Kris Twyman

Dennis Oppenheim's sculpture is on loan to the Glenbow Museum and Torode

The upside-down church sculpture that was removed from a Vancouver park earlier this year has landed, steeple first, in the southeast neighbourhood of Ramsay east of the Stampede grounds.

On September 5, crews began installing Dennis Oppenheim’s Device to Root Out Evil at the Ramsay Exchange, a former industrial site that’s being converted to mixed-use development. The sculpture, on loan to developer Torode and the Glenbow Museum from a Vancouver firm, was removed from a Vancouver park earlier this year after the city received complaints about the piece. The Glenbow announced plans to move the sculpture to Calgary earlier this year, but the sculpture’s exact destination in the city was kept secret until installation began.

“We’re really, really proud of where it is and how it’s gone up,” says the Glenbow’s Ken Lima-Coelho. “Ramsay’s a very, very interesting place. Lots of artists, lots of culture. Lots of communicators, journalists, that kind of thing. And this is, I think, a very nice addition.”

Device to Root Out Evil is installed right beside the Dominion Bridge building, an old steel foundry that was built in the 1920s. “This [site] is just a perfect fit,” says Torode’s Robin Murphy. She says the sculpture complements the historic and cultural nature of the Ramsay Exchange redevelopment. “We’re going to have two tenants here that are also design-centric and film-centric — all in the arts and cultural world. It’s just a perfect marriage.”

Oppenheim’s sculpture was first displayed at the Venice Biennale in 1997.