Harbourfront | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘Harbourfront’

more than a pile of skulls

Posted: October 14, 2021 in locations, public art
Tags: art installation, Built on Genocide, CHIPPEWAR, Harbourfront, indigenous, Jay Soule, Luminato Festival, Meryl McMaster, Ontario Square, photography, posters, skulls

There are two public art exhibits now on display at Harbourfront’s Ontario Square. The first is “Built on Genocide” by by Jay Soule aka CHIPPEWAR which is part of this year’s Luminato Festival …. “In the mid-19th century, an estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo roamed the prairies, by the late 1880s, fewer than 300 remained. As the buffalo were slaughtered and the prairie ecosystem decimated, Indigenous peoples were robbed of their foods, lands, and cultures. The buffalo genocide became a genocide of the people” (quote source: Luminato website)

below: The centerpiece is a pile of Buffalo skulls.

below: Surrounding the skulls are posters that highlight and criticize government policies towards First Nations including (Prime Minister) Sir John A. Macdonald and his “Magic Eraser”, i.e. the Indian Act of 1876.

below: The poster on the left references the adoption of First Nations children by non-Native families often referred to as the Sixties Scoop because it reached its peak (most adoptions) in the 1960s. The plight of Indigenous women is the subject of the other poster – the disproportionate number of whom have been murdered or went missing.

There is also a display of large photographs by Meryl McMaster.

below: What Will I Say to the Sky and the Earth II.

below: On the Edge of This Immensity

below: As Immense as the Sky

broken relationships

Posted: July 12, 2019 in galleries
Tags: broken, brokenship, Dražen Grubišic, Harbourfront, items, memories, Olinka Vištica, relationships, stories, symbolic

The Museum of Broken Relationships is now appearing at Harbourfront. The stories that accompany the items run the full gamut of emotions – sad, funny, mundane, strange, creepy, sweet, and, you get the picture. There are two permanent museum sites, one in Zagreb and one in Los Angeles. Toronto is one of several traveling exhibits. Zagreb is the hometown of the couple that started the collection, Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišic, when their own relationship fell apart.

below: “Given to me by an American “boyfriend” when I was 17 and inscribed “for… who charmed the savage wolf.” I didn’t know that he would eventually hound my parents for years, then eventually have a sex change and steal their name for his new persona.” I’ve never heard of this book before today and I thought maybe I’d like to read it. Curiosity. But then I googled it and discovered that it’s “experimental prose poetry” and written in a stream if consciousness style – so now I’m not so curious. 😎

below: “Not quite sure when it died really… the world just kind of works that way sometimes.”

below: “Empty bag of fortune cookies attached to a Starbucks cup. You were my first love. And I wished you would also be my last. When we got those fortune cookies and I opened mine, it read ‘You have to learn to read between the lines’. I should have followed that advice because between those lines there was you cheating on me over and over. Isn’t that ironic? “

below: “A Linksys router. We tried. Not compatible”. Droll. Succinct.

below: “A spectrum of a star. We are both astronomers. On my 26th birthday he sent me a spectrum of a star in the Orion constellation as my birthday gift. This star, names pi3, is 26 light years away from the Earth. He said, “Look, at the time when you were born, the light left this star, passing through the endless interstellar space, the countless dust and nebula, arriving here after a 26 light year journey. So, have you. Here you meet your starlight, and I meet you.”

below: What would you write? What have other people left behind in your life? What symbolic little keepsakes from past relationships do you have buried away?

The story that I don’t have a photo for is that which goes with a broken pair of handcuffs. A sample of the story: “What is left of the fake handcuffs is the result of a particularly passionate night/morning in bed…. I remember one morning when he had me handcuffed to the bed and the phone rang. It was the man who would, several months later, become my next boyfriend.”

At least that’s not as bad as one man’s account of life after breaking up with his wife… when a year later she committed suicide. There is only one side to the story presented here and it made me want to know the other side.

The Museum of Broken Relationships is also online. Here you will find the 1487 heart breaking stories that have been collected so far. Together they form a larger story about the way we love and lose. You can also add your contribution if you want. If you do read the stories, may you not stumble across something written by an ex!

This exhibit has also be described in Toronto Life and Now Magazine
It continues until 8th September.

Dreams and Love

Posted: February 14, 2019 in galleries
Tags: African, art, artists, black and white, contemporary art, Harbourfront, Jah Grey, Omar Ba, people, photography, photos, political, portraits, power plant, Quil Lemons, Sean Brown, Stella Fakiyesi, Yannick Anton

I’ve decided to put together two exhibits that are on at the moment in one blog post. The first is ‘Same Dream’ by Omar Ba at the Power Plant Gallery and the second is ‘Reflections of Love’ by a group of photographers next door at one of the Harbourfront galleries The two exhibits don’t have a lot in common except the close proximity of the two galleries and the fact that I saw them on the same afternoon last week.

First, Omar Ba was born in 1977 in Dakar Senegal. He studied art in Dakar and then in Geneva where he now spends part of his time.

below: The large work in the middle of the gallery was painted in place. That is Jesus on the cross. The center figure has the word”Horus” painted beside it. Horus was an Egyptian God who was usually depicted with a falcon’s head on a human body. The painting depicts “a recurrent motif of birth, death and reincarnation across different cultures today” according to the description of the exhibit on Power Plant’s website .

below: ‘Naufrage’ 2014. Dictators, despots, and authority figures can be seen in many of his paintings, often mixed in with scenes of plants and/or animals.

below: Similar to the one above, except hear the plants are based on fairly realistic human hearts with black aortas and yellow blood vessels.

below: Ba’s paintings are full of small details as can be seen in this close-up of part of ‘Autopsie de nos consciences 2’, 2018. Name the flags?

below: More details but from a different painting.

***

‘Reflections of Love’ is a photography exhibit on at Harbourfront for the month of February that features the work of five artists.

As you enter the gallery, the words on the wall say, “In honor of Black History Month, this thoughtful photography exhibit explores the many forms of love found within our black communities through reflections of self, identity and acceptance. Power within vulnerability and healing can only come through togetherness and conversation. This is a true celebration of exemplified strength in people with deep roots and heritage.”

below: On the back wall, a series of images by Stella Fakiyesi. Fakiyesi was born in Nigeria and raised in Toronto.

below: Photo by Sean Brown

below: Photo by Jah Grey

below: Two photographs by Quil Lemons

below: A closer look at the one on the right shows a wonderful tangle of three girls.

below: Three portraits by Yannick Anton

***

Happy Valentines Day!

waterfront in the grey of winter

Posted: January 13, 2018 in waterfront
Tags: #TOwaterfront, boats, bridge, footprints, harbour, Harbourfront, ice, Lake Ontario, park, pink sign, Queens Quay, snow, umbrellas, white chairs, winter

It’s been a while, I know. Part of my excuse – the holidays got in the way. But more importantly, it’s been very cold with bitter winds adding to our discomfort. The very cold days are beautiful with their bright blue skies. Although I have walked once or twice in -20C weather, the pictures here are from a warmer day when it was possible to take pictures without freezing my fingers off. Unfortunately, in the winter warmer often means greyer. I thought of calling this post “In Search of Winter” but that would be silly as no search is needed, it hits you in the face and it surrounds you. Everyone is talking about the cold.

below: Winter in the city isn’t always picturesque. Salt and sand and snow mix together to form slush. Brown ugly slush, especially on the roads and sidewalks as seen here on Queens Quay West. Of course, if you live in Toronto you are already well aware of this!

below: H2O park now has a pink #TOwaterfront sign (sculpture?) to go with its yellow umbrellas and white Muskoka chairs. The weakened winter sun tried to break through the wall of clouds.

below: The other morning there was a small group of Toronto firemen all dressed for the icy water as they practiced winter rescue procedures. Both men were tethered to the shore.

below: Just a few footprints in the snow. I wasn’t the only one walking this way but there certainly weren’t any crowds.

below: A cold and lonely barbecue, as well as one under wraps, waiting out the winter on the dock.

below: Access to the docks along the waterfront was discouraged. It was easy to get out there but I suspect that if I’d fallen in I would have gotten in trouble, and not just from being wet. I wonder how thick the ice was there?

below: Instead of comic relief, we have colour relief!

below: Ducks on ice. Have you ever seen a duck land in the snow? It looks exactly like a landing in water but with a much shorter skid at it comes to a stop. Or maybe that was obvious because how else would a duck land?

below: More ducks… ducks swimming in the small patch of open water. There can’t be much food for them these days.

below: Lake Ontario with the Port Lands and the Toronto Islands in the background. Windswept snow on the ice.

Stay warm everyone!

And don’t lose your gloves! There are so many lost and lonely gloves out there… I hope that this one isn’t yours because if you’re like me, you lose at least one every winter. I wonder they end up? In landfills? … where archeologists of the future will dig up all these single gloves and mitts and wonder what it says about our society? [smile!]

downtown with no particular plan

Posted: June 14, 2017 in construction, general Toronto, reflections, transportation, windows and walls
Tags: 3D signs, Artport, Bobbie Rosenfeld, Canada 150, Canada Square, CN Tower, Coastal, condos, construction, Dai Skuse, Fastwurms, Gardiner Expressway, glass, Harbourfront, images, Johan Hallberg-Campbell, Kim Kossi, metal, photography, pictures, ramps, rust, skywalk, Union station

Monday’s walk was a meandering route downtown, once again going where my feet and eyes take me. No particular plan in mind and no set destination… just trying to explore where I haven’t been recently. No theme jumped out and tapped me on the shoulder but a few “stories” emerged.

below: There is now a 3D sign between the CN Tower and the Aquarium that says Canada 150.

below: …and another 3D sign by the CN Tower (you can see part of the back of the Canada 150 sign through the tree). I wonder how many there are in this city now? Another bit of information (trivia?) – this area is called Bobbie Rosenfeld Park and has been since 1991. Fanny (“Bobbie”) Rosenfeld was a Canadian athlete who won two track medals in the 1928 Olympics. She also played softball and hockey in the 1920s and 30s. When arthritis force her to stop playing she turned to sports journalism, working for the ‘Globe and Mail’ until her retirement in 1955.

One of the routes from the CN Tower into the downtown core of the city is via the Skywalk, a glass enclosed elevated walkway over the railway tracks. The next few photos were taken as I walked that route.

below: A Toronto species of woodpecker in its native habitat – a forest of glass and steel. This artwork was completed in 1997 and is the creation of Dai Skuse and Kim Kozzi who together are known as Fastwurms.

below: The above photo was taken from a quiet little terrace that I accessed from the Skywalk. Now you can see just how big the woodpecker is! The ‘tree trunk’ pole is 30m high. What you can’t see is the second woodpecker who is on the other side of the pole and slightly farther down it.

below: The glass of the Skywalk creates some interesting reflections and shadows. The glass was fairly clean the other day when I walked through it. I have seen it when it’s been quite dirty and it’s not a pretty sight.

below: Union Station, looking east from the Skywalk. The new roof over the station platforms is taking shape. Someday soon I’m going to have to take a look at the insides of the station; I can’t wait for all the renovations to be completed.

below: Part of the south “wall” along the railway tracks.

below: Looking east from lower Simcoe along the south edge of the Gardiner Expressway. The podium of the new condo under construction at 10 York Street is quite the wedge!

below: I played a bit on google maps street view and this is what I found for the above scene (taken Nov 2016). If you compare the photos (above & below), it’s obvious that one of the ramps for the Gardiner Expressway has been demolished. The eastbound exit to Yonge/York/Bay was removed a couple of months ago. If you are a regular user of the Gardiner, I’m sure you have already experienced the consequences of this!

below: Standing on the same spot, but turning around 180 degrees – looking west from Lower Simcoe. An old ramp in the foreground…. and what looks like new construction in the background. Those are new bents (the structures that hold up the road).

below: To get a closer look at what was happening here, I ventured around to the other side . This is the view from closer to Rees Street. There is car on the old ramp so it must still be open (onramps still functional, just the offramp was removed).

below: The trees are growing at Canada Square (Harbourfront), but so are the condos. Yes, this new building is the same one with the wedge shaped lower floors.

below: Also at Canada Square, there are three large photographs by Johan Hallberg-Campbell, a series called “Coastal”. This one of them:

below: More of Hallberg-Campbell’s work can be seen inside in the Artport Gallery (Harbourfront building) – here, many photographs with simple wood frames are mounted on a wall that is covered with large images. “Coastal” is the product of the artist’s travels to coastal areas of Canada, from Newfoundland to northern Manitoba to British Columbia and many places in between. Life on the edge, so to speak. (Note: gallery show ends 18th June)

below: It’s not art but sometimes the line between public art and advertising campaigns is fuzzy.

Not all is shiny and new. And that’s the way it should be.

carpets and ice

Posted: December 8, 2016 in galleries
Tags: blue, carpets, false guide, faucets, faux guide, Geological Time, Harbourfront, ice, Morocco, museum, natural history, people, pipes, Plumbers Assemblage, plumbing, prints, red, rink, shower heads, skating, skyline, taps, the power plant, urban, Yto Barrada

Yesterday afternoon I wandered into The Power Plant Art Gallery. It was late enough in the day that the sun was already low in the sky. It shone through the large windows in the main gallery and cast a warm glow on the current exhibit, works by Yto Barrada titled ‘Faux Guide’ .

The first thing you see when you enter the rooms is a collection of carpets. This is ‘Geological Time Scale’ and it consists of bright and bold red, blue, and green carpets – Beni Mguild, Marmoucha and Ait Sgougou pile rugs from Western Central, Middle Atlas, Morocco. It’s definitely eye catching and it definitely draws the viewer into the exhibit.

A series of small exhibits are arranged around the room and most of them are the result of the artist’s research on Moroccan dinosaurs, fossils, and the industry that has built up around them including the trade in fake fossils sold to tourists and museums. I have not shown most of these exhibits – I will leave it up to you to discover them.

below: “I am not exotic I am exhausted”. I suspect that this comes as Barrada’s response to living in a place (Tangiers Morroco) where tourists come to see “exotic things”. But it is also the lament of anyone trying to live and work in a place that is also a “tourist attraction”.

below: The whole of ‘A Modest Proposal’ and ‘Faux Guide’, 2015. A set of 48 posters loosely tacked to the wall. A mix of humorous and poignant. One is an alphabetical listing of all the types of dinosaurs found in Morocco. One says “Miss Colorado and Miss Finland are Moroccan” – which did happen in 2012.

below: ‘Plumber Assemblage’ by the window, with skaters outside in the fading light.

There are many, many things that you can take from this exhibit. Many things to think about.

An article in the Toronto Star claims that Barrada “explores the cultural heritage of her homeland through a colonial lens” and how that heritage has been used to make money from tourists. But…. Is this the making of money by exploiting one’s culture and history? Or the exploiting of Moroccan culture and history by the tourists?

Tourists go searching for the foreign and the exotic. Many of them are souvenir hunters – Sometimes it’s a selfie in front of every “famous” place (or interesting building or whatever) and sometimes it’s a “find”. But we live in a world that is full of ‘made in China’ souvenirs and we are a people that don’t care to distinguish between the real and the fake. We just want a story to tell the folks back home.

There were once dinosaurs living in a tropical land in what is now Morocco…. how the world has changed, and is changing. Insert your opinions on climate change here.

Because it is a collection of exhibits under one umbrella, it has been compared to a museum. Very trendy. One description of the exhibit claims that it is “Meant to make us question the ways in which museums confer value on things”. Can I take that one step further by asking, how do art galleries confer status on art and artists? Museums make curatorial choices and so do art galleries. Barrada too has surely made choices as have I.

You are probably wondering what carpets on the floor have to do with all those words that I just wrote. Good question. I think that Yto Barrada is on to something – an exhibit that has visual appeal, offends no one, and is flexible in its interpretation (i.e. it says something different to everyone and fits nicely into most people’s narratives). You can agree with me, or disagree. Best to go and see it for yourself and form your own opinions…. mine just might be fake.

below: People skating on the frozen Natrel Pond beside The Power Plant.

Yto Barrada’s exhibit will be on at The Power Plant until the 2nd of January.

food, food, glorious food

Posted: November 25, 2015 in galleries
Tags: Amanda White, Andree Wejsmann, Artport, broaches, brooches, Bruce Cochrane, ceramics, corn, Erin Riley, food, Forage, Harbourfront, hunters, Lana Filippone, leaves, lemons, Lisa Myers, Lynn Price, natural dyes, ode to a lemon, photographs, photography, rings, Sooyeong Lee, squash, Thea Haines, Victoria Piersig, video

Food is an important part of our lives and there is a lot that we take for granted about the food we eat. Food, and all that accompanies it, is the theme of a collection of art exhibits at Harbourfront’s Artport. On display is work by a number of artists who have been examining different food related issues. How we see food, it’s role in our lives, how healthy is it, it’s production, and how we obtain it, are just a few of the questions that are explored. We eat food but what about the parts we usually waste?

Below is a sample of what is on offer.

below: ‘Wearable Food – Hat’, 2014, by Sooyeong Lee, part of a series of photographs that displays food in atypical and unexpected ways. An acorn squash fascinator is precariously perched on her head.

below: ‘Frugivore Project’, 2011-ongoing, by Amanda White, an attempt to communicate biologically with tomato plants. White bought tomatoes from the grocery store and ate them. She harvested the seeds after they had passed through her digestive system and then planted them. After the plants bear fruit, it is eaten and the cycle continues.

below: ‘Foraged Palette’, 2015, Thea Haines, made with wool, silk, linen, hemp and cotton with natural dyes. The dyes are made from food waste such as carrot peels, onion skins, pomegranate skins and avocado pits.

below:‘Strain to Absorb, 2015, by Lisa Myers, three digital files running simultaneously. Blueberries contain the pigment anthocyanin which the artist produces from strained fruit.

below:‘Accidental Hunter’, 2014, by Erin Riley, hunting with a rifle received as a gift from her father and taking pictures of the event.

below: ‘Delicate merchandise!”, 2014, by Lynn Price, oil on paper. The title comes from a poem called ‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda (see bottom of post)

below:Functional Ceramic Tableware, 2005-2015, by Bruce Cochrane

below: Trading Places, Victoria Piersig. A series of photographs from a journey spent onboard a ship transporting wheat from Thunder Bay to Montreal.

below: cookie cutter rings and brooches, by Andree Wejsmann

below: Teerex and Triceratops Corn Cob holders, 2012, by Lana Filippone

***

‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda

Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it –
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.

in-between at Ontario Square

Posted: November 11, 2015 in public art
Tags: animals, art, black bird, costumes, Harbourfront, hobby horses, horses, images, imagination, in between worlds, Meryl McMaster, Ontario Square, outdoors, photographs, public art, Queens Quay West, questions, role play, winter

‘In-Between Worlds’ is a series of photographs by Canadian photographer Meryl McMaster. This series centres around the role of McMaster’s dual heritage in her search for self; The images represent her being part of, and also being between, two different cultures as she is part Cree and part ‘European’.

Three of the images are on display at Ontario Square by Queens Quay West and Lower Simcoe St.

below: Horse Dance. The bright red and blue of the shaggy hobby horses against a winter landscape makes for an eye catching picture. On closer look, you realize that there is a person’s head inside one of those horses’s head. Heads that have no eyes to see or mouths to speak.

below: Wingeds Calling. Around the corner there is another picture of a person in costume, playing the role of a real, yet not real, animal. A large black bird-like figure walks on the frozen ground, perhaps too big and awkward to fly.

below: Wind Play Variation. The third picture baffles me a bit. Although this is another picture of a person assuming a role, this time the creature is totally of the artist’s imagination. A blue hairy thing that is slightly blurry as it walks amongst the pine trees. Is it coming or going?

dia de muertos

Posted: November 9, 2015 in events, people
Tags: Alberto Cruz, altar, art, beans, celebration, clay, corn, day of the dead, decorations, flowers, Harbourfront, holiday, honour, Mexican, ofrenda, Picasso, religious, rice, skulls, Toronto

Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday where and friends come together to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It occurs at the end of October (31 Oct to 2 Nov). Here in Toronto there was a Day of the Dead festival at Harbourfront this past weekend.

One of the traditions of Dia de Muertos is the making of ofrendas which are altars dedicated to the deceased person. Jose Clemente Orozco was a Mexican painter (1883-1949). He specialized in painting murals in frescoes and his work can be seen in Mexico and in the USA.

Another altar that was on display was one made by artist Alberto Cruz in honour of Pablo Picasso.

The Casa Cultura Mexicana made an ofrenda to honour the Prehispanic indigenous people and warriors of Mexico.
The bottom part consisted of pictures made with coloured rice.

Food items such as rice, beans, and corns were an important part of the ofrenda.

Ofrendas are decorated with sugar skulls and marigolds (or yellow and orange paper flowers) as well as candles, photos, momentos from the person’s life, and things that symbolize something about that person. Sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical.

What would your friends and family put on an ofrenda in your memory?

There was also clay available if you wanted to make a small skull or other symbol for the occasion.

Rest in Peace.

30,000 moths

Posted: September 30, 2015 in galleries
Tags: art, art gallery, black, black cloud, clerestory, contemporary, contemporary art, Harbourfront, moths, paper, power plant, PPBlackCloud, swarm, waterfront

The exhibit is called ‘Black Cloud’ and it consists of thirty thousand black moths, each one individually attached to the walls and ceiling of the clerestory of the The Power Plant Gallery. Artist Carlos Amorales has reproduced the shapes and sizes of thirty six different species of moth with black paper. They swarm towards the lights and they congregate in the corners. It’s a fascinating display both in the overall composition and in the attention to small details. This installation first appeared at an art gallery in Paris in 2007.

As much as I liked the display, I was glad they weren’t real moths!

#PPBlackCloud

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