Chief of the Undersea Description

Attribution: By Emancipator at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2242464

This sculpture is Chief of the Undersea by Bill Reid. It is made of bronze and hovers over a pool of water. The dorsal fin of the whale and the rest of the body are similar in length. The bronze sculpture was based off of a smaller, wooden carving of the same whale. Reid was not able to create the Chief of the Undersea due to medical illnesses. However, he was still credited for the sculpture. Three artists helped to make Reid's small carving of the whale, at a much larger scale. At over 18 feet, the killer whale shows great detail. Reid is part of the Haida Tribe and brings much of the tribes influence into this sculpture. The Haida Tribe often uses varying sized line work and carvings.

The sculpture rests at the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia. In the early eighties, the sculpture was gifted to the aquarium. Most of Bill Reid's work is seen in museums, so having the sculpture out in the public's eye is a treat worth marveling at.