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humanity and a kraken

Posted: October 31, 2021 in locations, public art
Tags: art installation, ArtworxTO, Camal Pirbhal, Camille Turner, David Rokeby, Entire City Project, House of Baby, Humanity Movement, kraken, lights, Masai Ujiri, Michael Awad, Queens Quay, Sir John A Macdonald Plaza, slavery, street art, Union station, waterfront

The results of a walk on what was probably the last warm evening of the year….

below: In Sir John A. Macdonald Plaza (that’s the space in front of Union Station by Front Street) is an art installation by Masai Ujiri, “Humanity Movement”. There are 35 words that represent what humanity means to Ujiri – words such as compassion, love, selfless, collective that are repeated as they cover the eight foot high installation. A light in the center makes the words appear on the sidewalk and on the structures (and people) around it.

below: Inside the Great Hall at Union Station is an image titled “House of Baby” that is the result of a collaboration between Camille Turner and Camal Pirbhal. It is a image of people in the Great Hall that includes portraits of 18 Indigenous and Black people who were enslaved by the Baby family.

Francois Baby (1768 Detroit – 1852 Windsor Ont) and his brother James (1763 Detroit – 1833 Toronto) were politicians, businessmen and land owners. Francois stayed in what was then the Western District of Upper Canada (around Windsor). His biography is long and I’m not going to go into details here but he did have slaves. James moved to York in 1815 and was part of the establishment – between 1792 and 1830 he held more than 115 appointments or commissions of varying degrees of importance.

In 1793 John Graves Simcoe, then Lieutenant Governor, tried to abolish slavery in Upper Canada but many of the ruling class, including James Baby, were slave owners and outright abolishment failed. Instead there was a compromise made (how Canadian!) and restrictions were put on slave ownership such that by 1833 there were none left. A much more complete history of slavery in Upper Canada can be found in an article at Upper Canada History.

below: On the York Street side of Union Station

below: On the PATH system at 25 York Street there is a mural that is 25 metres long (or 100 feet long); it is “Entire City Project” by Michael Awad, 2009. It is a warped panorama of commuters outside Union Station.

below: The lights hanging from the ceiling are another art piece. “Pixel Matrix”, is a large cube of 30,000 individually controllable LED lights on strings, with constantly changing lighting effects. It was a collaboration between Michael Awad and David Rokeby

below: Making a kraken. One tentacle can be seen in the foreground.

below: The kraken’s eye is a video that plays on a screen bulging from the container that can barely hold its contents. Will the kraken escape? Is Queens Quay safe?

below: Lights in motion

below: The art installations at 10 York Street look much different at night!

below: Lights over the harbour, Queens Quay

intersections – St. Clair and Danforth

Posted: October 30, 2021 in intersections, locations, old buildings
Tags: abandoned buildings, CLM Industries, graffiti, houses, industrial, memorials, Pinehills cemetery, railway tracks, redevelopment, Scarborough, Scarborough Church of God, Scarborough GO station, Scarborough Junction, stores

Toronto’s old industrial buildings are disappearing. So when I saw the tall brick chimneys near St. Clair and the Danforth I had to stop and take a closer look.

CLM stands for Canadian Line Materials, also known as CLM industries. It was a division of McGraw-Edison Ltd and they manufactured electrical equipment. One of their contracts was with the Canadian Government to build air raid sirens. CLM was sold in 1985 and no longer exists.

below: Back in behind, part of the parking lot has been given over to the Scarborough Community Garden.

below: In the above photo you can see the solar panels on the roof of the Scarborough Church of God that is across the street from the old CLM buildings. Construction of the church began in 1958 and it was dedicated in March 1960 as the Scarborough Junction United Church. The blue sign indicates that this is also the home of the Scarborough Grace Harvest Church (Korean).

below: Side windows on the church

below: A reminder of how diverse Toronto is – Workers rights in many languages

below: “Known as best psychic and spiritual healer in Toronto”

below: Arsenio’s Kitchen has chicken and rice for $5.99

below: Fuel stop – gas for the car and a roti for you

Just to the west, Kennedy Road crosses both St. Clair and Danforth and forms a small triangle. Immediately south of the Danforth, Kennedy goes over the railway tracks.

below: The view east from Kennedy, looking towards Scarborough GO station.

below: The view west from the bridge

below: A bit of country in the city.

below: An elephant hiding in the bushes. Any idea of what flag that might be? Trinidad and Tobago?

below: Anime-like on a bridge railing.

below: Standing on the platform at Scarborough GO station and looking east. Here the tracks split – the GO train line to Kennedy and Agincourt stations (and beyond) splits to the left and heads northward. The other tracks are the main CNR line as well as eastward GO line to Eglinton GO station

As I walked, it soon became apparent that there were a lot of commercial buildings now sitting empty. It’s becoming a bit repetitive but once again I found myself in an area that is about to undergo some profound changes.

below: An empty building waiting for demolition.

Scarborough Junction redevelopment plans involve a 26 acre plot of land adjacent to Scarborough GO station – what has become known as the Scarborough Junction Masterplan.

below: Drawing of the Masterplan. It covers a large chunk of the triangle created by the CNR tracks, Kennedy Road to the west, and St. Clair to the north. It will create about 6620 residential units in 17 buildings with the tallest tower being 48 storeys high. The CLM building is on this site (blocks C & G?). (image source: Urban Toronto).

below: View from the Scarborough GO station. At the moment, most of the land along the northwest side of the tracks is unused.

below: Outdoor seating arrangement

below: Truck for sale

below: On the southwest corner of Kennedy and St. Clair is a small plaza from the 1960s.

below: Another empty building behind a fence – Some clothes in cases all that remains of what was once a thrift store (and probably something else before that). There is a weathered sign suggesting a condo development but I haven’t been able to find anything about it (or I missed something).

below: One corner that is in no danger of being redeveloped is the northwest corner of St. Clair and Kennedy. This is Pinehills Cemetery.

It’s heart warming to see that people care enough about those who have passed away that they find ways to celebrate that person in creative ways. Insert jokes here about how we’ll all be dead before the Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup.

St. Patricks pop-up

Posted: October 22, 2021 in galleries, locations
Tags: Andrew Patterson, ArtOnQueen, ArtOnQueenWest, Curtia Wright, images, Jenelle Lewis, Jieun June Kim, outdoor gallery, paintings, peru143, Queen Street West, Show Love TO, St. Patricks Market

The building at St. Patricks Market on Queen Street West is empty but the exterior walls are now a pop-up outdoor gallery. It is part of Art On Queen West. Some of the artwork that is on display:

below: “I See You” By Peru143

below: “Bouquet” by Curtia Wright

below: “The Queen” (representing Queen West) by Andrew Patterson

below: “Pies, para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar?” Or in English: “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” by Alejandra Paton

below: “The Reimagining of the Steps” by Jenelle Lewis

below: “Untitled” by Jenelle Lewis

below: “Pizza Night” by Jieun June Kim

more than a pile of skulls

Posted: October 14, 2021 in locations, public art
Tags: art installation, Built on Genocide, CHIPPEWAR, Harbourfront, indigenous, Jay Soule, Luminato Festival, Meryl McMaster, Ontario Square, photography, posters, skulls

There are two public art exhibits now on display at Harbourfront’s Ontario Square. The first is “Built on Genocide” by by Jay Soule aka CHIPPEWAR which is part of this year’s Luminato Festival …. “In the mid-19th century, an estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo roamed the prairies, by the late 1880s, fewer than 300 remained. As the buffalo were slaughtered and the prairie ecosystem decimated, Indigenous peoples were robbed of their foods, lands, and cultures. The buffalo genocide became a genocide of the people” (quote source: Luminato website)

below: The centerpiece is a pile of Buffalo skulls.

below: Surrounding the skulls are posters that highlight and criticize government policies towards First Nations including (Prime Minister) Sir John A. Macdonald and his “Magic Eraser”, i.e. the Indian Act of 1876.

below: The poster on the left references the adoption of First Nations children by non-Native families often referred to as the Sixties Scoop because it reached its peak (most adoptions) in the 1960s. The plight of Indigenous women is the subject of the other poster – the disproportionate number of whom have been murdered or went missing.

There is also a display of large photographs by Meryl McMaster.

below: What Will I Say to the Sky and the Earth II.

below: On the Edge of This Immensity

below: As Immense as the Sky

Future Perfect

Posted: October 12, 2021 in locations, public art
Tags: CONTACT, Contact photography festival, exhibit, Future Perfect, King St. West, Maldives, Metro Hall, Nico Krebs, photo exhibit, photography, Taiyo Onorato

on King Street West

On display by Metro Hall on King Street West are a dozen large images created by Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs. This installation is part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

The pair took photographs in the Maldives. The fragile environment of these small islands (in the Indian Ocean) is exacerbated by the fact that they are barely above sea level. There are more than 1000 islands that make up the Maldives and 80% are no higher than a meter above sea level. Most are uninhabited.

Onorato and Krebs have manipulated some of the prints with various methods and in doing to “they create quasi-abstract images that inventively describe their perceptions of place. Fusing reality and imagination, their suite of images are powerful fictions that confront undeniable facts. ” (quote source: Scotiabank Contact website).

Hands, Florests, and Minds

Posted: October 8, 2021 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: #monicaonthemoon, Boradview Hotel, DOn River, Don Valley, map, maps, Monica on the moon, Monica Wickeler, paste up, Water is Life, wheatpaste, Women Paint Riverside

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.

Water is Life

Posted: October 7, 2021 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: Broadview, Claire Browne, Currents of Change, Eastend Arts, emily may rose, flowers, Frannie Potts, Girls mural camp, glass, Haenahhh, hello kirsten, Julia Prajza, Kirsten McCrea, lake, Memengwaa Kwe Originals, Merryn, Mo Thunder, Moonlight Murals collective, murals, Native Women in the Arts, paint, Queen East, raccoons, river, Riverside, Scarbrite Collective, spray paint, street art, Sylvie, tap, Victoria Day, water, women, Women Paint, Women Paint Riverside

Women Paint Riverside
“Currents of Change”

below: The faucet is on and water pours into a glass. Interesting lively water, full of colours and patterns in this mural by Kirsten McCrea

below: A large mural by Mo Thunder. Follow the link to her website for more information about the mural – a mother and child lying side by side forming the land as water swirls around them.

below: White flowers on a watery blue background by Julia Prajza

below: Invasive species such as phragmites in the Don Valley, by Merryn

below: Rabbit and deer having to contend with out of control greenery, possibly dog-strangling vine. Phragmites are reeds, those tall perennial grasses that grow very tall.

below: Raccoons frolic in the water and raccoons sit by the shore. Even one raccoon spray painting a rock, naughty raccoon! Mural by Emily May Rose.

below: by Haenahhh. Arms around each other

below: Hands reaching out in a mural by Claire Browne,

below: Victoria Day‘s mural – what looks a bit like a blue water serpent but is actually a dragon flying high above us in the sky.

below: In the pink is written, “A persistent drop of water will wear away the hardest stone.”

below: by Scarbrite Collective (brightening the streets of Scarborough), aka Frannie Potts and Sylvie with help from Memengwaa Kwe Originals aka Caterina.

below: Love not hate. A blue raccoon stealthily walks across a roof above a mural that was painted by participants in this year’s Girls Mural Camp (a three week program in the summer for teenage girls).

below: The other part of the Girls Mural Camp project.

below: by Moonlight Murals Collective

below: Three heads that seem wrapped by a fish, mural by Cedar Eve

below: Eyes closed

below: The Girls Mural Camp 2020 mural is in the same alley.

NOTE: There is also an installation by monicaonthemoon on the back of the Broadview Hotel that is part of this project but I have given it a separate blog post – Hands, Florests, and Minds.

With support from:

Eastend Arts

Women Paint

Native Women in the Arts (NWIA)

Riverside BIA

StreetARToronto

Commissioners to the Gardiner

Posted: September 24, 2021 in construction, locations
Tags: bridge, Commissioners Road, construction, cranes, DOn River, fence, Gardiner, Gardiner Expressway, Port Lands, skyline, trucks

more changes, more demolition

From Leslie to Cherry, Commissioners Street runs through the middle of the Port Lands, or at least it used to. The re-making of the mouth of the Don River involves a new waterway that cuts Commissioners into two sections. This blog post is a quick look at the east side.

below: TTC streetcar leaving Leslie Barns at Leslie and Commissioners- celebrating 100 years.

below: There are a lot of cement mixers in the area!

below: Canada Post has a large presence in the area too. A series of images of stamps featuring Canadian birds, such as this black-capped chickadee, decorate the exterior wall of one of their buildings.

below: Portlands Energy Center on the other side of the Shipping Channel. This is natural gas powered electricity generating facility. It also has a steam turbine generator that allows it to make electricity using steam from waste heat.

below: Commissioners Street now ends at Saulter

below: The new bridge has been delivered and sits at the western end of Commissioners, on the other side of the gap. Soon(?) that gap will be part of the new route of the Don River.

below: Looking north on Saulter Street towards Villiers Street. Metal beams from the Gardiner are being lowered to the ground.

below: New utility poles on Saulter, with another view of the Gardiner demolition.

below: Saturday traffic on Villiers. The Lakeshore is closed on the weekends to facilitate the dismantling of the Gardiner. Yes, it does cause traffic issues and confusion!

below: Looking north on Don Roadway from Villiers

below: Some of the concrete bents from the Gardiner still stand as does the curved elevated ramp from the Gardiner to the DVP.

below: An abrupt end

below: Crane demolishing a concrete bent beside the Keating Channel.

below: An older photo from 2015 showing the Gardiner Expressway on the north shore of the Keating Channel with the Lakeshore below. The yellow crane in the image above is close to where the blue barge is in this picture (but on the shore side!). The supports for the Gardiner over the mouth of the Don River are metal (the greenish coloured two on the right side of this photo), not concrete like the others. These metal supports is at the right edge of the photo above.

from 2015, photo of Gardiner along the north shore of the Keating channel

photo taken in 2015

below: When the steel beams are removed, they are first trimmed and cut in half.

below: They are then hauled away to another site where they are cut down even more.

below: Standing in the middle of Lakeshore Blvd and looking west. Remains of the Gardiner.

below: Side view, Lakeshore with remnants of the Gardiner rising up beside. Soon to be gone.

another day, another demolition

Posted: September 21, 2021 in construction, locations
Tags: apartment buildings, Canadian Dry Cleaners, demolition, Eastern Ave., fence, Lower Coxwell, McDonalds, parking meters, Queen St. East, redevelopment, rubble

McDonalds drive-thru with demolition…. yes, I’ll have fries with that.

The demolition hasn’t really started yet but the buildings are empty and the grounds interiors are being cleared out.

below: Sidewalk along Eastern Avenue, looking east towards Lower Coxwell

below: At Lower Coxwell and Eastern there is a gap in the old fence and overgrown bushes that leads to what once was a parking lot. The building in the background is one the ones being torn down.

below: There are some cool old parking meters still standing

below: The old parking lot is behind a row of businesses on Queen East

below: Looking northeast towards Queen East and Coxwell

College – Dundas – Lansdowne

Posted: September 20, 2021 in doors, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: ads, architecture, Canadian flags, College Street, dolls, doors, Dundas Street, dystopia, graffiti, houses, Junction, Lansdowne, murals, posters, reflections, stickers, stores, streetcar, the Junction, windows

Three streets, College, Dundas, and Lansdowne, form a small triangle in the west end. The following pictures were taken on a summer day a couple of weeks ago when I was walking in and around that triangle.

below: Mural – railway bridge. Just west of here, Dundas crosses a set of tracks – the same line the services Pearson airport and points beyond.

below: Eating Dominos in the doorway

below: Small part of a freaky display of dolls and similar toys along the wood rails surrounding a sidewalk patio

below: More dolls from the same place – what does that do to one’s appetite?

below: Colourful umbrellas cover a makeshift patio on the street

below: New sidewalk on College Street with a large mural in the distance…..

below: Beanstalk mural on the side of the coin laundry on the northeast corner of College and St. Clarens. Maybe that’s Jack at the bottom… 😀

below: Orange house, northwest corner of College and St. Clarens

below: …. and an orange car, an older Porsche convertible, in an alley around the corner.

below: Lost Time

below: Reflections, TTC streetcars and the pope

below: In a convenience store window – get your keys cut here, or buy a mask, but watch out for the five deadly terms used by a woman. Fine? Go ahead!