Turbanup with its bright and colourful fabric was back at Yonge Dundas Square again this year.
Fan Expo came to Toronto for a few days this weekend. If the person beside you on the subway was dressed up in some sort of costume, perhaps they were heading to Fan Expo. Prizes were award to the best costumes and from what I saw when I hung out around the convention centre, the competition was quite steep.
Here are some examples of the people that I saw.
below: Looloo from ‘The Fifth Element’
below: The Littlest Mermaid, Ariel
below: Robin, Boy Wonder
below: The Queen of Hearts
below: You’re never too young to dress up!
below: The Joker and mini Joker with a Harley Quinn or two.
below: A Sailor Moon gets a touch up
below: Batman comes in many shapes and sizes!
below: Anime inspired costumes.
below: Anonymous mask
Walking with the revelers on Church Street on Sunday afternoon as the Pride Parade was winding down.
below: A slow time at the ice cream truck
below: It was the man behind that made me laugh.
below: Matching butterflies.
below: Daddy hunter
below: Another daddy sticker
below: Spock makes an appearance
Tucked away in part of the old Lever Brothers (then Unilever) soap factory there is a small exhibit now showing.
below: Follow the yellow caution tape to find the installation…..
below: This is the sight that greets you when you first walk into the room….. A large industrial sized funnel left behind when the factory was decommissioned dominates the room. A few figures stand on the other side of it.
below: Moving closer. Above the figures is a bubble making machine – how appropriate for a soap factory!
As it turns out, these figures – mannequins or automatons – were originally made back in the 1980’s as props for the Wilderness Adventure Ride at Ontario Place. When Ontario Place closed, these guys were abandoned.
below: He looks very intent on something. .. like destroying my camera if he could.
Toronto artist Max Dean rescued their remains, cleaned them up and brought them back to life.
below: … and into the 21st century. Playing Candy Crush to pass the time? Or checking his Tinder messages?
The Unilever factory site is now owned by First Gulf (a development company). Access is at 21 Don Roadway which also the DVP ramp from the Lakeshore. There is parking. Getting there by public transit is not easy as there is no access directly from the north (the railway tracks & DVP are in the way).
“Still Moving” continues until the 3rd of June.
subtitle: Finding treasures
Hidden behind ivy, on a building at Ryerson University, are three relief sculptures of men in athletic poses. There’s also a line of trees beside the building that they are on. No wonder I’ve missed them on previous walks down Nelson Mandela Way. Today the light was shining on them just the right way .
below: Javelin thrower. Does his left arm look a little awkward?
below: Man with a ball, and covered with ivy vines which was designed in 1962 by Elizabeth Wyn Wood (They are all the work of the same artist?)
below: Lifting weights.
Elizabeth Winifred Wood (1903-1966), also known as Elizabeth Wyn Wood, was born in Orillia. She graduated from OCA (Ontario College of Art) in 1925. Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, many new buildings in Toronto were decorated with relief sculptures on their exterior walls. Although many of these buildings have since been demolished, you can still see some sculptures as you walk around downtown. By the time that Wyn Wood designed these (and other) sculptures for Ryerson in the early 1960’s, the use of relief sculptures in this context was fading.
Womens March
Nathan Phillips Square
A few photos of people (of all ages) and signs at today’s rally and march.
below: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made” and “Destroy patriarchy not the planet” while sitting on the 3D Toronto sign.
below: “Grope”. A play on Obama’s Hope sign
below: Walking across Dundas Street. “Believe women”. “My body is not public property”.
below: There were many Princess Leia & the Resistance signs.
below: “Men of quality don’t fear equality”.
below: “Gender equality now”. “End Violence Against Women”.
below: “Boys will be good humans”
below: “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit!”
below: “Love is the answer. Try it”
below: “I stand with the dreamers” “Defend DACA”
below: “Missing my nap to smash the patriarchy”
below: “Feminism is for everybody”
below: “The peeved beavers”
below: “I am a snowflake”
below: “Pussy power”
below: ” I stand with you” across the shoulders
below: “Why I march? So my daughter will never have to say #metoo” “Supergirl in training”
below: Trump in effigy, “Stop the madness”
below: “Care about each other, not like Donald Trump”
below: “Love not fear” and big red heart shaped balloon.
below: “I hope”
below: “Tick tock on the clock, we all say time’s up!” “You’re so vain you probably think this march is about you”
below: “Respecta mi existengia espera resistencia”. “We are the change”
below: “We won’t let this slide”. “My sexual preference is mutual consent”.