Posts Tagged ‘Canadian’

Canada 151

Posted: July 2, 2018 in events, people
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

a greoup of three people in red and white clothes st Yonge Dundas square for Canada Day, a girl in a red and white striped long dress and two women in red and white polka dots and stripes

Happy Canada Day weekend!

a group of women pose with little Canadian flags, for a picture, at Yonge Dundas Square for Canada Day.

the second half of the band

Posted: September 18, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Last November I blogged about a large 22 storey mural on Yonge Street just below College (music makers on Yonge ).  This mural was by Adrian Hayles and it includes many Canadian music icons.   Recently, Hayles has created a matching mural of the same size on the other side (south side) of the building at 423 Yonge Street with portraits of more Canadian musicians.

tall mural, 22 storeys tall, on the side of a TCHC apartment building in Toronto, by Adrian Hayles, portraits of Canadian musicians such as the band Rush, Carole Pope and others

Rush, Goddo, the Band, David Clayton Thomas, Lonnie Johnson, Selome Bey, Carole Pope, Cathy Young, Jay Douglas, Kim Mitchell, Mandala, and John and Lee and the Checkmates are all shown in the mural.  It is best seen if you are walking north on Yonge Street although some trees partially block the view.

Canadian musicians on a wall, mural by Adrian Hayles,

part of a music mural, a trumpet player, male, with graying hair,

part of face and hands on a mural with a nesting pigeon beside it. It looks like the hand is reaching for the pigeon.

music mural,

bottom part of mural, guitar player and band dressed in white suits with black stripes, black pointy toe shoes, wall is behind two orange and black cones.

The mural was commissioned by the Downtown Yonge BIA,

kids and soldiers

Posted: January 16, 2017 in memorials, public art
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Sculptures by Ken Lum.

I was walking up Bay Street yesterday when I stopped.  Out of the corner of my eye I had caught a glimpse of a sculpture that I had never seen before.  It is ‘Two Children of Toronto’ by Ken Lum, 2013.

Two children, a boy and a girl, sit opposite each other, some distance between them.

two children of toronto, a sculpture by Ken Lum, two children seated on pedestals, about 25 feet apart, along the side of a walkay, with a concrete building beside them. The children are looking towards each other

What you can’t see in the above picture is that there are words in bronze mounted on the wall.  The words say: “Across time and space, two children of Toronto meet”.  The two kids are looking towards each but not each other.

sculpture, Two Children of Toronto by Ken Lum in a downtownwalkway with a concrete bulding beside it, girl's face

below: Both children are wearing clothes from bygone days.

sculpture, Two Children of Toronto by Ken Lum in a downtownwalkway with a concrete bulding beside it, looking towards the girl, with Bay Street and Canadian Tire store behind

below: But the boy’s clothes are more Chinese looking.

sculpture, Two Children of Toronto by Ken Lum in a downtownwalkway with a concrete bulding beside it, a boy is seated on a concrete pedestal.

After my walk the other day, I started researching Ken Lum.  I discovered that he has another sculpture nearby, and fortuitously, it was one that I took some pictures of back in December.  It is “Peace Through Valour” located at the NW corner of City Hall property.  Winston Churchill is standing close by.

a sculpture called Peace Through valour by Ken Lum, outside on a snowy day. A square piece with a soldier standing guard at each corner. On top of the flat squsre is a model of a town in square blocks (no details on the buildings).

It commemorates the 93,000 Canadians who fought in the Italian campaign of WW2 and was dedicated in June 2016.   A Canadian soldier stands vigil at each corner of the memorial.  The top of the 7 foot x 7 foot square is a topographical map of Ortona, a town in Italy that was a scene of a battle at Christmas time in 1943.  Ortona is on the Adriatic coast and its streets were narrow which made it difficult for Allied forces to liberate the town from Nazi Germany.

two soldiers stand vigil at the corners of a memorial, sculptures,

Money for the sculpture was donated by the Italian-Canadian community.

two soldiers stand vigil at the corners of a memorial, sculptures,

dull rhymes

Posted: December 17, 2016 in galleries
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

If By Dull Rhymes
an exhibit by David Armstrong Six and Kristan Horton
Clint Roenisch Gallery, St. Helens Ave

 Dull rhymes may not be the best title as there was nothing dull about the exhibit.

This exhibit  features two Canadian-born artists.  The sculptures that you see are by David Armstrong Six.  They are playful mashups of broken and cast off pieces and many resemble the human form in one way or another.  You can imagine them dancing around the room when the lights are off and everyone’s gone home.   For now, their dance is frozen in time as they await tonight’s revelry.  The two works on the wall are by Kristan Horton.

artwork by David Armstrong Six (sculpture) and Kristan Horton (prints on the wall) at the Clint Roenisch gallery - three sculptures and two pieces on board on the wall

below: Close up of one of the panels.   Details.  Eye catching.  Mesmerizing. Geometric Patterns.  Each section is made with a single part of a piece of packaging that has been manipulated (rotated, flipped, etc) to make a repeating pattern.

eight different patterns made with labels that are displayed side by side.

below: Here you can see the barcode from a box of something.  The number 2729 appears with the barcode – sometimes it in the ‘correct’ orientation and sometimes it’s the mirror image.

close up of the patterns made with different labels and barcodes by Kristan Horton

artwork by David Armstrong Six (sculpture) and Kristan Horton (prints on the wall) at the Clint Roenisch gallery - close up of one of the sculptures, it looks like a face, head, body and outstretched arm, patterned artwork on the wall in the background.

This is only a sample of the works on display.   There is a lot more information on by Kristan Horton‘s website.  I haven’t found a website for David Armstrong Six, but there are images of some of his other work online if you are interested.

artwork by David Armstrong Six (sculpture) and Kristan Horton (prints on the wall) at the Clint Roenisch gallery - one sculpture on the floor and one panel on the wall. The panel is a 10 sections, each section is a different pattern made of labels from packaging.

The exhibit is only on until the 17th of December.

celebrating Canada Day

Posted: July 2, 2015 in events
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Canada Day 2015

There were celebrations at a number of locations around the city
including Queens Park and Yonge-Dundas Square.

A young man stands in Dundas Square in an area that has been barricaded off and also in which a large maple leaf outline in red tape has been laid down. He is wearing a red Canada T shirt and holding a small Canadian flag.

The red outline of a maple leaf was then used to make a “living flag” of people wearing red T-shirts and white T-shirts. The crowd waited patiently behind the barricades while the organizers got their act together. Not everyone stayed on the sidelines!

.

Five people pose for a photo. They are wearing red T shirts and they are standing withing the stem of the maple leaf outline that is taped to the ground. They are the first ones into the living flag that is trying to be made at Dundas Square as part of a Canada Day celebration

The first part of the “living flag” takes their place in the stem of the maple leaf.

 

A man holds a young girl on his shoulders while the watch a performance of New Choir, a choir that sings old rock songs, as part of a Canada Day celebration at Dundas Square. The girl is wearing a red hat with white maple leafs on it. There are Canadian flags hanging from the ceiling of the stage.

Listening to New Choir perform at Yonge Dundas Square

.
two women are all dressed in white and sitting in poses to look like statues. A boy is approaching them to figure them out

The back of a young girl wearing a red baseball cap and sitting on someone's shoulder as she watches an acrobat show on a stage

One of the better seats in the house! Watching the acrobatics at Queens Park.

.
A woman all dressed in white is sitting still as if she's a statue. A man, also wearing a hat, stands behind her mimicking her pose

A man is hamming it up for the camera. He is wearing a silver and red oversized tophat and a red and white costume. He is holding the corner of a large Canadian flag

A young girl looks a bit skeptical as she poses with four women dressed in frilly white dresses who are hamming it up for the camera. Exaggerated facial expressions

A group of characters in red and white Canada Day costumes stop to pose with some boys. One of the characters has a stuffed beaver that is trying to take a sip of the boy's snowcone.

It’s thirsty work being a beaver!

.
Two kids sit on the sidewalk beside two men who are talking. Yonge Street is in the background, with traffic, including an open topped double decker bus.

a red headed young man is standing on the base of a statue to get a better look at a show, the crowd is in the background. He is all dressed in red and his Tshirt has the words I am Canadian on it

A young toddler wearing a white flower head band and a red T-shirt, and holding a Canadian flag is being held by her father

An older man in a red T shirt and a funny red and white hat is holding 2 small Canadian flags

Mayor John Tory has a small Canadian flag in his hand as he talks to people at Dundas Square on Canada day. He's in a white T-shirt.

As I stood as part of the white of the Canadian flag, along came John Tory, also on the white team. Just out of the picture (and also in white) was Miss Teenage Toronto. (What? We have a what? I had no idea there was a Miss Teen Toronto).  Next time I’ll try harder to get a picture of her but this time I was preoccupied with being part of a flag.

.

Here’s to the next 148 years!

A person in red and white Canada Day costume is on stilts with three others standing beside, in front of the parliament buildings at Queens Park

Douglas Coupland at the ROM

Posted: February 5, 2015 in galleries
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything

Royal Ontario Museum
until April 26, 2015

entrance to an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum featuring a large yellow wall with the name Douglas Coupland in large black letters. In the distance are two women standing in front of a painting that is hung on point.

In the background is a large painting of geometric abstract shapes in yellows, reds and greys. In the foreground is a close up of two stacks of blocks. The blocks are old children's wooden building blocks but they are alll different. Three have letters of the alphabet on them, one has a picture of a birds nest.

The 21st Century Condition
“I want to explore how it feels to be inside the 21st century brain as opposed to the 20th century brain”

Six paintings arranged three across by two down, on a wall. One in grays, one in pink, one in purple, one in ornage and one in pale pink.

a large wall is covered with coloured rectangles and in each rectangle is an expression that has become common. For example, get a life, oh my god, delete entire history?, etc. A woman is standing to the left of the wall, taking a picture of it with her cellphone.

view of an art exhibit, some people are walking through it and a couple of people are looking at the art on the walls

blog_coupland_rom_colour

Painted with dots.  When they are hanging on the wall, they look abstract.
When they are shrunk down and viewed on a smartphone, the picture comes into focus.

three paintings hanging on a wall in an art exhibit. One is of Osama bin Laden and the other two are 9/11 related, New York .

update:  Here is an interesting article that appeared in the Torontoist on 24th Feb about this exhibit.