climbing | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘climbing’

Winter Stations 2020

Posted: February 28, 2020 in events, locations, public art, waterfront
Tags: bells, boxes, chair, Charlie Sutherland, climbing, Cristina Vega, drums, iheartblob, jumping, Kaleidoscope of the Senses, Lake Ontario, lifeguard station, mirage, Noodle Feed, Pablo Losa Fontangordo, people, public art, sand, snow, water, waterfront, winter, winter stations, Woodbine Beach

This is the 6th annual Winter Stations art installation event at Woodbine Beach. It was officially opened on Family Day, February17th.

below: Tying yellow ribbons on the yellow metal frame in “Mirage”, designed by Cristina Vega and Pablo Losa Fontangordo. The orange frame is parallel to the lake and the yellow sections are perpendicular. Depending on where you are standing, you see either a red transparent sun setting or a light and bright rising sun laying on the horizon.

below: “The Beach’s Percussion Ensemble” by Centennial College while under construction.

below: The end product. There is now graffiti on the boxes

below: and cowbells hung from the underside of boxes in a couple of places.

below: “Kaleidoscope of the Senses” is a strong piece designed by Charlie Sutherland of SUHUHA (An architecture studio in Edinburgh). People were lining up to take turns sitting on the lifegusard chair.

below: “Noodle Feed” by iheartblob was very popular on the Sunday before Family Day (the official opening of ‘Winter Stations’). It wasn’t designed to have a jumping feature but that’s what all the kids were doing that day. The fabric tubes are filled with straw.

below: When I returned to the beach a few days later, the installation was gone.

Information about the installations can be found at winterstations.com

Henry Moore finds a new home

Posted: July 13, 2017 in construction, landmarks, public art
Tags: AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, blue wall, climbing, girl, Grange Park, Henry Moore, Large Two Forms, park, people, public art, sculpture

If you go looking for Henry Moore at the corner of Dundas and McCaul, you will be disappointed.

Instead, you have to walk around the corner.

After residing at the corner of Dundas and McCaul since 1974, Henry Moore’s sculpture “Large Two Forms” was moved to the newly renovated Grange Park on the 3rd of June. Grange Park is behind the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as OCADU (Ontario College of Art and Design University).

The new setting suits the sculpture. There is more room for people to interact with the sculpture and the park makes a more picturesque background for those who like to take photos.

I’d be interested in knowing if the AGO has any plans for the now empty corner at Dundas and McCaul. Was the construction pictured above just to remove the platform that the sculpture used to be on? Or is there more to it than that?

Also, I don’t mean to spoil your fun, but how long will it be until a “do not climb” sign appears in Grange Park? I’m not advocating for one – I just know how the city acts on things like this. Part of me says, “Quick, get your selfie from on top of the sculpture while you can!”

A little extra that I discovered this morning. As I wrote this blog post I kept thinking about “Down By the Henry Moore”, a song from my past. All I could recall was the title. I found a great version of it on youtube – the song was written and sung by Murray McLauchlan and was released in 1974. The Henry Moore referred to in the song is the one in front of City Hall but the video on youtube has some fabulous old picture of Toronto! Many thanks to john allore who made the video and uploaded it to youtube. I really enjoyed seeing the old images, down memory lane and all that. If you are interested, this is the link; it will open youtube in a new page. You may have to suffer through a few seconds of ads and you have my apologies for that.

Ontario Place 2.0

Posted: July 10, 2017 in landmarks, locations, waterfront
Tags: bikes, boats, Brigantine Cove, cinesphere, city, climbing, CN Tower, crochet, cyclists, flood, graffiti, Lake Ontario, nature, Ontario Place, people, purple cone flowers, rocks, sailboats, skyline, stickers, street art, sunbathers, sunbathing, Trillium Park, urban ninja squadron, walkers, water, William G. Davis trail

After parts were shuttered 40 years ago, Ontario Place has re-opened to the public. The spherical Cinesphere and the buildings that are over the water are not open but the grounds are.

below: Canadian and Ontario flags fly along the docks of the Ontario Place Marina.

below: Double trouble. Hot x 2

below: Those are some very big boats!

There is also a new park, Trillium Park, that has been built on the eastern end of Ontario Place. It is 7.5 acres of green space with a 1.3 km trail (the William G. Davis trail) winding through it.

below: Trillium Park provides new angles from which to view the CN Tower and the Toronto skyline.

below: It is also a spot from which to watch airplanes as they take off from Billy Bishop Airport.

below: Sunbathers

below: Rock climbing

below: Water levels in Brigantine Cove, like all of Lake Ontario, are higher than usual.

below: There are still some traces of the amusement park rides that were once there. There is no water in the boat ride, but the bilingual warning signs are still on the rocks. “Keep hands, arms and head inside boat. Stay seated.”

below: Tbonez (urban ninja squadron) must have been to Ontario Place recently

below: Crochet street art, marine life, discovered clinging to the underside of a small wooden bridge.
This picture is upside down.

below: A painting of a man painting and of his shadow painting.

below: And last, music events are held at Echo Beach, a section of Ontario Place. The day that I was there a steady background noise from the electronic (techno? I’m out of date on newer music genres) music permeated the park. You couldn’t escape it. This isn’t the best picture but I didn’t get very close – my poor head! I was interested in the palm trees but I couldn’t get the right angle. There are other music events happening this summer so maybe you can time your visit to coincide with music that you like!