‘Solid State’ an exhibit of sculptures made from found material that are then cast in bronze, by An Te Liu at the Toronto Sculpture Garden on King Street East. This is one of the Nuit Blanche installations that is still on view. It is co-produced by MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art) and the City of Toronto.
below: Three sculptures. From left to right are: 1. Meta-matic, 2. Tourist, and 3. Ascension
below: Vegetable, Mineral
below: Remains of the Day
It would be fun to write a post about the winning ways of the Blue Jays and up until two days ago I could have. After a great ending to the baseball season, the Blue Jays entered the playoffs with back to back afternoon games against the Texas Rangers here in Toronto. Yesterday the Rangers beat us 5 to 3. Again today, the Blue Jays lost by two runs but this time it took 14 innings, or close to 5 hours.
The Rogers Centre holds just over 49,000 people and it was filled to capacity both days.
The next two games of the American League Division Series are scheduled to be played in Texas on Sunday and Monday. If a fifth game is needed (it’s a best of five series), it will played in Toronto on the 14th of October, next Wednesday.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Silent Knight by Ekow Nimako,
a sculpture of a barn owl using more than 50,000 pieces of LEGO,
on display in front of the Gardiner Museum as an extended Nuit Blanche exhibit
#snbTO
Some of the art installations from Nuit Blanche remain available for viewing this week.
Two of them are near Jarvis and Gerrard.
below: As you travel south on Jarvis Street, just before Gerrard, you can see a billboard art installation, ‘Refugees run the seas’ by Francisco Fernandos Granados. The accompanying sign says: “‘Refugees run the seas’ draws and diverts from pop culture as a way to invite the viewer to imagine a future where justice for migrants exists. The work evokes past and present scenes of harrowing escape while allowing the possibility of a time to come when those seeking refuge will be agents of movement, rather than victims.”
“Refugees run the seas ’cause we own our own boats” is a line from Wyclef Jean’s rap in Shakira’s song ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ in case you were wondering how this billboard “draws and diverts from” pop culture.
below: In the Children’s Conservatory at Allan Gardens is another installation. This one is titled “Sphinx” and it is by Luis Jacob of Toronto. According to the Nuit Blanche sign: “Toronto is changing before our eyes. Neighbourhoods and skylines are transformed seemingly overnight while the social fabric of the city is altered in ways that are difficult to discern. Come in and see the ‘Sphinx’, who poses questions that we want ardently to ask.”
The hands and fingers of this tall and imposing headless man are forming a frame that is apparently supposed to capture our attention. When you walk into the conservatory it’s definitely not the hands that you notice. The hands are way above the line of sight. Of course, one could ask why he has no clothes and does having no head enhance the artwork. Can you ask questions if you have no mouth, no voice? And are the questions ardently wanted or ardently asked? hmmm….
There are books and pamphlets in display cases around the room. These publications are all about Toronto and they date back as far as 50 years ago. No, you can’t access the books, you can’t open or read them. I’m not sure what information they are supposed to add to the exhibit.
#snbTO
Totally unexpected… walked past Yonge Dundas Square this afternoon and happened upon Shopper’s Drug Mart’s 15th birthday party for their Optimum program. There was a DJ, music playing, and a couple of people dancing. There were acrobats but I just missed their performance. The main attraction was a large clear plastic bubble filled with many bits of coloured paper the people were lining up for…. a life sized confetti globe.
Once inside, people were posing for photographs.
Pictures were printed on the spot for those who wanted them.
It was also part of a contest for gift cards and vacations.
I didn’t go in the bubble but I did score a loot bag by showing my Optimum card.
I now have some candy and a small bottle of brown nail polish.
#15daysofhappy
At Allan Lambert Gallery, Brookfield Place,
winning photos from the 58th World Press Photo Contest
Winning images chosen from 97,912 photographs taken by 5,692 photographers from 131 countries.
below: Taken by Andy Rocchelli of Italy, part of his series of ‘Russian Interiors’ portraits. There were 10 photographs in the series, three of which are shown here (well, two and a half). All were of women.
below: One of the multitude of Chinese migrant laborers, a factory worker in in Yiwu China. His job is to coat polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. There are 600 factories in Yiwu and they produce 60% of the world’s Christmas decorations. Photo by Ronghui Chen, second prize winner in the Contemporary Issues category.
below: The three winning photographs from the Sports (Singles) category. The predominant photo is the second prize photo; it is a photo of Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one handed touchdown catch, taken by Al Bello. The winning sports photo is the one on the far left. It is a photo of Argentine football player Lionel Messi receiving the Golden Ball trophy at the World Cup in Brazil, taken by Bao Tailiang. In the middle is a picture of Philip Hughes, a cricket batsman who was hit on the head by a ball during a game, taken by Mark Metcalfe.
below: The winning photo, by Danish photographer, Mads Nissen of Jon and Alex, a gay couple, sharing an intimate moment at Alex’s home, a small apartment in St Petersburg, Russia. (It looks better in real life!)
below: Coke, Dole juice, Diet Coke, Fanta orange, cans, cans, and more cans.
below: Coors beer, Canada Dry, Nestea, more Fanta, more Coke, all crushed and ready to be recycled.
The City of Toronto collected about 200,000 tonnes of blue bin recyclables in 2014. Since a tonne equals 1,000 kilograms, that’s 200,000,000 kilos of recyclable plastic bottles, pop cans, tin cans etc.
Piles of crushed recyclables collected from Toronto’s blue bins are stacked along Bay Street beside City Hall. They will be part of an installation entitled ‘There is No Away’ for Nuit Blanche this coming weekend. This work was sponsored by the city’s Solid Waste Management committee and put together by artist Sean Martindale. This installation hopes to raise awareness of just how much garbage we produce and throw “away”.
National Seniors Day, 1st October
Just this week StatsCan announced that the number of Canadians older than 65 was more than the number of Canadians under 15. There were 5,780,900 Canadians 65 and older (16.1% of the population) compared to 5,749,400 who were under 15 years old (16%).
The results of the last census in 2011 showed that Toronto had a population of 2,615,060, 14.4% of whom were over 65.
There was a CARP Flag Raising ceremony at City Hall today to celebrate the contributions of older adults across Canada. CARP, formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization that concerns itself with issues that affect the older members of our communities. Membership is no longer restricted to those over 50 years old; the societal challenges posed by aging populations are a concern to people of all ages.
below: CARP president Moses Znaimer and a woman (my apologies for not knowing who it is) listen to a speech by Toronto city councillor Pam McConnell prior to raising the flag.
Population by age group in Canada, as of 1 July 2015. All numbers from Statscan.
The largest group are those between the ages of 50 and 54
A full report, prepared by the city, of the population of Toronto in 2011 and how it compares to that of 2006 is also available.
King East Design District Life.Style.Fair is a festival celebrating contemporary design.
This year’s event was last Saturday and these are some of the things I saw as I walked King Street East that day:
below: Frederick Street painting collaboration, organized by George Brown College School of Design students.
below: What do you like about Toronto? This man was writing “Rob Ford” as I took the picture.
In hindsight, maybe I should have written something like “is not the mayor” beside it?
Some of the other things people wrote include, coffee shops, bikes, freedom, trees, TTC and lovebot.
below: The Beauchamp Art Gallery had strips of dried acrylic paint hanging from the ceiling that you could walk through.
below: Also at the Beauchamp Gallery, artist Mike Hammer was creating a colourful painting consisting of blobs of acrylic paint. The blobs flattened as additional drops of paint were added on top. The paint flowed over the edge and created stripes.
below: Cubeworks studio demo. Yes, she really does hand twist each Rubiks Cube into the colour pattern needed for the artwork. This particular picture, of a gnome face, requires 500 cubes. The algorithms for solving the cube are online so you can teach yourself and become a Rubiks Cube artist!
below: Painting by Jessica Gorlicky. The easel spins to make the painting easier.
below: Lovebots to colour
below: Pizza carpets outside and pizza making inside, at the corner of King and Parliament.
below: The store Relative Space displayed three pieces by Stan Olthuis made from flooring materials that they sell. This one is called ‘Dance Like No One’s Watching’
below: Will Graham and the beginnings of his sidewalk dragon.
below: And last but not least, we can’t forget – neon signs by Gary Taxali. This is one of two that were on display at DOM Interiors.
#kedd2015
On Saturday afternoon there was a small rally under the trees of Queens Park. It was attended by a number of Toronto federal NDP candidates and it was about repealing bill C-51. C-51 has been called the Anti-Terrorism Bill although it’s full name is: “An Act to enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.”
It was passed in June of this year by the Conservative government with support of the Liberals. The NDP and Green party have been against this bill since the beginning. Part of the NDP platform for the present federal election is the promise to repeal Bill C-51 if they are form the next government.
as I walk Toronto 