I took a short walk through the graffiti alleys behind Queen St. West yesterday. I found four new face/skull paintings by artist P.K. (which is short for?) all close together on Rush Lane, and all near 530 Richmond St. West.
below: A turtlecaps paste-up from last year is still on the wall.
Wisdom of the Poor: Communal Courtyard,
an art installation by Chinese artist Song Dong,
Art Gallery of Ontario
This installation is made from parts of 100 old wardrobes collected from traditional Beijing neighbourhoods, or hutongs, like the one in which Song Dong grew up in. These neighbourhoods, and their communal way of life, are disappearing.
The pieces of the wardrobes are arranged with the backside towards the viewer. The arrangement is such that you can not see the front side of most of the wardrobes.
There are two circles of wardrobes that you can enter – where you can now stand in the courtyard so to speak. The wardrobes become stand-ins for the fronts of houses that once faced onto courtyards in the old hutongs of Beijing.
A wardrobe was one of the items that the Chinese government provide to all families. They are all similar yet different. All have mirrors. Most are made of the same colour wood and most have green curtains. They all have little legs and they are all about the same height.
Wardrobes are personal articles and former owners have left their marks on many of them…. a different fabric in the window or a picture glued onto the wood.
This installation also appeared in the Venice biennale in 2011 although the wardrobes were arranged differently. For the exhibit at the AGO, there are a number of items that appear within the ‘courtyards’ created by the wardrobes. For the viewer, these items can only be viewed through the windows of the wardrobes. One of the items, below, is a series of three paintings of the Canadian ballerina Karen Kain.
In another, bikes
This installation remains at the AGO until 17 July 2016
Rob Ford
City councillor and former Mayor of Toronto
May 1969 – March 2016,
Funeral procession from City Hall to St. James Cathedral, 30 March
below: For two days Rob Ford lay in repose at City Hall where people could pay their respects. And many did. Yesterday, the line up wound around the corner of City Hall as people waited their turn. Some people loved him; some people hated him. Possibly there were those who were indifferent.
This morning there was a short procession from City Hall to the noontime funeral at St. James Cathedral.
below: After arriving at City Hall, Doug Ford greets the crowd.
Although the procession was scheduled to begin at 10:30, it didn’t start until close to 11:30. A group of people waited at Nathan Phillips Square including some of Rob Ford’s supporters. I overheard a conversation between two men who were discussing what they thought of politics and politicians, most of it negative. At one point they declared that all career politicians should be kicked out of office. I thought to myself, you mean guys like Rob Ford? Wasn’t he a career politician?
About 20 or so people were holding a large flag made of a couple of Canadian flags and all the provincial flags stitched together. It was a very diverse group of people, diverse in age as well as in ethnic background. They were joking about whether or not they were going to be on the front page of the ‘Sun’. We shall see!
below: A woman finds a quiet place to sit and wait.
below: The police were in position, ready to start, long before the procession began. So was the media and it was a very large media presence indeed.
below: The Toronto Fire Department had a large Canadian flag on display at Queen and Bay streets, near the beginning of the procession route.
below: Trying to keep the people, most with cameras, off the streets.
below: This guy may have been filming the crowd (and me) but he didn’t look away from his phone.
below: The crowd in front of St. James cathedral
As I was walking away from the cathedral, a woman approached me.
She pointed towards the church asked me if I knew what was going on there.
added later: I was going to discard this photo but then I noticed the man in the mask.
Who wears a mask to a funeral procession?
2016, a new year just begun, and with it a new country and a new blog.
I’ll be taking a break from blogging about Toronto as I do a bit of traveling once again. I have started another blog as a home for the street art that I see. It will include the pages of non-Toronto street art that I have on some pages in this blog (some have already been moved) as well as any street art that I see on this trip.
New blog: Eyes on the streets
Marys in Toronto
It has become one of the things I do – I look for ‘Marys’ when I travel. For one reason or another, I started seeing Marys in Toronto too. Perhaps it was because I spent more time in galleries and museums on those really cold days that we had last winter. There aren’t nearly as many Marys here as there are in Lima Peru or in Malta. Hence, finding them was a bit more difficult but that just made the hunt more interesting.
below: In the window of Sonic Boom on Spadina
below: a sculpture of Mary and Jesus, from the Gardiner Museum
below: ‘The Dormition of the Virgin’ by Esteban Marquez De Velasco (c.1655 – 1720, Spain).
This painting is in the Art Gallery of Ontario. It depicts the moment before Mary falls asleep and her soul leaves her body to join Him in heaven. The apostles surround Mary and kneel in prayer.
below: ‘Madonna and Child’ by Andrea Della Robbia (1435-1525, Florence Italy).
Glazed terracotta. On loan to the AGO from the family of Murray Frum.
below: In front of St. Clare Roman Catholic church on St. Clair Ave. West
below: In the window of Crows Nest barber shop, Kensington Market
below: Figurines for sale at Honest Ed’s
below: Holographic cards with images of Mary Jesus in a red plastic tub.
You can buy a card at Honest Ed’s for 69 cents.
below: Sagrada Familia, by the front door of a house in Little Portugal
below: Hiding amongst the drapery sits Mary and her child.
below: Another from the AGO, Virgin and Child from circa 1750, once in a chapel of a Montreal church.
Wood with traces of pigment.
below: Mount Pleasant cemetery
below: On an ofrenda at a Dia de Muertos celebration
below: Radio Maria, una voce cristiana nella tua casa, part of the Holy Mother World Networks.
below: With other members of the Nativity scene, for sale in a vintage store on Queen West.
I think that $20 buys you the contents of the box.
below: In a front yard in the Junction
I’ve put her at the end because I am not 100% sure that she is a Mary. The Virgin Mary is usually depicted with a light blue shawl draped over her shoulder or else holding a baby Jesus.
And here ends that game. This post represents almost a year’s worth of looking and while the hunt was interesting in the beginning it’s charm is starting to wear thin. I could probably find more Marys in churches and cemeteries but I think I will listen to words of wisdom and let it be.
Playing hookey, spray paint cans in hand, under the bridge.
![graffiti on concrete bridge supports - creature in yellow and orange with the words: One love to [heart] and for my best friend Gracie](https://mcfcrandall.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/blog_orange_yellow_graffiti.jpg)
below: On two sides, back and front, of the same post.
transcription of the plaque:
The Prince Edward Viaduct
Designed by Edmund Burke architect, and Thomas Taylor, construction engineer, the Price Edward Viaduct was opened on 18 October 1918. The Viaduct joined Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue, to provide easy access to the rapidly expanding suburbs east of the Do River. The Bloor section, carried on an earthen embankment, stretched eastward from Sherbourne to Parliament Streets. The Don section supported by a bridge 494 metres long, extends westward from Broadview Avenue. The Rosedale section, with a bridge span of 177 metres, forms a connecting link between them. On the recommendation of Jacob and Davies, consulting engineers, provision for a lower second deck was incorporated into the viaduct to carry subway trains. This foresight proved to be of inestimable value in building the Bloor-Danforth subway line 50 years later.
Toronto Historical Board, Toronto Transit Commission, 1981
Graffiti and street art on walls and garage doors in the alleys surrounding Sorauren Park.
below: If you are walking eastward along Dundas West, this is the first mural that you see.
below: A friendly fuzzy blackburn animal playing in the park
below: Dog (wolf?) by Aaron Li-Hill
below: The guy in the blue shorts is saying: “You don’t need a mirror to look good, you’re beautiful on the inside, like you’re brain and stuff.”
below: Spudbomb mural
below: by elicser, I was on cloud nine for a long time.
below: by elicser, It’s almost dark. One more wave, then we go in.
The Christmas flower show at Allan Gardens conservatory is back,
which means lots of poinsettias… over 30 varieties in fact.
A rare purple glitter ball tree is also in bloom.
below: He has a carrot nose and a corn cob pipe,
but he doesn’t look very frosty. Maybe it’s the red vest that’s keeping the chill away.
below: With its silver beak and its twiggy tail, this little fluffy bird perches on a palm tree.
below: Christmas greenery – ever green baubles hang from a vine.
below: All bundled up for a toboggan ride down a mountain of poinsettias.
below: Flowering Christmas cacti hang from the roof.
In addition to the Christmas plants like poinsettias
and amaryllis,
some of the conservatory’s usual cast of floral characters are on display, such as orchids
and hibiscus plants.
Recipe for Community
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 mural for Article 26 is on Sherbourne Street at St. James Town West Park.
It is on the wall of a Shoppers Drug Mart.
Article 26 pertains to education.
“Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages…. and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups” is written on the accompanying poster. That is a condensed version of article 26.
Project partners: Toronto Culture, Toronto Community Foundation, Amnesty International, UforChange, Art City in St. James Town, and the City of Toronto.
Previous blog posts with other murals from this project:
Today’s walk took me past three art installations that were new to me. All three had nature as the theme; I saw a giant abstract tree, upside down animals, and a walk in the forest.
The giant tree is ‘Red, Orange and Green’ by Michael Snow. This 14 metre high, stainless steel sculpture stands in a small park on Huntley Street. The gate of the park was locked, apparently closed for the season. I took a few pictures through the metal bars of the fence and made a note to myself to return next season for a closer look.
When I first started researching this piece, I read that it’s title was because of the way it reflected street lights. This didn’t make any sense – it sits in a park. In the early 1990’s the city of Toronto commissioned Snow to design a sculpture for the corner where Jarvis meets Mt Pleasant at Bloor St. East and this work is the result. When Rogers subsequently bought the building on that corner, they insisted on moving the sculpture to its present location. The building in the background of these photos is the Rogers building at Bloor and Jarvis (although that stretch of Jarvis has been renamed Ted Rogers Way).
Just around the corner on Sherbourne Street is an art installation by Eldon Garnet. It sits, or rather stands, on a condo development that incorporated the James Cooper Mansion at Linden and Sherbourne streets.
The house was built for James Cooper in 1881. He was a partner in Cooper and Smith, a company that imported, made, and sold footwear. The house had eight bedrooms and was built in the Second Empire style with a mansard roof and dormers. The house was purchased by the Knights of Columbus in 1910
Just a little farther south there is a quiet park just to the west of Sherbourne Street, Wellesley Magill Park. This park was named in honour of Wellesley Central Hospital and Dennis Magill. Magill was a founder of the Wellesley Institute and the first community Director of the Wellesley Hospital. The park is situated on the site of the old Wellesley Central Hospital which was demolished in 1998.
Running east-west along the park’s southern perimeter is a public artwork created in 2010 by Ed Pien. It is called ‘Forest Walk’ and it is 45 meter long wall comprised of eight sheets of painted steel. Each panel contains cut outs of a forest scene, or a scene of people walking through a forest.
below: The back of the fence. The park is on the other side of the fence.
as I walk Toronto 