Chinatown Mural
2011 by Alexa Hatanaka and Aaron Li-Hill
Commissioned by the Chinatown BIA & located in an alley near Dundas & Spadina.
The mural is based on scenes from everyday life in Toronto’s Chinatown.
Archive for the ‘locations’ Category
Chinatown mural
Posted: February 27, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: Aaron Li-Hill, Alexa Hatanaka, alley, bike, child, Chinatown, Chinatown BIA, Chinese, city, downtown, Dundas St. West, lane, man, mural, people, street art, Toronto
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still looking for spring
Posted: February 25, 2015 in galleries, locationsTags: basin, Derby, European, ewer, flowers, Gardiner museum, mullein, old, pink, plate, porcelain, Sevres, yellow
Flowers, a sign of spring. No real flowers outside yet and probably not for quite a while!
Instead we’ll have to settle for European pottery florals from the Gardiner Museum today.
below: Ewer and basin, Sèvres France, 1757, porcelain, attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis. Pink ground with foilage-like edges.
below: Purple flowered mullein plate, from Derby botanicals, pattern 216, England, c1800.
gumhead revisited
Posted: February 24, 2015 in locations, public artTags: Bloor St., chewing gum, Douglas Coupland, gum head, gumhead, Holts for Men, Toronto, wads
On the 4th of February I posted some photos and information on Douglas Coupland’s ‘Gumhead’. This is the installation where people are meant to interact with a large head by sticking chewed gum to it. The plain black head gets transformed into something new (a sticky mess?). At that point, the head been inside Holts for Men for about two weeks. One of the photos from early in February is this one:
Yesterday, almost three weeks later, I revisited it and this is the photo that I took:
I was expecting to see more gum on the head. After all, a similar piece in Vancouver was totally covered by the time the exhibit finished. As I stood there in my winter walking clothes, i.e. not dressed for shopping at Holts, I thought of a few things.
The Vancouver ‘Gumhead’ was outside with easy access to all.
Although this ‘Gumhead’ is visible from the street, it doesn’t invite people to come inside and interact with it. Unless they have heard about the exhibit, passersby may not realize that they have the option of sticking their own wad of chewed gum on some guy’s big face. In addition, inside a store is not really a public place. It would be interesting to know how many people came in off the street to take a closer look at it. By ‘people’ I mean non-customers with no prior knowledge of ‘Gumhead’.
And anyway, it’s ugly. That’s my two cents worth.
You have until March 9th if you want to get yourself to Bloor and Bellair (near Bloor & Yonge) to participate. Gum is provided.
Icefest
Posted: February 23, 2015 in events, locationsTags: carvings, cold, crowds, Cumberland Ave., February, Frozen in time, ice, interactive, people, people posing for pictures, posing, sculptures, snow, Toronto, winter, Yorkville
Bloor Yorkville Icefest, Frozen in Time
Cumberland Ave., February 21 & 22
The 10th annual Icefest featured the carving of blocks of ice into Ancient Egypt themed sculptures.
Both Saturday and Sunday were snowy days but the weather didn’t deter the crowds, or their picture taking. I’m sure that there are thousands of photographs of the sculptures!
Here are a few of mine.
This bear loomed over the NE corner of Yonge and Bloor.
Most of the sculptures along Cumberland Ave (west of Bellair) are still there and will remain as long as the temperatures remain low and no one vandalizes them.
a break in winter
Posted: February 22, 2015 in locations, natureTags: Allan Gardens, can't wait for spring, cheerful, close ups of flowers, colours, conservatory, daffodils, flowers, green house, hibiscus, macros, plants, poinsettia, thorns, tired of winter, Toronto, tulips, warm, warmth
Yesterday Toronto got a brief respite from the frigid temperatures that we’ve been experiencing. Instead, more snow fell. I think that most of us are getting tired of this thing called winter, including me. So, here are a few photos from inside the conservatory at Allan Gardens to brighten your day.
article 13
Posted: February 18, 2015 in graffiti and street art, history, locationsTags: aito, alley, Art Alley Mural Project, article 13, Dionne Brand, freedom, freedom of movement, islington, mural, poem, poetry, public art, street art, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Urban Canvas
Amnesty International Toronto Organization is a group that works in the to raise public awareness of human rights issues. One of the projects that it supports is Urban Canvas. Thirty murals were planned, each based on one of the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Art Alley Mural Project produced by Arts Etobicoke in 2010 was designed by Susan Rowe Harrison and painted by William Lazos. It incorporates a poem by Dionne Brand, Toronto’s Poet Laureate in 2010 that is based on Article 13. This article states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.”
The mural is on the wall of 4893A Dundas St. West, alongside a narrow pedestrian walkway.
See also a previous post on two of Urban Canvas project murals at Parma Court
Also, a mural celebrating education, article 26.
I’m one too
Posted: February 18, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: #pinbuttonpride, book covers, buttons, Church and Wellesley, Church Street Mural Project, couples, gay and proud, Ho's team, Kiss and Tell, kissing, LGBT, Natalie Wood, silhouettes, slogans, talking, the village, Will Craddock, WorldPride 2014
As you walk east on Wellesley towards Church St., you can’t miss the large mural on the side of Ho’s Team Barber and Hairstylist. The red circle with it’s white words “I’m One Too” catch your attention. The mural, by Will Craddock, is part of the Church Street Mural Project.
The circles in the mural are paintings of buttons from the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
There is actually a small lane that runs beside the button mural. If you walk a little but down that lane and then look at the wall on the other side, you will see another artwork from the Church Street Mural Project. ‘Kiss and Tell’ by Natalie Wood is a series of silhouette couples with their heads close together, either talking or kissing.
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Bathhouse raids mural
Posted: February 12, 2015 in graffiti and street art, history, locationsTags: 1981, arrests, bathhouse raids, Church St., firetruck, history, LGBT, mosaic, murals, painting, police car, public art, street art, tiles, Toronto
The Bathhouse Raids by Christiano De Araujo is a mural on Church Street just south of Carlton.
Completed in the fall of 2013, it was the largest of the Church St. Mural Project pieces commissioned for WorldPride 2014.
The following photos were taken with a very wide angle lens
because of the size of the mural and because there are always cars parked in front of it.
On the 5th of February, 1981, Toronto police raided four bathhouses in what was known as ‘Operation Soap’.
Around 300 men were arrested. Most charges connected to the incident were eventually dropped or discharged, although some bathhouse owners were fined.
The event marked a major turning point in the history of the LGBT community in Canada.
The raids led to protests – the night after the raids, 3,000 people marched on 52 Division police headquarters and on Queen’s Park, smashing car windows and setting fires. That spring the city held its first Pride Parade.
eyes on fingernails
Posted: February 11, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: bright, evoke, eyes, face, fingernails, fingers, graffiti, high on a wall, lexr, many colours, pine trees, snow, street art, tag, tagged, winter
Graffiti on a wall on Queen St. West
at the west side of Trinity Bellwoods park.
Unfortunately, there is now an ugly black tag on the lower left corner.
around the corner
Posted: February 9, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: alley, black line drawings, cub, faces, geometric designs, graffiti, graffiti animals, J. Mora, lane, mural, polar bears, snow, squares, St. Clair West, street art, Toronto, urban art, winter, Wychwood
I walked around the corner and down a small dead end lane and this is what I saw.
near St. Clair West
as I walk Toronto 