Archive for the ‘events’ Category

Turban Up! 2016

Posted: May 16, 2016 in events, people
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Get your head wrapped!

Considering the cold temperatures, not to mention the rain, snow and hail, there was a great turn out for Turban Up! at Yonge Dundas square today.  The event was organized by the Sikh Youth Federation to help raise awareness about Sikh religion and culture.  There were martial arts demonstrations, food, an art exhibit, and other examples of Sikh culture, but the main event was the turban wrapping.  Numerous eager and friendly volunteers were available to wrap a turban for you in your choice of colour.  A few people sported black and dark blue turbans but bright colours were very popular – colours like turquoise,  bright greens and blues, as well as pink, orange and red.  A veritable rainbow of turbans.

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People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. Choosing magenta fabric

a man is wrapping a seated woman's head with a blue turban

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. A toddler gets a pink turban while her mother holds her

tables with piles of colourful fabric outside at Yonge Dundas square with the signs and billboards of the Eaton Centre behind. Many people are in the square.

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People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. An Asian woman smiles while she gets a pink turban

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. A father and son with matching light blue turbans

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a man is having his head wrapped in a yellow turban

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. A man gets a green turban

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. A boy with a black turban and his face painted with a black beard and mustache watches others get turbans

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People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. Three people pose to have their picture taken after getting turbans

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables.

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A young girl gets her head wrapped in an emerald green turban

People having their heads wrapped in a turban, many different colours, at an event at Yonge Dundas square run by the Sikh Youth Federation. Sikh volunteers are making the turbans using stacks of fabric laid out on 5 long tables. A woman gets a red turban while her son looks on

below:  He’s out of focus but I like his gumption.  Thanks for the smile!

a man in a green turban is close in the foreground and is out of focus. He is wearing sunglasses and is giving the peace sign with both hands
#sikhyouthfederation | #turbanup | #ydsquare

from The Esplanade to Union

Posted: May 13, 2016 in events, locations, public art
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On Friday morning, my original goal was to find ‘Residents of the Esplanade’, a CONTACT Photography Festival outdoor exhibit at David Crombie Park but it was such a beautiful morning that I didn’t stop there. I found more than just the ‘Residents’.

Forty years ago, May 1976, the site plan for The Esplanade neighbourhood was approved. Since then, it has become home to a very diverse group of people. And it is those people that this installation celebrates on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the neighbourhood.

Crombie Park runs along the south side of The Esplanade between Berkeley street and Lower Jarvis.  The installation consists of a number of small white rectangular pillars with the picture and story of person on either side.

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - story of Mysha from Pakistan

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - photo of Solomon from on top of a basketball hoop

A photo from the CONTACT photography festival, installation called 'Residents of The Esplanade' - photo of Alan working at a desk, tulips and a woman sitting in the park are in the background

People were out enjoying the morning; school kids were playing basketball at recess.

kids playing basketball on an outdoor court. The wall behind the basketball hoop has been painted with a mural of hands making a heart shape with the fingers, by Bruno Smokey and Shalak Attack.

Flowers were blooming.

close up photo of red tulips in full bloom on a sunny day

tulips in a garden in a park, orange and yellow tulips, with some greenery. Grassy area with trees behind, and people walking on a sidewalk in the background.

below: Looking towards Lower Jarvis Street and downtown Toronto.

at the corner of The Esplanade and George Street, looking west towards downtown and St. Lawrence market. Playground on the left with children playing.

below:  One street beyond Lower Jarvis is Market Street.  It dead ends at the railway tracks.  The long structure on the right is a parking garage.

looking west towards the CN Tower, with the railway tracks to the left (but they are elevated and behind maintenance buildings so you can't see the tracks). Parking structure to the right, with city buildings behind it.

below: After a small backtrack up Market Street, I went through Conger Coal Lane to Church Street.  I don’t think I have walked this way before.  The lane was named in commemoration of the Conger Coal Company whose yard and wharf was nearby.   It was one of the many companies that provided Toronto with coal back in the day when coal fueled the city.  It was started in 1870 by Mr. P.D. Conger.   In 1913, Sterling Coal company bought Conger and the name was changed to Conger Lehigh Coal Co.

a downtown Toronto lane, very clean, no graffiti, taller, newer buildings on either side of the lane. CN tower in the distance,

below: A very old photo of the Conger Coal Company dock at the foot of Church Street, back when Church street ended at Lake Ontario

historical picture of the old COnger COal Co wharf at the bottom of Church street.

below: Tucked into a corner on Church street immediately south of Front Street, is an art installation by Paul Raff called ‘Shoreline Commemorative’.  A topography of limestone forms the base of the work.  A glass ball representing the line between sky and water sits on top of a tripod that tries to evoke a land surveyor’s tripod.  The words on the wall say “For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario’s shoreline.  This brick wall stands where water and land met, with a vista horizon”

Shoreline Commemorative by Paul Raff, an art installation on Church St., south of King, that marks where the shoreline of Lake Ontario used to be. It involves words on a brick wall and a model of the shoreline of Toronto showing the different elevations of the land.

below: Continuing the lake theme, a little fish out of water, jumping over the entrance to a condo.

bas relief sculpture of a fish, square stone on a brick wall above the entrance way to a condo building.

below: From the lake theme to another common theme in the city, construction. Spring is the beginning of construction season and here Berczy Park is being upgraded. In the background a new condo is being built but as we all know condo construction ‘season’ never ends. In fact, the challenge might be to find a place in this city where there isn’t a condo being built.

workmen redoing a park, Berczy Park in Toronto, with a digger and another piece of equipment, cityscape behind with a tall condo building under construction. A red and white crane is on top.

below: I walked past the never ending Front Street construction.  Construction in front of Union station seems to be finished, but this stretch of Front Street just west of the station is still being worked on.   There have been fences here so long that I can’t remember a time when they weren’t here.

Front street constrcution, behind a greenwire fence is a rd truck and piles of construction materials. Between the fence and a stone building is the sidewalk on which some people are walking.

a shirtless man in sitting on a stool at the corner of Front and Union streets. He has four signs (behind, above, in front, and beside him) asking for spare change or for you to buy his novel that is well rated on both Amazon and Goodreads.

A man is selling Black History newspaper to another man in front of the TTC subwayentrance at Union station.

 

 

tower building and more!

Posted: May 13, 2016 in events, people
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I am still trying to get caught up with the photos that I took at Science Rendezvous last weekend.  There was so much happening!  Lots of people were involved and engaged in the various activities that were available both at Yonge Dundas Square and on St. George street.

below: On the stage at Yonge Dundas square:  Start with three identical piles of building blocks and three teams, put ten minutes on the clock and see what towers result.   The challenge was to
build the strongest, tallest, or most awesome tower.

competition to build the highest, strongest tower out of hard styrofoam blocks, children and adults working together.

below: Teamwork!

competition to build the highest, strongest tower out of hard styrofoam blocks, children and adults working together.

competition to build the highest, strongest tower out of hard styrofoam blocks, children and adults working together.

below: How do you test the strength of a tower?
By giving one exuberant girl a big orange ball of course!

A young girl throws a large orange ball at a tower of polysyrene blocks in an attempt to knock it over, an activity at Science Rendezvous on the stage at Dundas Square.

below: At the end of the competition, all three teams came together to build the tallest tower that they could.  It didn’t quite reach the stage roof, but it was close!

competition to build the highest, strongest tower out of hard styrofoam blocks, children and adults working together to see how tall they can make the tower

… more great activities…..

below: Question: How long does it take the light from the Sun to travel to the Earth?
Answer: sunlight travels at the speed of light (rounded to 300,000 km/s) and it has to cover a distance of 150 million km on average to reach Earth.  With a bit of math, the answer is 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 18 seconds.

A sign stands in the street with information about the sun on it. Behind it is a second sign, this time with information about Mercury. Behind that are people at Science Rendezvous on St. George street

below: making paper

a young girl is making paper. she is sponging the paper dry over a piece of mesh in a frame

below: robots

A group of students is sitting on a sidewalk. One of them has a laptop and he is controlling a robot machine with wheels that is moving around on the street.

below: How unique are you? Test yourself for various phenotypes (the product of your genes)… Can you curl your tongue? Can you smell freesias? Is your thumb bent?  From answers to these and five other questions you can determine if you are 1/10 (you share similarities to many people) or 1/1000 (you are more unique)… or something in between.  Apparently I’m 1/45 and if you’re curious, my thumb is straight, I can’t curl my tongue and I can smell freesias.

Two students are conducting a genetic phenotype test on a couple of volunteers. They are looking to see if they can smell fresias or taste coriander.

below: St. George street.

looking up St. George street on the downtown University of Toronto campus. A white tent is set up on the street and under the tent are students running science demonstrations.

below: A demonstration using acids, bases, and pH indicators.  Technically, pH is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions.  In practice, it indicates how acidic or basic a substance is.  Water, with a pH of 7 is neutral.  Acids have a pH less than 7 while bases have a pH greater than 7.  A pH indicator is a chemical that changes colour depending on the pH.

Three students behind a table doing a demonstration about acids and bases in chemistry. One of the women is adding a strong acid to a solution that is a strong base. The pH indicator is changing from yellolw to purple

below: How much energy is a gummi bear? Find out by heating a little bit of of potassium chlorate in a test tube.  Once it is liquid, add a gummi bear.  Smoke and flames ensue.  When the potassium chlorate is heated, it produces oxygen gas which ignites if there is combustible material, such as sugar, available.

A student is doing a chemistry experiment to show how much energy is in gummi bear candy. He has lit one on fire and burned it to show the release of energy. It was done in a test tube.

below: Design and construction with K’nex

Two young Asian boys are building small structures with the building toy k'nex.

below:  Tetris players

Three young man are playing a tetris game on a large computer board.

below: programmable Lego vehicles

Two kids are playing with a programmable Lego car.

below:  Watch out!  Scientists on the loose!

Two young kids have been dressed up as mad scientists and their father is taking their picture. They had rubber gloves on, eye protection and a lab coat. They both have pipettes.

below:  The little boxes used in this activity have a marble inside them.  When placed on an inclined surface, the boxes tumble to the bottom.  Sandpaper prevents the boxes from slipping.

A woman and a girl are racing objects that they made. Inside small rectangular boxes are marbles that make the boxes tumble down an incline.

 

below: Corn starch and water makes a wonderful substance.  It’s not liquid and it’s not solid.  If you are fast enough you run on top of it but if you stop moving, you sink into it!

A boy is running barefoot along a course that is filled with corn starch and water. Onlookers are cheering him on.

A girl is running barefoot along a course that is filled with corn starch and water. Onlookers are cheering him on.

An older man is running through corn starch and water with his arms held up

tiff and the toilet paper

Posted: May 12, 2016 in events, public art
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It’s common to see posters pasted on walls so finding movie posters on the walls of the tiff Bell Lightbox didn’t strike me as unusual.    I walked past this display until I noticed the sign that marked this as a CONTACT Photography Festival installation.  Fake movie posters, many designed with a touch of humour, that look just like the real thing.

detail of an art installation that is a wall of fake movie posters made with ads and illustrations from old books and magazines

below: The installation, titled ‘Coming Attractions’ covers the corner windows and wall space.   The posters were designed by ‘Long Weekend’ which is a collective of artists working out of Winnipeg.   They were made from ads and illustrations from old books and magazines.

at the corner of King and another street, the TIFF Bell Lightbox building has an art installation on two sides, walls of fake movie posters. The installation is called 'Coming Attractions' and it is by a collective of artists known as The Long Weekend.

detail of an art installation that is a wall of fake movie posters

On the other side of King street, and just a but further east, is a series of eleven large images taken from past editions of ‘Toilet Paper’, a biannual magazine founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.   They hint at advertising and they blur the line between fantasy and reality.

below: Muhle is a German company that makes shaving products and one of their blades looks identical to the one in this picture.

A woman with her phone in her hands walks past a large poster of two women face to face where all you can see is their nose, mouth, chin and tongues that are stuck out. A razor blade balances between the two tongues.

People walk past two large posters that show a girl lying on a large pile of french fries.
People walk past two large posters that show a girl lying on a large pile of french fries.

A man walks past large posters on King St.,

a man stands in front of a picture that is a large globe with everything painted light blue except the USA

a man stands in front of a picture that is a large globe with everything painted light blue except the USA

If you like these images, you might also like Toilet Paper’s website.

it’s all about the DNA

Posted: May 10, 2016 in events, people
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Did you know that we share 50% of our DNA with a banana?  Bananas don’t have DNA that codes for eye colour and we probably don’t any genes that produce yellow peels.   What we share is similar basic biochemistry, such things as DNA replication, cell metabolism, and regulation of cell growth, to name a few.  One thing that you can do with banana DNA is easily extract it.  We all know that cells are too small to see and that DNA is even smaller,  BUT if you mash a whole a banana, you can produce enough DNA to make a small clump.   That was one of the activities at Science Rendezvous this past Saturday.

Two young girls are performing an science experiment using beakers and a graduated cylinder. One of them is pouring liquid into the cylinder while the younger one watches.

Science Rendezvous is science outreach festival that occurs across Canada, a day when science hits the streets.  This year it was May 7th.  In Toronto, there were information booths, demonstrations, and activities by students from Ryerson (at Yonge Dundas Square) and students from U of T (St. George Street).

“There’s no place like GenHome” is a project by Ryerson students to break a Guinness World Record by building the longest DNA model.    DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid,  is a double helix.  Although it is a complex molecule, it can be broken down into components called nucleotides.  Nucleotides consist three parts – deoxyribose which is a sugar molecule, phosphate, and an organic base.  At the risk of being too simplistic (because the chemistry of DNA is way beyond the scope of this blog), the sugar and phosphate of the nucleotides form the backbone of the double helices.  The organic bases are in the space between the two backbones and if they are ordered properly, the bases hold the double helix together.

A couple more things you need to know about DNA.  First, there are four bases, adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G).  And second, bases come in pairs and only certain pairs can exist if the double helix is to form properly.  Adenine has to pair with thymine and cytosine has to pair with guanine, i.e. A with T and C with G and nothing else.

How would you build a DNA model?  The Ryerson University students wanted to get people involved in the project and if you were at Science Rendezvous, you could have become part of their DNA model.

below: Bases need partners and so do you !  Find a partner and take a spin.
Are the two of you A & T or G & C?

A young woman is standing beside a spinner with AT and GC being the possible landing places. She is talking to a couple who have spun and landed on GC

below: Next, have your picture taken with your base letter.

A young woman has her picture taken with a large orange letter A on a blue square.

A few moments later your picture is printed and ready to attach to the DNA model.

below: My partner for the activity adds his G (toe to toe with my C).

People making a DNA model using photos that volunteers have had taken of themselves with one of the letter of DNA. The four letters are A, C, T, and G. They are the nucleosides that make up DNA

I don’t know how long the DNA model is at this point.  I was hoping that there would be some information online but nothing has shown up yet.

Also, If you want to try extracting the DNA from a banana, the instructions are online at numerous sites including Scientific American.  You will need a banana, water, salt, detergent, rubbing alcohol, and a coffee filter.  Have fun!

 

***  a little breather after all that molecular biology ***

below:  At Science Rendezvous they were walking together until she saw my camera and then she tried to get away.  Hmmm…. Mr. Scientist Creature (mutant science rodent?!), maybe she was embarrassed? 🙂

A person dressed in a costume that looks like an animal - squirrel? fox? that is wearing a lab coat. An Asian woman who was walking with him before the photo was taken is shyly turning away, she is also laughing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dysturb

Posted: May 9, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
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Spread around Kensington and Chinatown are 20 large black and white photos taken by a number of freelance photojournalists who are part of a group called #Dysturb.   One of their goals is to present photojournalism in new ways, including as street art, with the aim of engaging people and encouraging discussion of global issues.   The images are part of an exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Kensington has had a problem with taggers for a while.  Often street art gets vandalized in that area.   The #Dysturb photo that was at 56 Kensington (under Mona Lisa) has already been torn down and a couple of others have been ripped.

Pictures of some of the images that are part of the exhibit are shown below.  I have included a partial transcription of the words that accompany each picture.

 

Libyan Coasts, August 1, 2015
Photo by Christophe Stramba-Badiali/Haytham

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a boat load of Libyan migrants is being rescued from their rubber dinghy.

West African migrants are seen aboard a boat, approximately 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, as they are about to be rescued by Medecins Sans Frontieres. The MSF-hired ship, named Argos, was patrolling the waters off Libya when it encountered one rubber dinghy carrying a total of 111 migrants including several children and infants. “

Barpak, Ghorka District, Nepal, May 9, 2015 ”
Photo by Renaud Philippe/Hans Lucas

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - children playing in the wind created by a helicopter, Nepal, on a wall in an entraceway. A man is busking in front, and there are people walking past on the sidewalk

Children play in a cloud of dust and gravel thrown by an Indian army helicopter landing in Barpak Nepal.  The community is at the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that struck April 25, 2015, taking over 8000 lives.  Of Barpak’s 1400 houses, only 20 remain standing.   The rest of the town is a pile of rubble that blends into the rocky landscape.  An archway that somehow survived the quake greets visitors with a rueful ‘Welcome to Barpak’.”

Shaanxi Province, Henan, China, February 27, 2014
Photo by Sim Chi Yin/Vii

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - an ill Chinese man is being comforted by his wife. The picture is on a graffiti covered wall and a black car is parked close to it.

Gold miner, He Quangui, battling silicosis, struggles to breathe while cradled in the hands of his wife Mi Shixiu.  After many attempts to stabilize his breathing, in the early hours of the next morning her tried to kill himself to end the suffering.  He contracted the irreversible disease working in illegal gold mines in China’s Henan province.   He is among some six million workers in China who have pneumoconiosis – the country’s most prevalent occupational disease.”

Cizre Turkey, October 30, 2015.
Photo by Emilien Urbano/Myop for Le Monde
NOTE: I took this picture on Friday. Today (Monday) it was gone.

large black and white photo pasted onto a boarded up storefront of European Textiles on Spadina Rd. The photo is part of #Dysturb exhibit at Contact Photography Festival. It shows a hooded man holding an automatic rifle

A militiaman from the PKK Youth wing YDG-H in Cizre Turkey.  The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) – the militant youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are battling to defend their neighbourhoods from Turkish security forces.  The YDG-H has been acting as a paramilitary force in Cizre for the past few months and has closed off several Kurdish neighbourhoods with their armed checkpoints and patrols.

Fort McKay, Alberta, Canada, August 12, 2015
Photo by Ian Willms/Boreal Collective

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a sick boy is lying on a bed, on a wall in the entranceway to a store, sidewalk and street scene in the background

Dez, 7, plays in his bed.  Dez was born with an underdeveloped heart and has received multiple open heart surgeries.  His family and healthcare professionals in Fort McKay believe that his condition was caused by environmental pollution.   Fort McKay is an indigenous community that is surrounded by oil  sands developments.”

Kunduz City, Afghanistan, November 18, 2015.
Photo by Andrew Quilty/Oculi

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a mother (covered in a black burka) and her daughter in grief, at a gravesite. Pasted on an orange wall with an old brown leather sofa in front of it.

Najibah tries to comfort her daughter Zahara, 8, as they weep over the grave of their husband and father, Baynazar.   Baynazar, 43, was wounded by gunfire on his way home fromwork during the Taliban takeover of Kunduz in late 2015.  He was taken to the nearby Doctors Without Borders (MSF) trauma centre.  In the early hours of October 3, during his second operation, a US AC-130 aircraft attacked the hospital for more than half an hour, killing 43 MSF staff, patients and nurses.  Dozens more were wounded.

About #Dysturb

#CONTACT16

refugees outside the Italian Consulate

Posted: May 7, 2016 in events
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Refugees in a State Apartment, Jens Ullrich,
Photo exhibit, on a fence outside the Italian Consulate, Dundas West at Beverley.

Part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - 3 of the photographs, people walking past

Ullrich has taken found black and white photographs of the interior of a large home near Bremen Germany.  The photos were taken in the late 1920’s.    Each photograph is of a different room in the villa and to each picture Ullrich has added  one person.   If you knew nothing about the series, you wouldn’t know that the subjects were refugees.

In each photomontage, singular individuals are depicted—usually with their faces hidden from the camera—within empty yet elaborately fashioned spaces that emphasize their solitude and unstable status. “

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - phot by Jens Ullrich of a woman refugee with her face obscured by clothing, sitting on a chair in the bathroom of a large bathroom. also a photo of a male refugee in another room, looking in a large mirror

One of the concepts behind this series of images was the desire to

respectfully capture the disparate emotions of these individuals and their precarious situations.”

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - as seen from across the street with pedestrians walking past and cars driving past

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - the photos are of refugees that have been photoshopped into old photos of the interior of the apartment of a wealthy person from the 1920's
#CONTACT16

Current Studies, Paper Planes

Posted: May 3, 2016 in events, galleries
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‘Current Studies’ and ‘Paper Planes’
Two different series of photographs by Sjoerd Knibbeler
Allan Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place

At ground level there are six large freestanding ‘walls” arranged in line, three at each end of the atrium.    Each ‘wall’ is covered by two images, one on either side.  They are photographs that are the result of Knibbeler’s experiments to “ shape, encompass, and capture air currents.”  This is the ‘Current Studies’ part of the installation.

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

Suspended from the ceiling are a set of photographs of paper airplanes, the ‘Paper Planes’ part of the installation.    Knibbeler photographed paper airplanes that he made using information that he found online.  He chose military planes that were never produced.

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

A picture taken inside the Allan Lambert Gallery at Brookfield Place, photos by Sjoerd Knibbeler, a series called Current Study large pictures standing in the middle of the gallery, as well as series called "Paper Planes" which are hung from the ceiling

#CONTACT16

May day

Posted: May 2, 2016 in events, people
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May 1, May Day, International Workers Day
To mark the day, there was a rally at Yonge Dundas Square.
The wet afternoon didn’t dampen the spirits of those who were there with their placards and banners.

May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

Two men holding placards at a rally. One says "Canada US NATO out of the Middle East" and the other says "Capitalism Can't be fixed - Fight for Socialism" , both are from the International Bolshevik Tendency - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A man holds a placard that says "Enough is enough, No to Capitalism, Socialism now"May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A group of people holding a large rad and white banner with most of the words written in Arabic and English. The English part says "Long Live May Day. Workers of all countries unite"

An older man holds one end of a red banner for the Communist Party of Canada while a young man holds the other end - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

Two students hold a red banner for the Filipino Youth and Students fight for land, rights and justice - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A man holds up a sign written in Arabic about men missing I think. It is red with a picture of a fist on it. On the fist are glued pictures of 16 men . Also in the picture, a man holding a placard with a photo of three men on it, talks to a woman whose back is to the camera.

from under the photographer's umbrella, a scene of people with protest signs - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A young man is giving out placards at a rally - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A group of women standing behind and holding up a large white banner for May Day - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A man holds a sign that says "Time for a new direction in the economy" - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

A man under a pink umbrella talks to a man whose back is to the camera - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

Three people hold a large yellow banner for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

a bundle of small OCAP placard signs sit on a chair - May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day -

women talking and laughing together at a rally, holding placards that say "End Immigration Detention " and also holding umbrellas

women talking and laughing together at a rally, holding placards that say "Build a Solidarity City"

May day, International Workers Day rally at Dundas Square on a rainy day - a man holds his fist in the air as he stands beside a banner

big pictures on Spadina

Posted: April 30, 2016 in events, public art
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May is photography month in Toronto.  It is the month when there are numerous exhibits in public spaces and in galleries, all part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.   Over the next few weeks I hope to visit many of the exhibits and blog about some of them.   From past experience I have discovered that a lot of the public installations appear before May 1st so I went exploring yesterday.

below: Looking south from Spadina and Adelaide….  Partially obscured by a building, on the right in this photo, is the first large black and white photo that I saw.

view from the NE corner of Spadina and Richmond streets. a small parking lot is directly across the street, two large billboards loom over the lot. Once is for Lorne's coats showing two people wearing coats. The other is for Maple flavoured iced capp at Tim Hortons.

below: Up close,  ‘Drape’ by Eva Stenram.  Stenram has taken a 1960’s pin-up photograph of a woman and manipulated it.  She has brought the background, the drapery, forward and has covered up the original subject in the picture.

large black and white photo by Eva Strenram called 'Drape'. It is mounted on the upper level of a three storey red brick building. It shows a woman sitting on the floor partially obscured by drapery. Her upper body and head can not be seen.

below: Looking west on Wellington from Spadina.  The light grey building is the Old Press Hall (Globe and Mail) which will be demolished in the near future.

looking down the street past parked cars. A large black and white photo is on the side of the building.

below: Up close, ‘Stopping Point’ by an unknown photographer.  The original title and description was: ‘Along the new Highway, which runs from Smooth Rock Falls to Fraserdale, Ontario, there’s no sign of human habitation apart from one empty lumber camp, c.1966. 

A very large black and white photograph from the 1960's of a car on a two lane road with pine trees on either side. There is a boat tied to the roof of the car. The photo is on the side of the Globe and Mail building with cars parked around it.

The above photograph is one of 750,000 photos in the Globe and Mail’s picture library.   100,000 of their old photos are being digitized to create a new historical archive.  From these, a collection of 20,000 prints will be donated to the newly formed Canadian Photography Institute at the National Gallery of Canada.

More of the photos from the Globe and Mail’s collection are on view inside the Old Press Hall.

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