You Are (2026) is a site-specific photograph celebrating Indigenous presence in the city. When Sound was asked to create a new work for the façade of the Dal Grauer Substation, an image that the artist knew would have a monumental public presence in the heart of Vancouver for a year, her starting point was her memory of what it was like to grow up on the east side of the city. She recalls her aunts and sisters wearing beadwork during the 1980s and ’90s, a time when the cultural significance of beadwork was generally less understood and accepted. Shot against the familiar pink exterior of the Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant on East Hastings Street, Wherever You Are features Métis and Cree artist Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire turned away from the viewer so that we might admire the back of the beaded jacket she is wearing. Borrowed from Cardinal Cire’s uncle, the garment once belonged to her great grandfather; it is both a family heirloom and a symbol of her ancestors, keeping her connected to her community and proudly making visible her cultural heritage in the urban terrain.

The BC Hydro Dal Grauer Substation Public Art Project is generously supported by Presthaya Fixter and Conrad Whelan, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and sponsored by MLT Aikins LLP, Downtown Van, and MNP LLP.