He goes by the name of Lupo and mentions past community-based work with at-risk youth and families. If you live in Vancouver, you may have noticed his street art – cloth soaked in glue, cement or drywall mud draped over wire forms to create sculptures of human figures huddled in postures of despair. Lupo’s theme – the staggering human toll of the addiction epidemic – needs little introduction. The B.C. Coroners Service says the deaths of 860 people in the Vancouver and Fraser Valley health authorities over the first eight months of 2022 can be linked to the toxic drug supply. Lupo, an emerging self-taught artist, says he started his project, Beloved Ghosts, to make visible the individuals being lost to overdose, suicide and systemic violence. “I’m physically building it with my hands, but there are a lot of people with me, spiritually, emotionally, while I’m doing that work,” he tells Vancouver videographer Mark Mushet, who filmed Lupo dropping a sculpture outside Vancouver’s city hall. “A lot of people have made it possible for me to still be here on the planet and able to do that work. And there are a lot of people, including a lot of young folks, who were incredible artists and who didn’t get to be here to do that work.” ■
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