Faye Leung - the ever-colourful woman who some say was responsible for former premier Bill Vander Zalm's downfall - was one of the first to attend the opening of the Richmond Art Gallery's exhibit, Fantasy Gardens, Converging Narratives last week.
Artist Neil Wedman said it wasn't entirely unexpected.
"I think she was among the first to arrive and it seemed kind of obvious, really," he said in reference to Leung's attraction to the limelight. "I wouldn't say she was subdued, but she was pleasant and seemed to be enjoying herself."
Leung brokered the deal in which Vander Zalm, while in office, sold Fantasy Gardens World to a Taiwanese conglomorate. That sale led to Vander Zalm's breach of trust criminal trial in 1992.
The exhibit is a juxtaposition of Wedman's courtroom sketches made during Vander Zalm's trial and Stuart McCall's photographs of the Fantasy Gardens "ruins" years later.
Vander Zalm had bought Fantasy Garden World, a nursery and theme park, in 1984 for $1.7 million. Four years later, his application to the Agricultural Land Reserve to have the development restrictions lifted was approved, hence dramatically increasing the property's worth.
In 1990, he then sold the site for a whopping $16 million.
The court ruled that while Vander Zalm had put himself in a conflict of interest, he had not done anything illegal and was found not guilty in B.C. Supreme Court in 1992.
"At the time I made the sketches there was an expectation of some sort of hilarity over the broad, comic implications with the cast of characters involved in the Fantasy Garden sale scandal, but the court procedure was in fact a pretty hum drum exercise," said Wedman.
"I persevered because I liked the daily routine of drawing portraits from life in a public, and maybe historical, setting."
Wedman's courtroom drawings depict some the key players during the trial, the judge, lawyers and witnesses.
He went on to say that his sketches resonate with McCall' s photographs of the site more than two decades later.
Fantasy Gardens is on exhibit at the Richmond Art Gallery, #180-7700 Minoru Gate until April 1. For more information, call 604-247-8300 or visit www.richmondartgallery.org.
