Huckleberry Breath
This artwork is inspired by the red huckleberry.
Artists: Anja Nov
Location: Latimer Park
Category: Civic collection
Year Installed: 2024
About Huckleberry Breath
This artwork is inspired by the red huckleberry. Surrey's native berries are one of its oldest natural treasures, and the humble red huckleberry is also one of its most inspiring. This plant is extremely difficult to domesticate. Its tartly sweet, antioxidant-packed berries are desirable for the human diet and not easily replanted because of the sensitivity of its root system. So, when encountered in Surrey's natural environment, one can be sure it is growing where it is meant to. Gazing upon its bell-shaped flowers or crimson fruits, it reminds us that embracing our sensitivities means maintaining our liberation; resisting places that don't nurture us means thriving in places that do.
About the Artist
Anja Nov is a Croatian-Canadian artist/geographer based in Greater Vancouver. Her illustrative, design, and sculptural work focuses on human connections with place, both natural and built; her 2023 exhibit, "SEEDS", blurred the boundary between Mediterranean plants and the human body. Anja's "Ode to the Garden City Lands" illustrations have been featured in the City of Richmond's Public Art Program as posters (2021) and art wraps (2023-present). In 2020, she won the COHDS Award of Distinction in Oral History for her illustrated maps of a Montreal alleyway in "Alley Atlas". She is currently working on a multimedia collection on diaspora.
