locations | as I walk Toronto

Archive for the ‘locations’ Category

distress at Union Station

Posted: July 16, 2015 in locations, public art
Tags: art, blue, child, depressing, figures, grey, line drawings, man, men, northbound, paint, painting, people, phones, platforms, poetry, public art, red, red face, reflections, sadness, sitting, sketches, standing, subway, Toronto, TTC, Union station, watching, woman, women

A while back, I posted some photos of ‘Zones of Immersion’, Stuart Reid’s art installation at Union Station. Now that it is completed, I decided to revisit it. There has been some talk about how depressing it is.
I’ll let you decide whether it is depressing or not.

If you are on the ‘northbound to Finch’ platform you get a clear view of all the panels.
If you are on the ‘northbound to Downsview’ platform you can only see some of the glass panels.

I’ve now been back a number of times and this is what I saw:
1) Of the figures with discernible gender, 12 or 13 were male.
2) The males are of different ages and shapes.
3) The number of females outnumber males by at least 2:1.
4) Almost all (or even all?) of the women are young. They are all thin, if not gaunt.
5) There is one child…. with a finger up his/her nose.
6) Only two or three figures are smiling.

“the way we settle into a seat
the way we stretch when the train is empty
and retract as it fills
the way we deflect a glance and simultaneously present
language of the body claiming, relinquishing and balancing
personal space in the interstitial realm
halfway between the worlds of here and there”

The panels that can be seen on the ‘northbound to Downsview’ platform are seen as the reverse of those viewed from the other platform.

“slicing through the clay of the earth’s first skin
steel rails and electric lines
going from going to
slicing through time and distance
darkness and light
station by station
releasing us into the city’s fabric
stop by stop
after a days labour
taking us home”

(added in October) I got off the subway at Union Station today. There were three guys in front of me. One of them stopped and pointed to the nearest painting which happened to be the one above. As he pointed he said “See what I mean, if that doesn’t make you want to jump… “.

I’m happy to be corrected if you can prove me wrong.

our latest photo op

Posted: July 13, 2015 in locations, public art
Tags: #hostcity2015, #share3DTO, cameras, city hall, fountain, interactive, nathan phillips square, people, photo op, photos, posing, selfies, sign Pan Am games, summer, taking pictures, Toronto, water

A newly installed large 3D sign in Nathan Phillips Square is Toronto’s latest tourist attraction and local photo op. It is scheduled to remain in the square until the end of 2015 at which point it will be moved to another public location.

#share3DTO #hostcity2015

from Portland to Niagara

Posted: July 10, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, art, birdo, calvin and hobbes, clowntearz, cruz1, crwales66, Elicser, face, garages, Graffiti Alley, grominator, guitars, happy face, ice cream, kill'em with niceness, Kim Jong, letter, lovebot, man, painting, rainbow, stencils, stickers, street art, sundae, tags, unicorns, wallnoize, woman, words, yipyaps

A few days ago I posted a series of photos of some of the graffiti and street art that I saw in Graffiti Alley between Portland and Spadina. This post is a continuation of that one as it consists of the photos that I took on the same day but in a different section of the alley, between Portland and Niagara streets.

wandering again

Posted: June 27, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: murals, new york, rochester, street art, USA, wall therapy

I wandered away again.

This time I went to Rochester New York where I discovered a lot of great murals!
You can find more on their own page.

lovebot goes to Montreal, and so do I

Posted: June 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: graffiti, lovebot, Montreal, MuralFest, stickers, street art

MuralFest 2015 in Montreal – a few wonderful sunny days walking around Montreal. Lots to see and do! I spotted a few lovebots while I was there including this one:

More lovebot in Montreal pics on this site.

More Montreal (mostly street art and MuralFest) pics, also this site.

magical garden

Posted: June 12, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: #cruz1art, #monicaonthemoon, animals, birds, butterfly, cruz1, dog, flowers, giraffe, howl, magical garden, marine life, monsters, mouse, murals, octopus, panda, street art, tree, wallnoise, wallnoize, wolves, youth

The Magical Garden, by Broadview Community Youth Group and Wallnoise

in a park just north of the Danforth between Ferrier and Logan.

One wall features four murals created by members of the youth group.

Local street artists have decorated the other fences in the park as well as a couple of garage doors in the lane adjacent to the park.

Hurricane Hazel under St. Phillips

Posted: June 12, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: art, bridge, city, cycle route, Humber Recreational Trail, Humber River, hurricane, mural, PanAm Path, path, river, rocks, street art, Toronto, trail, underpass, water

More art under another bridge over the Humber Recreational Trail, this time as the trail passes under St. Phillips Road (near Weston Rd and the 401).

Painted by Gabriel Specter and Dan Bergeron, it represents the energy of a hurricane. Sixty years ago Hurricane Hazel was responsible for flooding of the Humber River that killed people and destroyed many homes.

below: A purple graphic representation of a cyclone beside swirling water is the backdrop for the red slinky-like spiraling energy of the hurricane.

This spiral crosses under the road and connects the two side murals.

Fourteen murals are planned along the route of the Pan Am Path, a trail that will connect Brampton to Pickering running south along the Humber River and then east along Lake Ontario.

an old Mimico bridge

Posted: June 8, 2015 in locations, public art
Tags: bridge, Mimico, mural, rail, railway bridge, railway workers, respect, train tracks, under the bridge, urban, young people

This railway bridge is on Royal York Rd, south of Evans Ave. and close to the Mimico GO station. The mural that is there was painted in 2005 and is now showing signs of age. A lot of the paint is peeling badly.

Project of Lamp Community Health Center,
funded by City of Toronto Graffiti Transformation Project,
with thanks to Mimico Residents Association, United Way, and Toronto Community Housing.

where the 401 passes over the Humber River

Posted: May 29, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 401 hwy, concrete, fiya, graffiti, grominator, Humber River, lovebot, mska, mural, Pan Am games, PanAmPath, poser, poser bunny, shalak, shrimp, smoky, spray paint, street art, tags, Toronto, under the bridge, underpass

Highway 401 passes over the Humber River just west of Weston Road. Beside the river is the Humber Recreational Trail that follows the river. Just south of the 401 there is a break in the trail because of the train tracks so a short detour via Weston Road is needed if you want to continue walking. Otherwise, the trail runs south to Lake Ontario and north to the city limits at Steeles Ave.

Just north of the 401 is Pine Point park and that is where I went to access the bridge under the 401. It is a big bridge with a lot of concrete surfaces. In other words, it is a large canvas for street art.

The most eastern wall of concrete has been painted with a mural by Shalak, Smoky and Fiya as part of the the Pan Am Path. The path is a “legacy” from the Pan Am games and will result in a trail the goes from Brampton to Pickering. Most of this path will incorporate existing trails but new sections are also being built. Anyhow, the mural consists of two women lying on a bed of flowers, one at each end of the bridge. Both are holding a white mask. In the middle is a heart and a pair of lovebirds on the branch of a tree.

Facing the above wall, and on the other side of the trail, is a wall that has recently been painted by a group of street artists. A picture is better than my attempts at translation!

The following photos are from that wall.

There are at least four more walls in this underpass. Running parallel to the trail (all the photos above) is a tunnel like part of the underpass to the west. There is no trail or river in this section, just dirt and rocks. There is some older graffiti on the walls here as well as the beginnings of newer paintings. I think that the plan is to complete these walls too. In the meantime, this is a sample of what’s there now.