Posts Tagged ‘interactive’

mystic smiles

Posted: October 23, 2017 in galleries
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‘Room for Mystics’
An exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Sandra Meigs and Christopher Butterfield.

artwork by sandra Meigs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paintings back to back, standing on the floor, bright colours, banners hanging on the walls of concentric yellow circles on white

Scattered around the room are bright coloured, simple paintings that are displayed back to back.  Banners with concentric yellow circles hang on the walls.  The solid colour boxes beside the paintings hide speakers.

artwork by sandra Meigs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paintings back to back, standing on the floor, bright colours, banners hanging on the walls of concentric yellow circles on white

A large red mobile hangs from the ceiling, happiness with closed eyes.  Happiness and joy are two of the emotions that this room evokes.  Walking through the room is definitely a positive experience!  You can’t help but smile.

artwork by sandra Meigs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paintings back to back, standing on the floor, bright colours, banners hanging on the walls of concentric yellow circles on white plus a large mobile of a red smile and two ele lashes from closed eyes

The paintings and mobile are the work of Sandra Meigs, a Canadian artist based in British Columbia.   Accompanying the exhibit is a ‘sound installation’ composed by Christopher Butterfield.

artwork by sandra Meigs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paintings back to back, standing on the floor, bright colours, banners hanging on the walls of concentric yellow circles on white

artwork by sandra Meigs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, paintings back to back, standing on the floor, bright colours, banners hanging on the walls of concentric yellow circles on white

The exhibit continues until 14 January 2018

gargoyles on the path

Posted: October 17, 2017 in nature, public art
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We went exploring.  With a three year old.  A three year old who is starting to explore the world as only a three year old can.  One who gets joy from ‘balancing’ on the green line as we walked the Lower Don Path.

little girl in a pink jacket is wlking down a green line that is painted in the middle of a path, approaching an underpass under the railway tracks.

We were walking with a purpose – to find ‘Monsters for Beauty, Permanence and Individuality’ by Duane Linklater.  This is a collection of cast concrete gargoyles, replicas of those on Toronto buildings, that is now on the Lower Don Trail.  Last week I saw them from the subway as it passed across the Bloor Viaduct so I knew approximately where to walk.

The Lower Don Trail only has a few access points – we entered by Riverdale Park and walked north.

a hanging vine, autumn coloured, in front of the train tracks.

below: Renovations of the underside of the bridge at Bloor/Danforth have just been completed and already one piece of graffiti has appeared.

grey concrete bridge with black metal supports, part of the structure, with one graffiti face drawn in red

Just a bit farther north, and on the west side of the path we encountered the artwork.  It’s a scattered arrangement of some interesting pieces.  If left in place, some future archeologist of the future might stumble upon it and be totally mystified.

cast concrete sculpture of a seated woman with her head bent forward

Today I got myself tied up in knots as I fought with words as I tried to write this post.  How do I describe the thoughts behind the installation?  Should I talk about the meaning of gargoyles vs grotesques?

a few concrete gargoyles scattered on the ground by the Lower Don Trail, part of Duane Linklater's art installation.

But then I realize that I should just leave it be.    Be content.

a concrete block and man's head gargoyle, with moustache, folded arms holding a scroll or similar), about 2 feet square, Bloor Viaduct in the background

After all, what was more important was that the blocks turned out to be the perfect size for a three year old to stand on and roar like a lion.   We played.  And it was fun.

a young girl stands on top of a conrete block with the face of lion, she has her hands beside her mouth as she too roars like a lion

red sumach trees in the background with dead brown heads of plants growing in front

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flotsam and Jetsam and others

Posted: February 21, 2017 in people, public art, waterfront
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 Two empty chairs sitting in the sun.  This photo is only a half truth; it suggests that the beach was sunny but empty yesterday when I took the photo.    Sunny yes, empty no.

two empty muskoka chairs on the beach beside Lake Ontario on a sunny February day

Back in the winter of 2015, I discovered the first “Winter Stations” event on a day when the temperature was -20C.  There weren’t many people there that year!   In contrast, yesterday was a beautiful and unseasonably warm February Sunday.  Temperatures hit the double digits and lots of people come out to take advantage of the weather.  It was also the first weekend of the 2017 version of ‘Winter Stations’.  Although the installations officially opened today, all but one of them were completed and ready for the public yesterday.

below: One of the installations is “North” which was designed by studio PERCH in Montreal.   Yes, it’s Christmas trees hung upside down.  They are prickling to walk between.  This year there seems to be a recycling and reusing theme in a lot of the installations.   At least I hope these trees weren’t cut down specifically for this project.

on the beach, people in winter jackets stand around looking at an art installation that consists of evergreen trees, Christmas trees, hung upside down.

below: Another installation is “Collective Memory” designed by Mario Garcia (Barcelona Spain) and Andrea Govi (Milan Italy).   People are encouraged to leave messages in the bottles.

an art installation on the beach, people in winter clothes, two parallel walls about 10 feet high made of a layer of horizontally arranged empty plastic bottles with the opening facing in, people are writing on paper and then putting the messages in the bottles.

below: Paper is provided as are the bottles.  The walls are constructed of horizontal empty plastic water bottles with the openings all on the inside of the structure.

a boy is rolling up a piece of paper in inserting it in the opening of an empty plastic bottle.

below: The sun shining through the plastic bottles makes for some interesting effects.

sunlight shines through a wall of plastic bottles, some people walking in front of it. Collective Memory installation at Winter Stations 2017 on Toronto's waterfront.

below: Like most of the installations, “Collective Memory” encloses a lifeguard station.

an art installation on the beach, people in winter clothes, two parallel walls about 10 feet high made of a layer of horizontally arranged empty plastic bottles with the opening facing in, people are writing on paper and then putting the messages in the bottles. view form one end, the walls enclose a lifeguard station, 4 kids are on the lifeguard platform

below: The installation that wasn’t ready yet is “The Beacon” designed by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva (Porto Portugal).

a woman pokes her head inside a hole in a tall wood structure on the beach, other art installations are in the background, lots of people, some people sitting on chairs.

The installation in the background in the above photograph is “BuoyBuoyBuoy” designed by Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, and Julie Forand (Toronto Canada).

below: One of many photo ops!

three kids stand on top of a lifeguard station that is enclosed by an art installation that is construction of many oval shapes joined together. Some are white, some are clear and some are reflective. A mother is taking a picture of the kids.

below: Notched ovals made of wood and clear plastic were used to build this installation.  The wood pieces were either painted white or covered with silvery reflective material.

close up photo of part of an artwork made of wooden oval shapes that are notched together.

kids climb up the center of an art installation called buoy buoy buoy, standing on the lifeguard station platform that is the middle of the artwork. Made of wooden oval shapes that are notched together.

below: More reflections, this time in “The Illusory” designed by a group from Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology.

a girl in a turquoise t-shirt is reflected many times in a wall of relfective material and several posts around the wall covered in the same material.

below:  Someone has already written on (scratched?) the surface.

three men are reflected in a shiny surface on an art installation. Someon has scratched the word LOVE into the surface

below: “The Illusory” in front, “Flotsam and “Jetsam” behind, and lots of people in between.

lots of people walking past and looking at two art installations on the beach as part of Winter Stations event

below: “Flotsam and Jetsam” was designed by a team from the University of Waterloo.  It consists of cubes made of wire cages.  The cages on the bottom are filled with empty plastic bottles of different colours and shapes.

people looking at an art installation on the beach made of wire cage cubes stacked on top of each other. The ones on the bottom are filled with empty plastic bottles of different colours and shapes. The upper cages are empty and they are joined together to look like the head of a creature.

two boys peer out from behind a wall of wire cages filled with empty plastic bottles. One of the cages is empty as looks like a window

sun shines through empty plastic bottles and looks like the bottles are lights

empty plastic bottles in a wire cage sits on the sand of the beach

a tower of plastic bottle filled wire cages stands in front of Lake Ontario

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a father and daughter link fingers behind the mother's back, the women are in winter coats, father is in jeans and plaid long sleeved shirt

The Winter Stations will remain until the 27th of March.

Life.Style.Fair

Posted: September 29, 2015 in events
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King East Design District Life.Style.Fair is a festival celebrating contemporary design.
This year’s event was last Saturday and these are some of the things I saw as I walked King Street East that day:

A section of sidewalk. On it is painted the logo for King East Design District. There are also three lovebot stencil shapes spray painted in white on the sidewalk.

below: Frederick Street painting collaboration, organized by George Brown College School of Design students.

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple.

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. A young girls is using a small roller to paint purple in this picture

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. A small boy watches while his mother and a girl paint

painting a large Mondrian-like painting on the street. A large mat is laid out along Frederick Street and students have marked off squares and rectangles with tape. People are painting the shapes in red, orange, yellow, green and purple. Looking down the length of the canvas as it nears completion

below: What do you like about Toronto? This man was writing “Rob Ford” as I took the picture.
In hindsight, maybe I should have written something like “is not the mayor” beside it?
Some of the other things people wrote include, coffee shops, bikes, freedom, trees, TTC and lovebot.

A man with spiky black hair is writing on a board covered with different coloured post it notes.

below: The Beauchamp Art Gallery had strips of dried acrylic paint hanging from the ceiling that you could walk through.

Curtains of long strips of dried acrylic paint in many bright colours hang from the ceiling of an art gallery.

below: Also at the Beauchamp Gallery, artist Mike Hammer was creating a colourful painting consisting of blobs of acrylic paint.  The blobs flattened as additional drops of paint were added on top.  The paint flowed over the edge and created stripes.

an artwork in progress, made of many blobs of acrylic paint. The blobs flatten as other blobs are placed on top of them. The artist Mike Hammer is making this piece (although only his hand is in the picture)

below: Cubeworks studio demo.  Yes, she really does hand twist each Rubiks Cube into the colour pattern needed for the artwork.  This particular picture, of a gnome face, requires 500 cubes.  The algorithms for solving the cube are online so you can teach yourself and become a Rubiks Cube artist!

A woman is getting a rubiks cube ready to add to a picture that she is making using 500 rubiks cubes. The picture, about half done, is on an easel in the window of a store.

below: Painting by Jessica Gorlicky.  The easel spins to make the painting easier.

 

In the immediate foreground, but a little out of focus, is the shoulder and arm of a man taking a picture. The subject of his picture, a woman with long blond hair, is painting a picture of a TTC street car and a Toronto street scene. She is in this picture too.

below: Lovebots to colour

A large lovebot on paper is on a table. Black lines on white paper. It is more than a meter high. There are shapes in the middle and it is designed to be coloured. A hand holding a black sharpie is also in the picture, colouring part of the lovebot

below: Pizza carpets outside and pizza making inside, at the corner of King and Parliament.

A man and a woman are crossing the street. They are close to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. On that sidewalk are a number of carpets that look like wedge shaped pepperoni pizza slices. Each carpet is just over a meter long. They are in front of a shop that sells appliances.

below: The store Relative Space displayed three pieces by Stan Olthuis made from flooring materials that they sell.  This one is called ‘Dance Like No One’s Watching’

Part of the store window for the store Relative Space. The word space is seen in this picture. In the window is a design of a woman's silhouette in light yellowish woods inlaid into grey flooring.

below:  Will Graham and the beginnings of his sidewalk dragon.

A man is creating a dragon drawing in chalk on a sidewalk.

below: And last but not least, we can’t forget   – neon signs by Gary Taxali.  This is one of two that were on display at DOM Interiors.

In sursive writing the words Unforget Me in neon tubing to make a sign that is hanging in a store window.

#kedd2015

our latest photo op

Posted: July 13, 2015 in locations, public art
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A newly installed large 3D sign in Nathan Phillips Square is Toronto’s latest tourist attraction and local photo op.  It is scheduled to remain in the square until the end of 2015 at which point it will be moved to another public location.

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square -

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - a couple sits in the O posing for a picture while a young boy crawls between the O and the R

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - from the back, Toronto is spelled in reverse but there are still people taking their picture by it

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - a couple stands in front of it, a man with a camera walks past it

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - kids standing in between the letters as well as in the round part of the O

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - a man stands in the water in front of the word Toronto

large three dimensional block capital letters that spell Toronto installed alongside the pool fountain in Nathan Phillips Square - a woman stands with her back to the camera and takes a picture

#share3DTO  #hostcity2015

Icefest

Posted: February 23, 2015 in events, locations
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Bloor Yorkville Icefest, Frozen in Time
Cumberland Ave., February 21 & 22

 Ice sculpture beside a sidewalk. The top part has the words Bloor Yorkville icefest and the bottom part has the words Frozen in time, icefest 15. The middle section looks like a large face made of Egyptian motifs.

The 10th annual Icefest featured the carving of blocks of ice into Ancient Egypt themed sculptures.

Four ice sculptures with Ancient Egyptian themes - King Tut, and a pyramid amongst them. Also a wall of hieroglypics with two guards beside it.

Both Saturday and Sunday were snowy days but the weather didn’t deter the crowds, or their picture taking.  I’m sure that there are thousands of photographs of the sculptures!
Here are a few of mine.

A man in a white parka is standing beside a sculpture with his elbow resting on it. A woman in white coat and hat is taking his picture.

A woman is facing a sculpture of a dinosaur. Both of them have their mouths wide open.

A boy is standing beside a sculpture

A mother with two little kids is posing with an ice sculpture.

A little girl in a pink snow suit it peaking throw a whole in an ice sculpture

A father is taking a photograph of his son beside an ice sculpture

A group of four people are standing around an ice sculpture. They all have puzzled looks on their faces as though they can't figure out what the sculpture is supposed to be.

An ice sculpture of a bear with it's front paws raised, looms over the interesection of Yonge and Bloor.

This bear loomed over the NE corner of Yonge and Bloor.

Most of the sculptures along Cumberland Ave (west of Bellair) are still there and will remain as long as the temperatures remain low and no one vandalizes them.

gumhead

Posted: February 4, 2015 in events
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Gumhead is a “gum-based, crowd-sourced, publicly interactive, social-sculpture self portrait” in the words of Douglas Coupland, the artist who conceived and developed this idea.

It sits inside the entrance of Holt Renfrew Men on Bloor St. West.

A large (about 6 foot tall) black head sits in the front of a menswear store. People have been encouraged to add chewed wads of gum to the head. It is about one third covered.

People are encouraged to add their own chewed gum with the intention that the head will become covered, obscured, and transformed.  And people have done so, some with imagination or whimsy.

He now has eyelashes on one eye.

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Gumhead is scheduled to remain until March 9th.
And yes, gum is provided…. as is the Purell!

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