The Hollow Man
2026
Public art commission for the City of Vancouver, sited at the Livestock Building, Hastings Park
The Hollow Man calls attention to the cruel actions of Ian Alistair Mackenzie, a politician whose racist policy decisions shattered the lives of so many people of Japanese ancestry, after he expelled 22,000 from the BC coast, stripping them of their property, civil and human rights. Given how consequential Mackenzie's actions were to so many, history has been too kind to him, he is largely unknown outside the Japanese Canadian community.
This project aims to put a face to the misdeeds.
Viewed from the front, a faithful likeness of Mackenzie shows the face of someone who could have made more compassionate choices. From the back, this “anti-monument” is an empty shell, devoid of a moral core. This is a durational project intended to stand for 2593 days, corresponding to the length of time the federal order-in-council was in place, after which the sculpture will be removed and melted down.
The Hollow Man is a deeply personal response to a bad actor who profoundly changed the course of my family history. Arguably he is the reason I am a Toronto-based artist and not a Vancouver-based one; the ripple effects of his actions have reverberated though every subsequent generation.
Grateful acknowledgements to the team at the City of Vancouver's public art program, both present and past; Tatiana Mellema for steering the project for so many years; Charlotte Falk for deftly project managing a challenging piece; the PNE team; Fabricators ImagineIt, Meteor Foundry and Dion Custom Metal; and crucially, the incredible people at the Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society, and the Nikkei community as a whole for the invaluable support throughout.
Images courtesy of Charlotte Falk and Tatiana Mellema. Jon is grateful for the support of Koyama Provides.