Posts Tagged ‘art’

buskerfest 2014

Posted: August 26, 2014 in events, people
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Buskerfest 2014

Yonge Street was closed from College to Queen for the event.

Yonge St. at Dundas, barrier across Yonge St. as it is pedestrians only. Lots of signs, lots of people,

Yonge Street on the Saturday afternoon of Buskerfest, looking north from Dundas Street

.

A man dressed in green is on stilts as he walks up Yonge St.

Hovering above the crowd.

.

There were street performers……

 

A group of four people are on stilts but dressed in very long pants. Two are playing a drum and two are playing shaking instruments. They are walking down Yonge St. People are on the sidewalks watching them. Street performance as part of buskerfest.

towering over the audience as they walk down Yonge Street

.

A performer is on a very tall unicycle. He is juggling lit torches as he slowly goes around in a tight circle.

DyneMike, playing with fire on high

.

A street performer is using a diabolo to entertain a crowd of people who are sitting and standing on the sidewalk around him.

This guy, part of Touch2Catch, was amazing to watch. Great diabolo action!

.

A performer has been launched into the air. He is holding a large ring that is on fire. He is turning himself through the ring while in the air.

more Touch2Catch – jumping through a ring of fire

.

One of the street performers from the group Touch2Catch is doing a side flip over a man who is on all fours on the street.

side flip over Dimitri

.

A picture of buskerfest is displayed on an electronic billboard.

Samsung was putting tweets and instagram postings with their buskerfest hashtag on the electronic billboard above Yonge & Dundas. At one point I looked up and saw this one. A great photo! She captured an unobscured view of the exact moment the performer from Touch2Catch did a side flip over five people.

.

A woman has taken the silver guitar from Silver Elvis and is pretending to play it while hamming it up for the small group of people that are watching.

sharing the limelight with Silver Elvis …. or taking over? All in good fun!

.

A woman is having her picture taken with a performer who is dressed in a white dress made of balloons. She has balloon wings and white feathers in her hair.

Photo op with an angel in white balloons.  Balloon dresses are available from The Twisted Ones

.

A street performer is twisting the upper part of his body in order to fit it through a tennis racquet.

What one does in the name of entertainment – putting one’s shoulders through a tennis racquet…. don’t try it at home kids.

.

….. music

Musicians onstage, a group of adults standing in front of the stage. The adults all have drinks in their hands and they are all toasting. One of the musicians has a stuffed fish in his hand.

A toast to the cod, screeching in at Dundas Square.  The Screeched Inn performed on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square, their “kitchen party”.

All money raised by performers on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square went to Epilepsy Toronto.
In addition, Samsung donated $1 to Epilepsy Toronto for every tweet of buskerfest that included the hashtag #samsungsbbf

 

….. sidewalk artists

 

A woman is using chalk to make a large picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the sidewalk

ninja turtles taking shape on the sidewalk (artist: the Chalk Chick)

.

A chalk drawing of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie on a sidewalk. A man's legs are also in the photo.

Ariel, Disney’s little mermaid is on the sidewalk. Another drawing by the Chalk Chick.

 

 

… and curious kids, entertained kids

Some children are watching buskers perform by peeking through a gap in the red and white plastic banners that are the backdrop to the show.

vantage point

 

.

A dog, a Great Dane, is standing in front of two women dressed as clowns on pink and white ponies. The dog has barked at them and they are reacting by making faces and moving back

Some dogs don’t like clowns either. Great Danes have quite the bark!

.

 

A large electronic billboard high above Yonge St. A picture of one of my buskerfest tweets is being displayed.

a narcissistic moment

With thanks to the Second Cup on Mt. Pleasant where I hung out while putting this blog entry together.

Montreal

Posted: June 19, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Yes, there has been a shortage of blog posts here recently.

The reason?  A trip to Montreal for MuralFest, and a chance to walk parts of that city.

The result?  … of course! ….  a few blog posts about Montreal!  They are more to come over the next few days, but you will find them on the page labelled ‘Montreal’ – (link) or on the black menu bar that’s across the top of the page.

piles

Posted: October 13, 2013 in events
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Piles of chairs, piles of bicycles and piles of plastic bags.  That is the best way to summarize three of the Nuit Blanche installations that remained on display for a week or so after the 5th of October.

…

First, the pile of chairs

Garden Tower, by Tadashi Kawamata of Hokkaido Japan

in front of Metropolitan United Church

“As if each person who sat on these chairs left a piece of himself, the work evokes the beautiful and utopian spects of the myth of the Babel Tower, a humanity speaking with one voice and engaged, with solidarity, in the building of a better future.”  (from the sign accompanying the installation)

a large pile of chairs sits in front of a church

Garden Tower chairs in front of Metropolitan United Church on Queen Street East.

 

A hollow pile of chairs about thirty feet high. The photo is taken from inside the pile. The sky can be seen in the photo.

Looking upward from inside the pile of chairs. There was a pathway that ran through the base of the tower.

 

A squirrel sits on the bottom of a red and white striped chair that is upside down.

new found habitat for one of Toronto’s four legged residents

…

Then the pile of bicycles: 

Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei at Nathan Phillips Square

Part of the curved walls of city hall are in the background and part of a number of bicycles is in the foreground.

bicycles in front of city hall

.

A woman wearing a green sweater and a bicycle helmet is standing in the middle of a pile of more than 3000 bicycles. She also has her own bike with her.

one bike amongst many

Nathan Phillips Square on a grey and foggy morning. There are a few people in the square who are looking at the large art installation that involves a structure made from more than 3000 bicycles

Nathan Phillips Square on the wet and foggy morning after Nuit Blanche.

…

Last, the pile of plastic bags:

Plastic Bags by Pascale Marthine Tayou of Cameroon

interior, Bell Trinity Square

The interior of a large office building. A group of men are standing and talking under a large collection of red, white, green and yellow plastic bags.

The plastic bags hang from the ceiling like a big blob.  Like confetti, or bits of coloured paper, ready to be dropped on the people below.

.

Art Spin

Posted: September 2, 2013 in events, galleries
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Fourth Annual Art Spin Exhibition,
Tower Automotive Building, 158 Sterling Rd.,
Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2013

18 artists, one old vacant heritage industrial building.

Interesting lighting.  Interesting use of the space.  Interesting relationships between the installations and their surroundings.

I have not included photos of all the art in the exhibit.  My apologies to the artists whose work I haven’t shown.

looking at 'Sound the Alarm' by Caroline Larsen' with the video installation 'I,I,I,I' in the foreground

looking at ‘Sound the Alarm’ by Caroline Larsen’ with the video installation ‘I,I,I,I’ in the foreground

space2

'We Are Happy' by Michael Toke. Like a visit to the dentist's office.

‘We Are Happy’ by Michael Toke. Like a visit to the dentist’s office.

a group of people looking at a piece of art. They are in a large open space that once was a factory. Concrete and brick walls.

The painting on the wall to the left is ‘Exit Enter’ by Celia Neubauer.

'Sterling Caer Observer' by Noel Middleton

‘Sterling Caer Observer’ by Noel Middleton

A sculpture that is composed of three tall vertical pieces of shiny metal. A yellowish brick wall is in the background.

‘Untitled’ by Jinny Yu. Three shaped pieces of metal by brick wall.

 

artist:  Mary Grisey

art installation in front of an old green door. There is a lot of frayed rope.

Art installation with a lot of rope, especially frayed rope.

‘Floating in the Eye of the Storm’ by Lois Schklar.

  wire sculpture

Wire sculpture in the foreground with an oil painting in the background

part of a wire sculpture including a star

part of a wire sculpture showing a little gold trinket in the shape of a hand

‘Stillnessence Vivarium’ by John Oswald. 

This installation lent itself to a many interpretations.

projection of life sized picture of a group of people

people2

life sized projection of a group of people, male and female, young and old,

more information about Art Spin  http://www.artspin.ca

a wall, part concrete and part tile.

The video installation ‘Melting Bricks’ was in small room where it was shown fairly high up on the wall. It was the only source of light in the room. I focused on the relationship between the room and the light when I was taking pictures of it. (my apologies to the artist as I seem to have forgotten his/her name).

 

blocks1

________________________

Corkin Gallery

Posted: May 12, 2013 in galleries
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Corkin Gallery sign on green door

Thank-you to the Corkin Gallery for letting a group of us take photos in their gallery. The Corkin Gallery is located in a renovated tank house in the Distillery District and some of the old architectural features of the original building remain.

http://www.corkingallery.com

Large red heart on the upper level of the gallery.

It looks like a stove top! Detail of a painting.

Modern art on old brick.

Detail of painting. Unfortunately I didn’t make note of the names of the artists or the titles of the paintings – lesson learned.
Newer Entries