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.
Time Cone
by Brad Golden and Lynn Eichenberg, 1996.
With help from Christopher Dewdney, poet.
In front of 25 Sheppard Ave West on the SE corner of Sheppard and Beecroft.
A 15 cm stainless steel ribbon, supported by four steel beams, winds its way up to the cone at the top. Cut out of the steel are words that pertain to the geology of the area. ‘Precambrian’ is the bottom word. Other words include Pleistocene Glaciation, Gull River Limestone, Cenozic, Don, and Thorncliffe Till.
extra: In geology, ’till’ is unsorted unstratified material deposited directly by glacial ice.
5 lifeguard posts
5 art installations
5 places to sit and/or get out of the wind
All in one place – along the waterfront at Kew & Balmy Beaches
until 20 March 2015
1. Snowcone by Lily Jeon and Diana Koncan
From the inside of the Snowcone, looking up through the center.
2. Driftwood Throne by Daniel Madeiros
3. Sling Swing by Ed Butler, Daniel Wiltshire and Frances McGeown
4. Wing Back by Tim Olson
5. Hot Box by Michaela MacLeod and Nicholas Croft
This one feels creepy inside. No windows. Interior walls form narrow passageways.
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.
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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Photographs of the Lodz Ghetto (Poland 1940-1945)
by Henryk Ross,
at the Art Gallery of Ontario until 14 June 2015
Ross was a Polish Jewish photographer and one of the official Lodz ghetto photographers under the Nazi regime.
In the autumn of 1944 as the Lodz ghetto was being shut down, Ross buried his 6000 negatives in jars. The Red Army liberated Lodz in January of 1945 after which Ross unearthed his negatives. Water damaged about half of them. Of the surviving 3000 negatives, about 200 form the ‘Memory Unearthed’ exhibit.
Some of the photos are ordinary pictures – portraits of people, children playing. Other photos look ordinary until you learn the context, what is really happening in the picture. Many photos document suffering and despair. They elicit a lot of uncomfortable emotions but as an historical record the collection is excellent as well as much needed.
Last Folio, A Living Monument to the Holocaust
An exhibit of photographs by Yuri Dojc,
at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Yuri Dojc was born in Slovakia but is now based in Toronto.
Starting in the 1990’s he has returned to Slovakia a number of times in search of traces of Jewish life from prior to WW2.
Details of one of the photographs in the exhibit.
There are only eight photographs in this exhibit but each one tells a story. Narratives of loss and of life interrupted.
But also stories of memory and remembrance.
More information about the Last Folio project.
There will probably always be some controversy surrounding graffiti and and street art. Some people like it and some don’t. There is street art with a lot of artistic merit. There are a number of drab grey places in the city that are improved by adding street art.
Graffiti is temporary by nature. Time and weather affect it. Sometimes it evolves over time as others add stickers or comments. This is a strength and a weakness. All it takes is a marker or a can of spray paint to make your mark on a wall, a doorway, or any surface you want for that matter. Unfortunately, there are people who destroy rather than create.
There are many examples of the juvenile nature of some taggers so these are just a few.
Stupid and clueless. The mural on Croft street commemorating the Fire of 1904 has also been tagged over.
Great comment. Written on a black and white tag that was painted on top of a street art picture
The City of Toronto has a Graffiti Management Plan.
They try to encourage Graffiti Art while getting rid of Graffiti Vandalism.
Where the West Toronto Railpath meets Dundas West. The graffiti and street art that were here were painted over with grey paint, probably by the city.
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.
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.
as I walk Toronto 