VANCOUVER—Dennis Oppenheim's public art piece Device to Root Out Evil (1997) will be removed from Harbour Green Park, reports the Vancouver Sun. The sculpture of an inverted church was originally installed in the park as part of the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale in 2005 and was meant to stay there for 18 months. Extenuating circumstances, including a civic strike last year, led to the sculpture's longer stay, but residents have expressed concerns about it, saying that the piece, which is almost 23 feet high, blocks views and takes up too much of the park's grassy area.

Oppenheim planned to install the work, originally called Church, near his New York City studio on Church Street, but the director of the city's Public Art Fund deemed it "too controversial." Next, Stanford University said it would buy the sculpture but then backed out, claiming it was not "appropriate" for the campus. The piece was exhibited at the 1997 Venice Biennale and then the Vancouver Biennale, and in 2006, Vancouver's Benefic Foundation bought the sculpture for $30,000. The foundation offered it to the city on long-term loan, but the sculpture is now being uprooted.

Michaela Frosch, the chairwoman of the Vancouver Biennale, said that the Biennale is working with the Benefic Foundation to find a suitable place for the artwork.