Many maids, for Space

Posted: November 2, 2015 in galleries, public art
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‘Space’ is a series of commissioned works for Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art.  These works appear in the billboard space on the side of their building on St. Clarens Ave (at the corner of Bloor Street West).   At the moment, the 4th in the series, ‘Many Maids Make Much Noise’ by Olivia Plender is on display.

words in dark blue written on a white board that is fastened to a brick wall, behind a rust coloured metal fence

Transcription (wordpress has trouble with the formatting I’m afraid):

“1) Imagine you are chewing a piece of very tough meat. Begin
to chew grossly and use the full movements as if trying to break down a gristly lump.

2) Maintain the chewing action whilst repeating the following sentences:
Mutton makes a meaty meal
Militant miners means more money
Many maids make much noise

3) Now try it in a group and repeat several times a day.
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much noise
Many maids make much
Many maids make
Many maids
Many
[repeat]”

The words are the instructions for making sounds, especially the sound of the letter m. This seemingly mundane exercise is given political overtones by the choice of the sentences chosen to practice on.

This billboard is scheduled to remain until January 2016

Mercer Union website

air horns and others

Posted: November 1, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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behind Dupont, near Bartlett

below: This wall has been covered with graffiti for a number of years now.
photo taken July 2015

a wall covered with graffiti, a large bald man's head, a red and white elephant, a lovebot, a black line drawn bird saying I love air horns

below: The same wall in August 2012

a wall covered with graffiti, a large bald man's head, a red and white elephant, a man in purple, a black line drawn bird saying I love air horns

below: Close ups from this past summer

graffiti of a greenish man's face, closed eyes, laughing with mouth open, beside him is a greyish white elephant outlined in red with long tusks and trunk

a lovebot the robot wheatpaste on a door of a building that is covered with other graffiti and street art

below: Farther along the tracks.  Note the small bicycle on the rusted metal drum.
It too has been here for at least a couple of years.

A black and white tag on red background, with the words happy bday nektar written in the corner. In front of the wall is a rusted metal oil drum with some graffiti on it in white including a very meticulously drawn small white bicycle.

graffiti and tags on the back of a building made of concrete blocks, also on two metal storage tanks that are behind the same building.

heading south

Posted: October 28, 2015 in Uncategorized
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I went to Las Vegas and hit the jackpot with some great street art and murals!

exterior wall of a two storey building that has been covered with street art by a number of different artists

I’ve started a new page for Las Vegas street art and as usual, over the next few days I’ll be adding to it!

walking down McCaul Street

Posted: October 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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This post is the result of a search for street art while walking south of OCADU on McCaul Street past Grange Road and Stephanie Street on the way to Queen St West.

below: Part of a painting by Uber5000 on the ramp to Above Ground Art Supplies, OCADU on McCaul at Grange.

part of a mural by Uber5000 with birdie in paiter's beret holding a paint palette and painting a portrait of another bird who is posing on a table beside him.

below: On the SW corner of Grange and McCaul is this woman.  The building is 60 McCaul St., the Brinks Express Company of Canada building.

A picture of a woman in profile, with one knee raised, wearing a yellow and white striped top, picture on a wall. An older woman is walking on the sidewalk, approaching the camera.

below: On the south wall of the Brinks building is a mural.  It was painted in 2014 by Julia Dickens, Tara Dorey, Alexandra Mackenzie, Lido Pimienta, Peter Rahul and Diana Vander Meulen.
UPDATE: As of 4th Nov 2015 the lower right part of this mural has been tagged over unfortunately.

mural on the side of low building, beside w parking lot with one white car parked there.

below:  This building has a City of Toronto Development Proposal sign on it.  This sign says: “40-60 McCaul Street and 10 Stephanie Street.  An application has been filed to amend the Zoning By-law to permit a 14 storey residential building with 184 units and a below grade parking garage as well as a 3 storey building proposed to a private art gallery.  Statutory Public Meeting:  Information will be posted once meeting is scheduled.”

corner of a red brick building with a mural on one side and a standard city of Toronto black and white development proposal sign on the other.

below: The next building south on McCaul Street is 52 McCaul.  Dasic Fernandez and Uber5000 contributed this street art to the northwest corner of the building.   It is across the parking lot from the mural pictured above.

street art piece of a woman's face with eyes closed and a vague shape of a heart behind her, done in purples and yellows, by Dasic Fernandez, on the side of brick building, with a pay machine for a parking lot in front of it. Just above her is an UBER5000 birdie with a ghetto blaster

yellowish brown brick wall with a wheatpaste of a girl with long hair and eyes closed. Above her is a paper lace doillie in a heart shape. Part of a grey metal door is also in the picture

below: On the back of 52 McCaul (west side) is:

street art on the back of brick building. A male face is above an old door and an arm on either side of the door.

close up a street art face on a wall

wheatpaste of a girl holdinging something, with poppies behind her, on a brick wall, with decorative metal grilles on either side of her

below: There is a large mural on the south side of 52 McCaul.  It was painted by Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, a Brazilian street artist who goes by the name Nunca, in 2009 as part of that year’s Manifesto Festival.

large mural on an exterior wall beside a parking lot. A man is swimming away from hands holding booze and dice and towards hands holding flowers. There are a few fish in the water with him. Painted by street artist Nunca on a bulding on McCaul Street in Toronto

close up of bottom left of a mural showing 7 hands of different shades of brown and beige. One is holding a pair of dice (two sixes), one is holding a green bottle, presumably with alcohol in it, the other fingers are pointing to the right, towards the main part of the mural.

street art mural, close up of part of it, showing a man swimming in wavy water, he has short black hair, a shiny round ear ring, and his tongue is sticking out. his arms are at his side.

two big round grey fish with open mouths and big yellow eyes, part of a larger mural

part of a mural by Nunca, four hands of differing shades of brown and beige are pointing or holding a large orange flower

below:  A few little things spotted along the way.

on a rusty metal pole beside a brick wall, close up of a flower in a flower pot line drawing in white on brown paper with the word moter in white above it with an arrow pointing to the flower

street signs covered with stickers and slaps in front of OCAD University

More info on the two large murals pictured above.

wildlife on St. Helens

Posted: October 19, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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A number of street artists have collaborated to paint an animal themed mural on a wall
that separates St. Helens Ave from a Value Village store and parking lot (near Bloor and Lansdowne).

street art painting by braesoner of a tiger poking its head out from behind a tag

street art mural on a wall beside a sidewalk, with leaves on the ground and two small trees in the picture as well

street art painting of a toucan with a colourful beak, sitting on large green leaves with a sunset in the background.

 

street art painting of a yellow spray paint can with a big happy face on it.

side view of a street art mural on a wall beside a sidewalk, the closest part of the mural is a picture of two giant beetles by Nick Sweetman with a painting of a spray paint can farther down the fence.

street art mural by Nick Sweetman of two large beetles and a pink flower, on a wall, St. Helens Ave in Toronto

street art painting of letters that spall fathom

street art mural by EGR of a lion beside a tree

street art painting on a wall by cruz1

street art painting of a brown monkey

street art painting by cbs

street art mural on a wall, by Nick Sweetman, of a snake head in blue, purple and green, with a long pink tongue and an orange eye

street art painting on a wall by spud1, #spud1

street art mural painting by EGR of a probably naked woman crouching in the long grass with a spear in her hand.

vote!

Posted: October 18, 2015 in events
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Election day – Monday 19th October

 

Three federal election campaign signs on a front yard, one each for the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP

Three federal election campaign signs outside a restaurant, one each for the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP

I was going to post the election results in Toronto ridings but this picture (screenshot from the Toronto Star website) says it all much more concisely.  Red = Liberal and blue = Conservative.  The blue riding top center is Thornhill.  The other two that are only partly in the picture are Milton in the west and Markham-Stouffville in the east.

map of Toronto federal election results showing almost all seats were won by the Liberal party

I’ve taken a screenshot of the map showing the voter turnout in the Toronto and area ridings, again from the Toronto Star.   The darker the purple, the higher the turnout.  The colours in the screenshot didn’t always match the colours on the website, so I added the numbers (the percent turnout for each riding).  As you can see, turnout varied between 59% and 76%; as a percentage, more people voted in city center ridings than in suburban ridings.

 

map showing the voter turnout in each riding in the Toronto area in the 2015 federal election

peace, love and a chevy van

Posted: October 17, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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“I said, get some sleep and dream of rock and roll.”

below:  War is not the answer, and Let it Be.

Front panel of a white chevy van that is covered with stickers, a pink hand giving a peace sign, daisies, anti-war stickers

below: A bit dirty and faded but still smiling.

old and faded and dirty yellow fabric flower with a happy face on it.

back windows of a chevy van covered with stickers

door panel of a chevy van covered with stickers, ganja, tinker bell, rolling stones tongue,

Drivers side of white chevy panel van, covered with stickers.

 

Surrender

Posted: October 16, 2015 in galleries
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The title of the exhibit is ‘Surrender’ and the words on the wall say this:

“Liz Magor’s art invites us to reconsider our relationships with the things we encounter every day.  Through subtle shifts in materiality and context, her works reveal the important role that objects play in our lives: they can allow us to conceal ourselves or to express our identities.  In her sculptures and photographs, Magor explores how we depend on domestic materials to develop a sense of self.”

Nothing is mentioned about surrendering, or why the exhibit has the title that it does.

In the first room there are boxes on the wall.  Each box looks like a carefully wrapped sweater or jacket that has just been purchased.  I can envision a middle aged saleslady taking her time to package your purchase, like in an Eatons store thirty or forty years ago.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - two walls with many open boxes on them. The boxes are made to look like they've just been opened to reveal a sweater or top folded neatly inside, including the tissue paper that often accompanies a new purchase. The clothes have all been decorated with different objects.

On closer look, most boxes also have a hand print, or shape of a hand with index finger pointing at something and little details are amiss…  a ketchup package for example.

blog_liz_magor_cornhuskers

The second room has a number of smaller installations.

A garment bag left over a chair.
Neatly folded blankets hanging on a wall.
A platter of chocolates and left overs.
A tweed jacket on top of a liquor bottle.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - in the foreground are two long narrow tables. On one of them is a platter with chocolates and a platter with the remains of cheese and crackers.

A husky under a blanket (of snow?  on a bed?)
A coat and purse hanging on a hook.
The contents of a room boxed and ready to move.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - 3 pieces. First, a pile of moving boxes and other items that look like they are in the midst of getting ready for the movers. Second, a large white blanket bed sized that has a hole in the middle of where the pillows should be but instead there is a wolf curled up inside the whole. Third, what looks like a jacket hanging from a hook on the wall

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - two hangers with plaid blankets folded over them hanging from hooks on a wall. One of the blankets has a clear plastic Creeds bag over the top part of it

On closer look, some of the details on the blankets are wrong
including the labels that are sewn on back to front.

The label on a plaid blanket is sewn on backwards so that the writing on the label faces the blanket.

I was interested in what people’s reactions were to this exhibit so I had a chat with a couple of the employees about it.  According to them,  there was no reaction.  Most people showed interest in the boxes but when they walked into the second room they rarely stopped to take a closer look.

blog_liz_magor_rose

As for surrender, I did find reference to it in the description of the exhibit on the AGO website, ” In this exhibition, everyday objects and forms, as well as the natural world, function allegorically by evoking the human need to surrender to desires, compulsions, fantasies.”  Once again, I will leave it to you to decide if this description fits.

Exhibit continues until 29th November.

October edition

Posted: October 15, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Another month, another walk through Graffiti Alley.
As usual, there were some new things that I noticed and here is a sample. 

below: This big guy sits where Batman was just a few weeks ago.

Street art painting of a large rodent like creature sitting Brown, furry, little paws, small feature on face,

below:  Little town scene by Peru with a poser bunny beside.

Street art piece by Peru of the word Peru written in block letters but also used as the backbone of a city scene of stylized little houses with red roofs. The painting has a little truck in front of the houses with the word waistoid on it. Street art Poser bunny to the left.

below: The flu hating rapper

A character in a white lab coat and with spikey grey hair, street art painting. He's hold a microphone to his mouth. The words say Flu Hating Rapper

A street art painting of a man wearing a cap, he's painted standing between two windows with metal grilles over them.

below: Shanghai Toronto 2015

Bright red street art wavy and curly lines on blue and purple toned background.

below:  Lovebot is on the move

large wheatpaste lovebot on a wall that's been painted sky blue. 3D lovebot looks like he's running or jumping.

Street art, tag like painting in white with green and blue and black in the background. On a wall in an alley PHLS ATC

below: Stikman in green and grey

Stickman on a wall with green and grey spray paint on top of him and around him

The corner of a two storey building in Graffiti Alley, photo taken so that both sides of the building are visible. On one side is a group of poser bunnies in brown and white with red background on the lower flooor and a blck lovebot with red heart on the upper floor. On the other side of the corner is a Uber5000 bird above and something that's been tagged over on the bottom.

street art painting of a man with a fat cigar in his mouth, wearing a hat, carrying a briefcase, wearing a suit jacket and tie. Words written in cursive beside him say Love Smelling Daisies.

below:  Any idea what she might be holding in her hands?

Stencil graffiti, black paint on grey wall, of a seated woman holding something in her hands. At first I thought she was holding a camera close to her face but I'm not sure.

Narrow street art painting of a smoking gun sticking out of a hole in a wall.

our faces are all over the place

Posted: October 12, 2015 in events, public art
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Inside Out, a global art project
with more than 250,000 portraits in 124 countries

This project came Toronto as an extended Nuit Blanche installation.

Two men are holding up a large black and white photo of the head and shoulders of one of the men that has just been printed

Starting a few days before Nuit Blanche the Inside Out mobile Photobooth was parked at Nathan Phillips Square.  Anyone who was interested could have their picture taken – a digital copy was emailed to each participant and a large black and white copy was printed within minutes.  The photos were collected and then used to make one large image, a series of concentric circles in the center of the square.

A picture of the mobile photoprinting booth that was used for the Inside Out global art project at Nathan Phillips Square. Some people are waiting in line to have their picture taken.

Two people are holding up a black and white photo of a girl's face. She has her fingers up to her eyes in an owl face. The man holding the photo is making the same face.
below:  Getting ready for Nuit Blanche at Nathan Phillips Square

A group of young people are using brooms and sqeegees to glue blackand white photos of peoples faces onto the concrete of Nathan Phillips Square

A group of young people are using brooms and sqeegees to glue blackand white photos of peoples faces onto the concrete of Nathan Phillips Square

Concentric circles of black and white photos are being glued to the concrete at Nathan Phillips Square, overview, photo taken from the upper level.

below: Nathan Phillips Square at Nuit Blanche

a group of people is gluing pictures to the concrete while many people look on, most are behind barricades, night time

view of the Inside Out Project at Nathan Phillips Square on Nuit Blanche 2015

below: The side of the ramp to the upper level was also covered with photos.

A group of people pose beside a wall that is covered with pictures, nuit blanche, night time.

black and white photos of peoples faces glued to a wall, part of Inside Out Project in Toronto

below: … as was the south side of the 3D Toronto sign.

3D Toronto sign covered with black and white pictures of people, at night, at Nuit Blanche when there were a lot of people standing around it.

below:  The Inside Out Project remained after Nuit Blanche.

Two photos that are glued on the O of the 3D Toronto sign. One is of a man in Blue Jays T shirt and one is of a ayoung man with his hands on his cheeks and a wide eyed, open mouthed look of astonishment on his face. Toronto city hall is in the background

Three people sit on the bench beside the fountain at Nathan Phillips Square. Their backs are to the camera, they are looking towards the 3D Toronto sign that is covered with black and white photos for Inside Out project. Toronto city hall is in the background

A seagull stands on photos of people that are glued to the concrete

Nathan Phillips Square after Nuit Blanche when Inside Out projects are still on the ground, and a farmers market is going on around it.

below: There were a number of other sites around the city that participated in this project including  a wall at Mel Lastman Square in North York.

A wall alongside a sidewalk ramp is covered with black and white photos of people's faces.

below: There was also a wall on the southwest side of Coxwell subway station that was covered.

exterior concrete wall covered with black and white photos of people

exterior concrete wall covered with black and white photos of people

#IOPToronto | #snb2015 | #snbTO | #share3DTO

Lots more info about Inside Out can be found here.

cover_inside_out

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