The “Queen BX1000” was created with recycled materials by a Montreal-based street artist known as Junko. They say it’s their biggest track to date. It’s a nearly five-metre tall statue on a vacant lot near the Fraser River, visible from both the Canada Line SkyTrain station — between Bridgeport and Marine Drive stations — and the nearby Canada Line bike path. Junko told CBC News the installation was made with recycled car parts and plastics in a giant wooden frame, which were salvaged from Metro Vancouver. The facility sits on a vast vacant lot near the Fraser River, visible from both the SkyTrain and a nearby bike path. (Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC) “I like the idea that someone, just on their daily commute, sees him from afar and just sees him for a second.” “Just being this little magical moment in the middle of this industrial area where, you know, you don’t really see a lot of art or anything like that.” CBC News agreed to keep Junko’s identity confidential at their request to preserve the anonymity of their art. Junko’s work in Montreal is also mostly made up of reclaimed, upcycled material. It’s their first West Coast installation, but they said their process was the same as in Montreal — letting the city’s piles of trash inform their work. “I have a little background in sustainable construction. It is economical as well as environmental. It’s kind of the process I’ve developed over time. “Walking or cycling, I just look at the ground and see what I think, collect things I find and then assemble them and try to create something with them.”

“I got a lot of funny looks”

The installation took over a month to produce, according to Junko. They said Vancouver’s recycling practices were slightly different than Montreal’s, so it took them a while to locate the required materials. “This is a very clean city,” they said with a laugh. “He deals with his waste in a certain way.” In a video Posted on his Instagram account, Junko showed himself driving to a garage in Vancouver and picking up the bright yellow auto parts that make up the bulk of the queen bee statue. “In my search for materials and whatnot, I found a garage that worked on yellow taxi cars. They had a whole bunch of yellow car bumpers flying out. “I was thinking about different animals and obviously, a yellow creature came to mind… I always want to convey a certain type of figure or a certain type of character. With this one, obviously a bee is the theme.” The artist said they got “a lot of funny looks” as they delivered materials to the South Vancouver site on their bikes, but no one ever interfered with their process or had any problems with the design of the project, except for a few curious pedestrians and cyclists. They said they didn’t have a specific message to share with the piece, but hoped people would think about wildlife and recycling while forming their own interpretations.

TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s transit authority, owns the land on which the Queen BX1000 sits, according to land registry documents. The City of Vancouver said in a statement that they had no calls from the owner or residents about the piece. A TransLink spokesperson told CBC News the track “looks really cool,” but did not commission it.