I came across these colourful sculptures at the Distillery District this past weekend. There are thirteen of them, all painted by different artists.
Artists:
Alex Garant,
AlfAlfA,
Caitlin Taguibao,
Clandestino Art,
David Anthony,
Fatspatrol,
Gosia Komorski,
Jacquie Comrie,
Jieun June Kim,
Michael Sparaco,
Natasha Kudashkina,
Peter Triantos,
Que Rock,
and Yen Linh Thai.
Yesterday, Sunday of the long August weekend, I was sitting on a streetcar after walking around downtown. I was in no rush; I was enjoying the scenery and the people watching. The streetcar detoured off route so I didn’t end up where I expected to. But no problem, I had my camera with me.
These photos are glimpses of life in the city as seen through a streetcar window as it passes by. Most of them were taken through glass… and often the streetcar was moving… so please don’t expect technically perfect shots!
below: Northeast corner of Spadina and College streets.
below: “The Best in Town”for banana boats! cones! sundaes! shakes!
below: Dundas at Bay. Ryerson School of Management, Best Buy, and Canadian Tire.
below: Reflections on Dundas
below: Surfacing from Dundas subway station
below: The newest mural near Dundas and Victoria.
below: University buildings at Dundas and Church – and the rebranding of Ryerson as TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University).
below: Ran out of gas, northeast corner of Dundas and Church
below: Dundas and Mutual. An old building put to a modern use.
below: The sign says it all. Every time I pass Filmores I am surprised to still see it standing. I thought that it was supposed to be torn down months (years?) ago. I was also surprised to see Filmores on sites like Expedia, Hotel.com and Booking.com. You can’t actually book one of their “straight forward rooms” on these sites, you have to call or email the hotel directly. If you want to know more than that, you’ll have to do your own research!
below: You might be able to stay at Filmores, but you can’t eat at The Love Cafe anymore.
below: Christmas wreaths on the doors of Dunhill Electric Co.
below: Dundas and Ontario Streets, Royal Oak Inn
below: Dundas and Parliament, north side
Happy trails!
below: Looking west on Bloor towards Yonge. The pink flags fly in front of Holt Renfrew. One Bloor East with it’s curvy vertical lines and 76 storeys dominates the sky. The blue structure is the top of ‘The One’ at 1 Bloor West – It may be short now but it won’t be for long. There will be 82 storeys once it’s completed (maybe in 2023?)
A few minutes at Yonge and Bloor in mid-July
below: Hoardings on the south side of Bloor Street
below: Construction. Blank whiteness on The One as it slowly rises.
below: Hanging Ukrainian flags on the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor.
below: South side of the intersection. At least the facade of the older buildings on Yonge Street are being preserved.
below: Looking south on Yonge from Bloor.
below: Looking east on Bloor from just west of Yonge Street. Rising 88 feet above the sidewalk is the metallic ‘Safe Hands’ sculpture by Ron Arad.
below: Anti-Putin protest, northeast corner
below: Waiting for a green light, northwest corner (more construction!)
The TTC subway tracks cross above the Humber River at Old Mill station. The concrete pillars that support the subway bridge have been covered with many watery blue First Nations themed murals.
below: The artist, Philip Cote, described the story behind this image on the ArtworxTO website (see link); like all cultures, the Anishinaabe have an origin story. In the beginning there was just Spirit. “And that spirit decided to send signals out into the universe and waited for a response. And when no response happened that spirit called the signals back and said, “As you come back to me, create light in the universe”. And at that moment they had light and dark in the universe. And that is the beginning of the Anishinaabe cosmology. Everything for Anishinaabe is made of light and dark. Everything we look at has a spirit, everything, the ground, the rocks, the sand, the trees, the birds, the plants, everything is… and even our sun and our Mother Earth and the moon, they all have a spirit.”
connecting with thousands of galaxies in the universe
The blues of the water, the Humber River, were painted by Kwest. Water is the Underworld in Ahishinaabe cosmology and the Guardians of this Underworld are the fish. Another artist, Jarus aka (Emmanuel Jarus), painted the fish.
Most of the paintings have a well defined circle. This is the boundary between water and earth, between the spirit world and the physical world. But there are connections between the two worlds – all living things are connected and we are all connected to the Spirit World.
These pictures also appear on another blog, Eyes on the Streets
And we’re back! After missing two years because of Covid, Pride is back in Toronto.
Hot! ( 30+ C and sunny) but it didn’t seem to slow anyone down!
From the West Don Lands, across Eastern, north on Broadview and then back west on Queen Street East to Parliament and the Distillery District.
below: Saved! Demolition of the old foundry building near the Distillery District. More on this story in a previous post from almost exactly a year ago. Also a paste up by 33wallflower33 of a well dressed woman throwing out Doug Ford’s head and paraphernalia such as beer can with “buck a beer” in it.
below: Signs of celebration on the fence around what ostensibly will be Eastern Avenue Affordable Housing (i.e. We’ll wait and see…)
bottom right: “Here’s why people are rallying to protect this Toronto heritage site from demolition. The provincial government has paused demolition of the Foundry site in the West Don Lands after an outcry in Toronto” From Toronto NOW.
bottom left: “Province starts demolition of heritage buildings in West Don Lands despite community backlash. Tearing buildings down ‘outrageous’ councillor says.” CBC News
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below: A simple statement; a red paper heart tied to a tree.
below: Not all of it was saved… but at least they didn’t tear the whole thing down as originally planned…..
below: Ukraine symbol on a boarded up window
below: Smack! Urban Ninja Squadron paste-up along with a musical sketchrat.
below: The house with the two green cubes is still standing. Truth at the base.
below: A painted pillar in Underpass Park, with the pedestrian ramp up to Eastern Ave in background
below: A row of large rocks
below: The underside of the roof over the entrance to the condo is very reflective. It ‘mirrors’ the reflective ceiling of Underpass Park next door to it.
below: View from, looking east over Corktown Common, the south end of the Don River, as well as the ramp from the Gardiner Expressway to the Don Valley Parkway.
below: Eastern Ave and the DVP. Looking east.
below: Garfield the Cat just lying around
below: Northeast corner of Broadview and Eastern.
below: A row of old houses on Broadview still stand empty. It’s been years now since anyone has lived in them.
below: Just a bit north, at Queen Street East, another boarded up building. But this one is now in the middle of an active construction site.
below: In an alley behind Queen Street East.
below: A new view of Queen Street East has been opened up with the demolition of some of the buildings on the south side.
below: Northeast corner of Broadview and Queen East, once the home of Dangerous Dan’s.
below: Danger due to hole. On Queen East. The pyramid shaped roof is part of the Broadview Hotel at Queen and Broadview.
below: More danger…. watch out for spooky skeletons!
below: Riverside Common, a new public space on Queen Street East.
below: Looking back across the Don River from the bridge at Queen Street East.
below: Passing southbound under Queen Street East.
below: Looking north up Lower Bayview from Queen Street East
below: From almost the same vantage point as the photo above, but looking more west than north.
below: An Uber5000 yellow birdie on the wall of the Toronto Humane Society at Queen and River.
below: Painting of two fencers where the red wine seems to be winning.
below: Where Eastern Avenue meets Front Street, looking west towards downtown. The old brick building is now Toronto Police Services Division 51 headquaters. In a previous phase of its life it was Consumers Gas Station A, designed by Bond & Smith and built in 1898. Beyond Parliament Street and in the background is the blue Globe and Mail building.
below: The Porsche dealership on the northwest corner of Front and Parliament is now empty.
below: The southwest corner of Front and Parliament is entirely surrounded by plywood hoardings.
below: Another 33wallflower33 paste-up. This time she’s pinning Putin’s head to the ground.
below: And back to the Distillery District – and the new construction that is taking place at Front and Trinity, just north of the historic buildings.
“Bringing together artists who consider the power dynamics of image-making in their distinct practices, Now You See Me includes Black, Indigenous, and artists of colour, who variously identify as women, femme, and non-binary. They use photography to explore issues related to gender and cultural identity, asserting themselves as directors of their own images to pose questions about the complex cultural and gender-related politics that underlie self-representation.”
The above quote comes from the Doris McCarthy Gallery website where you can find more information about the exhibit.
below: “Skin Deep” by Chun Hua Catherine Dong shows self-portraits ‘masked’ in Chinese silk fabrics, a gesture that implies submission.
below: A video by Vivek Shraya titled “Legends of the Trans” is a photoessay based on “Legends of the Fall”, a 1994 movie starring Brad Pitt. Throughout the essay, the main character, Tristan, wears a bindi (coloured dot) on his/her forehead.
below: Meryl McMaster juxtaposes a self-portrait with a hand written copy of a poem called ‘Onondaga Madonna’ written by Duncan Campbell Scott in 1898. Scott was the deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932. He played a predominant role in the establishment of residential schools; under his direction the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their homes to attend residential schools was made compulsory,
below: Danya Danger presents three photos of women in embellished black leather fetish masks as she explores the relationships between sexuality, gender, and power.
below: Gaëlle Elma has a couple of large photos in this group exhibit. Her work deals with perceptions of sexuality, human bodies, and blackness.
below: Leila Fatemi has centered her exhibit around vintage postcards of Muslim women. Here they are printed such that the image depends on the angle from which you view the picture.
“Generated from different perspectives and experiences, these works share a reckoning with the historical and contemporary uses of the camera as a tool to perpetuate degradative narratives.”
This year’s CONTACT Photography Festival showcases the work of a few photographers who focus on portraits. Two of these, Tyler Mitchell and Jorian Charlton, are shown here.
First, on the west side of Spadina near King Street is this large portrait:
It is “Georgia” by Jorian Charlton, a Toronto based photographer whose works centers around Jamaican-Canadians and their culture. There is also an exhibit of her work titled “Out of Many” at the Art Gallery of Ontario that can be seen until 7 Aug 2022.
Nearby is a series of portraits by American photographer Tyler Mitchell (b. 1995) is on display on King Street West by Metro Hall. This is “Cultural Turns”.
There are actually three parts to this exhibition. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the other parts but they are billboards at Dovercourt and Dupont as well as an indoor component at the CONTACT Gallery.
The construction hoardings on the south side of Queen Street East between Broadview and the Don River were painted back in the fall of 2021.
below: At the east end, a dear with a rack of antlers beside a young woman in a bright and cheerful orange head scarf.
below: A face by Philip Saunders.
below: Elicser people
below: Yellow tea (or coffee?) pot with citrus fruit, still life by steam reflected on a shiny metal plate.
below: Closer up of the pinkish eye of a white rabbit
below: A large brown turtle slowly ambles by
below: A pigeon never looked so majestic!
below: A moth is attracted by the lights of traffic by the Queen Street East bridge
below: Luvs almost makes this little raccoon look cute!
as I walk Toronto 