This Day in History, 1986: A Gianthropologist documents Expo 86 at new Surrey Art Gallery exhibit

Henri Robideau photograph of the Giant Hockey Stick, Puck and Canadian flag at Expo 86 in Vancouver. Robideau is one pf over 50 artists in a new show. n the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art., at the Surrey Art Gallery. It runs from April 18 to June 7, 2026.

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In the 1980s, “Gianthropologist” Henri Robideau criss-crossed Canada taking photos of giant things such as the Big Nickel in Sudbury, Mr. P.G. The Giant Spruce Man in Prince George, and the Giant Ukrainian Easter Egg in Vegreville, Alberta.

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Robideau published an acclaimed book of his photos, Canada’s Gigantic, and has had several art shows of the project. He was supposed to show his photos of giant Canadiana at Expo 86.

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“There was supposed to be 10 pictures, from each of the provinces, of a giant thing from each province,” said Robideau. “(The display) was supposed to go down to a map of Canada on the ground underneath the giant hockey stick.”

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Robideau worked on the project for two years, but it was cancelled when Jim Pattison took over Expo after the fair’s budget had gone through the roof. Pattison reined in the spending, and some of the art and cultural attractions were axed.

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“They said they couldn’t use my work because it was black and white,” Robideau said. “They wanted it in colour.”

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Robideau still went to the fair to take photos, including a shot of the big hockey stick with Expo’s monorail soaring by. The 20-storey-high stick had a giant puck at the base, and was attached to a giant flagpole flying a giant Canadian flag.

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Curator Jordan Strom has assembled a wide-ranging exhibit featuring over 50 artists working in a variety of mediums — photography, painting, drawing, film, installation art, holography, weavings, performance art, sculpture and video.

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“The exhibition is really about looking at some selections of the official work from the fair (at) several of the pavilions, mostly the Canadian pavilion in this particular project,” said Strom.

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“But also (it opens) up the frame to look at what was going on within the larger Lower Mainland. So not just Vancouver, but places like Surrey and the (Fraser) Valley.”

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When you walk into the gallery you’re greeted by a Christos Dikeakos’ panorama photo of the Expo site before the fair was installed. Given what it looks like today, Dikeakos’ photo is mind-boggling — in the early ’80s, the site was a vast post-industrial no-man’s land … empty, muddy and filled with giant puddles.

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It makes an incredible contrast with an Oraf photo of the crowds at Expo on closing day, when it was so packed it was hard to move.

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Bill Reid’s 1984 red cedar model of a Haida Bear Canoe is part of a new exhibit In the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art., at the Surrey Art Gallery. It runs from April 18 to June 7, 2026. Dannis Ha photo

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The exhibition includes the original watercolour painting for a stunning Robert Davidson poster that was used for Expo, as well as a gorgeous maquette (model) for the Haida canoe Loo Taas that Bill Reid built for Expo.

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The Highway 86 sculpture of an undulating ribbon of highway filled with vehicles painted a post-apocalyptic grey proved wildly popular at the fair, and Strom has put together a display with a concept drawing, several photos, and a German poster that featured Highway 86’s most arresting image, a car driving off a section of highway that disappeared into thin air over the Georgia Viaduct.