as I walk Toronto

The crest has been altered to read “Department of Hands, Florests, and Minds”. It comes from an old map that has been used to create a street art installation on the back alley side of the Broadview Hotel at Broadview and Queen Street East. The artist is monicaonthemoon aka Monica Wickeler.

Most of the people were printed on the maps such that the Don River was somewhere on the body.  The photos of the people are interesting but so is the history that the maps tell us.  The map dates from before the creation of the Port Lands at the mouth of the river.  If you look at the body on the right, you can probably find the intersection of Queen Street and King Street just before they cross the river (look for the word ‘Don’).  There are no streets south of King Street at the time.  Front Street ends at Church.  I suspect that all the red dots on the map mean swampy wetlands.

below: This woman stands more to the west.  Roncesvalles on one leg and Dufferin on the other.

below: The woman on the right has one foot in Ashbridge’s Bay.

The wall is part of the recent Women Paint Riverside project that was the subject of my last blog post – Water is Life.