Sequitur

As we walked across Granville Bridge the other day, we spotted a fascinating weathervane on a rooftop just up Howe Street from Sequitur's slip at the yacht club. It is a sculpture of a horseman dressed in medieval costume riding a horse backwards while engrossed in a book. We were captivated by the image, and told ourselves we must look-up the background on it.

Well, this morning, after many blind Google alleys, I finally found reference to it: "Riding high among the rooftops in Vancouver is an unusual sight that awaits the casual viewer looking upward from street to sky; a 58 inch-high bright copper sculpture of a historical-looking figure riding a lively horse with a ringleted mane, reading a book while sitting backwards. The figure faces the direction of the wind as indicated by the four directionals and the tipped arrow upon which it rests. Closer investigation reveals this to be Rodney Graham's Weathervane sculpture, which depicts the artist dressed as 16th Century humanist and classical scholar, Erasmus. Absorbed in the solitary activity of reading, the figure is lost in thought and contemplation, not having to worry about where he is going or what lies ahead but, as Rodney Graham puts it, is able to 'ponder on horseback' moving forward but also looking backward, to the past. Rodney Graham based the weathervane on a contemporary anecdote which claimed that Erasmus wrote his most well-known work, The Praise of Folly, on horseback during a journey from Italy to England circa 1510."

No wonder the image fascinated us; we are about to sail off on a folly, more absorbed in the process and in the voyage than we are in minutely directing its time and direction. We are confident in Sequitur's ability to take us safely were conditions and circumstances dictate, and in the process, she will lead us to many wondrous places and adventures.