There are now three large images on display at Ontario Square (on Queens Quay near the foot of York Street). Collectively, they are “Double Pendulum” by Maggie Groat who has constructed them as wheatpaste collages. They are part of this year’s CONTACT Photography Festival.
below: Butterflies constructed from other shapes and objects. Does this show the interconnectedness of all things, as in the “Butterfly Effect”?
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
‘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?
as I walk Toronto 