Before Graham Brownmiller dies, he wants to save a life.
Jake Flesher wants to truly feel free.
The two New Westminster residents are just some of the many people who have chalked their hopes and dreams on a piece of public art installed at Westminster Pier Park earlier this month.
Stenciled on two four-foot by six-foot black boards are the words “Before I die I want to…” in 10 different languages, followed by a blank space for passersby to fill in with chalk.
The boards have been crowded for weeks with responses both quirky and profound.
“It’ll be full in four hours,” said local artist Gillian Wright, who created the installation and wipes off the boards every couple days.
She got the idea after listening to a CBC interview with Candy Chang, who put up the original Before I Die wall in New Orleans in 2011.
The idea has taken off, and there are now more than 1,000 Before I Die walls in more than 35 languages and 70 countries.
The universality of the idea appealed to Wright, so she brought it to New West using a neighbourhood small grant she secured from the Vancouver Foundation.
“It really starts people talking,” she said. “You’ll find that people read each other’s stuff and talk about it to each other.”
When she first put up the boards, the local artist was worried about vandals defacing them or writing disrespectful comments, but she’s been pleasantly surprised.
“I haven’t read anything bad on it,” she said.
Another surprise has been the enthusiastic public response.
“Initially I thought I’d be the only one that would be really excited about doing this,” Wright said, “but it’s really struck a chord with so many people.”
When Wright took chalk in hand to write her own response, she filled in the blank with “ride a motorcycle,” but next time she said she might write in “learn to skate.”
She thinks the impermanence of the chalk might be part of the appeal.
“You write it down and you send it out into the universe,” she said, “and then somebody comes along and erases it and puts what they want.”
The project, to which Wright plans to add another board soon, will be up until the fall.
To find out more about the Before I Die phenomenon, visit beforeidie.cc/site.
