While walking under the Gardiner Expressway a few days ago, I came across the debris left behind by those who once camped here. Or maybe it was trash that was thrown here.
Whatever the source, I found it rather fascinating to see what there was. Detritus as subject matter whether for photography or sociology or as anthropology in centuries to come.
A long weekend in May (Two Four Weekend) + the first sunny warm day in a while + two months of “shelter in place” = people out enjoying Tommy Thompson Park’s trails and waterfront.
below: Flow Like a River
below: Keep ur distance
below: Three people, three positions – up tall and straight, flailing legs middle, and collapsing feet at the end. Also notable are the mounds of tangled rebar that dot the shoreline.
below: She’s sitting on some very rounded rocks that have been shaped by the waves and water. Are they chunks of man-made concrete and not the more solid rocks formed by nature?
The park has come a long way since construction of the Leslie Street Spit started in 1959. In the beginning, it was to be an area for “port related activities”. In the early 1970s, it was decided that Toronto didn’t need an expanded port. Since 1973, the focus has been on developing the area as a park but keeping as much “wilderness” as possible. If you are interested in the history of Tommy Thompson Park, they have an excellent website with aerial pictures that show how the park has grown.
below: Nature slowly takes over, and the piles of rubble and construction waste that were used to help build the foundations of the park become grown over and buried.
below: Late afternoon fishermen on their way in.
below: If you look closely, you might see that one of the bikes has a bell in the shape of a skull with red eyes.
below: There were lots of noisy redwing blackbirds as well as many other kinds of birds – orioles, grosbeaks, goldfinches, robins, warblers, swallows, and sparrows. During spring migration, up to 300 different species can be seen here.
below: Construction on the east side of the park. This is the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant Landform Project scheduled to be finished in 2025. Three shore connected breakwaters and a headland/beach system are being constructed.
Scarborough Bluffs Park on sunny but windy Sunday afternoon in March.
The red twig dogwood is looking redder and the trees are barely starting to bud.
The water and air are still cold enough that icicles form on the overhanging branches that get hit by waves.
As August marches relentlessly along the daylight hours shrink. One advantage of the shorter days is that sunrise isn’t at a time that starts with the number 5. I’m not a morning person but I like to take morning pictures.
below: Pinkish sky as the sun rises.
below: There was an enormous flock of birds flying low over the water together. Can you see the swimmer?
below: Ready for the day
below: Reading on the beach… just after 7 a.m.
below: A group of women on their paddle boards (not quite so early. I had breakfast part way through my walk that morning).
below: Mother and son.
below: At 11:15 the life guards row to their stations.
below: Kew Williams house, now on the grounds of Kew Gardens. Kew Williams (1873-1956 ) built the house in 1902 on the grounds of what was then The Canadian Kew Gardens, a campground resort opened in 1879 by his parents, Joseph & Jane (nee Henry) Williams. Joseph Williams sold the house and 20 acre property to the City of Toronto in 1907. A year later the property became Kew Gardens.
The gardens are very well maintained. They are in full bloom at the moment and looking gorgeous. I will leave you with a few pictures of flowers, colourful ones to brighten your day.
below: A stalk of lobelia cardinalis grows among the black eyed susans.
below: A monarch butterfly finds a bright red flower.
below: A pink zinnia
below: Gaillardia pulchella, also known as firewheel or Indian blanket
below: Three white daisies growing with smaller orange flowers
May is CONTACT Photography month in Toronto and like in previous years, some galleries start the month early. One of these galleries is the Ryerson Image Centre. This year, in the main gallery they are featuring the work of Shelley Niro, the 2017 winner of the Scotiabank Photography Award. You may have seen some of her work at the AGO where her shirts series of photos is also on display. Outside the building, in Devonian Square, there are large colourful abstract images glued onto large rocks. These are the work of Scott Benesiinaabandan, a Montreal-based artist from the Obishikokaang Anishinabe First Nation.
below: First, the poster/sign at the entrance to the Ryerson Image Centre. The four images on the left are from Niro’s shirt series of pictures – the full series is shown inside the gallery. There is also a video from 2003 that features this woman and the T-shirts standing in this location.
below: A series of three photos framed together titled ‘Mohawk Worker’. It is one of a series of six triples called ‘This Land is Mime Land’ (Apparently there are 12 in the series, but only 6 are on display here). Each set in the series has an old sepia toned black and white photo in the center, a casual posed photo on the right (of the same woman in each), and a posed, hand coloured ‘parody’ photo on the left. In this case, she is dressed in working clothes and a hard hat, but she’s applying lipstick and has a small compact mirror in her left hand. Other works in this series include, ‘Love Me Tender’ with the woman dressed as Elvis, and ‘Final Frontier’ with the woman dressed in a Star Trek outfit.
below: One of another set of pictures. Hand painted black and white photos of these women posing (hamming it up) for the camera. They are on the yellow brick road, and like Dorothy on her way to see the Wizard, they are wearing red shoes. “Red Heels Hord” 1991. It, like a lot of her work, challenges the stereotypes and cliches of Native American women.
Shelley Niro was born in 1954 in Niagara Falls NY and grew up on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve near Brantford. She graduated from OCA and a masters in Fine Art from the University of Western Ontario.
below: Four photos from “Are You My Sister?” 1994. This is only part (4/12) of the series. The glass was very reflective so you can see the shirt series that was on the opposite wall. Like most of her work, the matte has been hand decorated. In this case, patterns are made with performations in the matte.
Scott Benesiinaabandan’s installation, ‘newlandia: debaabaminaagwad’ is in two parts. First, on the sidewalk in front of the statue of Egerton Ryerson, the man who founded the University, is an image that has been glued to the ground. Parts of that statue have been used in the making of the image – it’s not too easy to see in this photo, but the top part of the image is the same shape as the top of the statue of Ryerson. Maybe you can see the purple draped head and the outstretched arm. It’s like the statue has been draped with cloth and/or pictures. In fact, the images used to create this were taken from photographs that Benesiinaabandan took of three First Nations flags.
below: The other part of ‘newlandia: debaabaminaagwad’ consists of large images adhere to rocks in the square, taking on the texture of the rocks.
Both of these artist have their own websites:
1. Scott Benesiinaabandan
2. Shelley Niro
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!
Identity. What springs to mind when you hear the word identity? And how does that relate to art?
Let’s now take those general questions and narrow it down to the work of three artists, or photographers to be more precise: Suzy Lake, Lori Blondeau, and Shelley Niro. I haven’t chosen those women randomly; I’m writing about them because their work is on view if you go to the Ryerson Image Centre. Suzy Lake’s photos are on display in the main gallery inside while Lori Blondeau and Shelley Niro’s are showing outside. The latter two were installed as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.
below: Three large images of the Lori Blondeau draped in red while standing on a rock adorn three of the large boulders in Devonian Square. They are part of her “Asiniy Iskwew” work. The title is Cree and translates to “Rock Woman”. In this work, the rocks on which she stands refer back to Mistaseni which was a large sacred boulder that once marked a gathering place. The Saskatchewan government dynamited it in the 1960’s to make room for a man made lake.
The words on the wall say that Blondeau questions (“interrogates”) how the definitions of Indigenous identity are influenced by popular media and culture, not just in this exhibit but in the rest of her art as well. Her point here is that pictures of strong woman run counter to how popular culture portrays Indigenous women.
My questions – What and/or who shapes your identity? That question can mean “Your” as in you the individual and it can mean “Your” as in some collective group that you belong to. How does identity evolve? Can it be changed?
How does history affect your identity? As one who has done a lot of genealogy research I understand the importance of history to some people. I have traced my Canadian ancestors – I know where they’re buried and I know where they lived. For me that is a comfort. But I also know that if you want to kill a conversation just bring up the subject of genealogy. Not everyone is interested.
Back to photography and history –
A second indigenous woman artist is Shelley Niro whose work is titled “Battlefield of my Ancestors”. It consists of 6 photographs that were taken in upstate New York and in southwestern Ontario. The pictures are in the garden with the statue of Egerton Ryerson (1803 – 1880), the man who Ryerson University is named after. He was many things including a Methodist minister, a founder of Victoria College (part of the University of Toronto), a Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, and the person who wrote a report/study on Native education (1847) that became the model for the residential schools thirty years later.
below: Ryerson standing in the greenery with a picture on either side of him. On the left is a picture of a plaque in New York state that says: “Site of Indian village Gar-Non-De-Yo destroyed during Sullivan campaign Sept 21, 1779”. On the right is a black and white picture of the Mohawk River in New York state.
below: Photo taken of a rock at Cayuga Lake.
The plaque says:
Site of “A very pretty Indian town of ten houses” burned September 21, 1779. See page 76 “Journals of the military expedition of Major General John Sullivan” published by the state
Back a few lines I called Niro an “indigenous woman artist”. I don’t know if she’d be comfortable with that. Maybe yes, maybe no. I used those words because they help to understand her work in the context of this blog. Should I then use the description “white woman artist” to talk about the third person, Suzy Lake?
Lake’s photography career began in the 1970’s and for the first two decades was primarily concerned with female identity. In almost all her photos, she is the subject. The 1970’s were the days of Women’s Lib and the rise of “Feminism” – the quest for political reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, and equal pay. It was also a time of increased questioning of cultural norms with regard to women’s roles. In many ways it resembled the increase of awareness of indigenous identity, rights, and problems that we see today.
below: Her most recent work involves pictures of her standing in an environment of some sort. The photo is a one hour exposure and the end result is an image where only she and inanimate objects are present and in focus. Here is “Extended Breathing in the Rivera Frescos” 2013-2014. The painting behind her is one in a series by Mexican artist Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.
Right now, the section of Sheppard Avenue East between Yonge and Leslie streets is a mix of old, middle aged and new – a hodge podge of sizes, styles and uses. It’s neither ugly nor pretty. It’s not sure if it’s city or suburban.
below: The intersection of Bayview and Sheppard from the southwest.
You’ll probably never hear anyone say, “Hey, let’s go for a walk along Sheppard”. So why was I there? I’ve driven along this stretch many times but I have never walked it. Have I been missing something?
below: A short distance west of Bayview is the modern brick St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church, or Árpád–Házi Szt. Erzsébet Római Katolikus Templom according to their sign. Sunday mass is in Hungarian. If you are driving past on Sheppard Ave, it’s easy to miss the simple steeple and cross that marks this building as a church.
below: A large mosaic adorns one of the exterior walls.
below: A small shrine is in front of the church.
below: The south entrance to Bayview subway station. There are no escalators at this entrance – instead, there is an elevator and a LOT of stairs.
below: The artwork at Bayview station is by Panya Clark Espinal, titled ‘From Here Right Now’. Half an apple lies on the platform.
below: A salt or pepper shaker on the wall. I’ve only shown two of the images in the series. There are 24 in total and they are scattered throughout the station.
below: There is a small park behind the south entrance to Bayview subway station, Kenaston Garden Parkette where I saw this tree in bud. The first signs of spring are always wonderful to see. Today it’s -12C outside so I hope the tree is okay.
below: This little park was designed by Wilk Associates Landscape Architecture and it incorporates a large number of rocks including a glacial boulder found on the site. A bronze sculpture of a tree clinging to a rock by Reinhard Reitzenstein is one of the features of the park.
below: If you stand in the park and look east, you can’t miss the construction.
Construction is everywhere on Sheppard Avenue.
below: All of the houses on Cusack Court are now gone. Only the ‘No Exit’ sign remains.
below: The single family homes on the south side of Sheppard are slowly being demolished to make way for condo developments. At the corner of Sheppard Ave East and Greenbriar the proposed development of 184 residential units is the subject of an OMB prehearing on the 8 May 2017 (case number PL161113).
below: Five houses are empty and waiting to be demolished to make way for two buildings, 11 and 6 storeys, mixed use (i.e. retail at street level) and incorporating a few townhouses. In other words, the same old same old.
below: I said “same old same old” above because these types of buildings are popping up all over many major roads that are outside the downtown core. I suspect that Sheppard Avenue will be lined with structures like this one that’s already been built on the north side of Sheppard.
Many people make the argument that there isn’t the density to support a subway along Sheppard. I am of the opinion that if they’re not wrong now, they soon will be. Development and public transit are dependent on each other, a symbiotic relationship if you will. If you are affected by the construction along Eglinton for the new Crosstown line, you might agree that waiting for density only increases the problems and inconvenience (and cost?) of building new subway lines. Also, have you seen photos of what the area around Davisville or Finch (and others) stations looked like when the subway opened there? What is the required density? Why do we want to funnel even more people towards the overcrowded Yonge line anyhow? Is there an end to the questions we can ask?
And that’s another reason for my walk here…. to make note of the construction that is occurring whether we agree with it or not and to document some of the changes.
below: Two low rise apartment buildings.
below: Once upon a time there were a lot of these little houses along Sheppard (even more so on the west side of Yonge Street). At least one of these is still used as a family home but most are now offices or businesses.
below: The north entrance to Bessarion station
below: Looking east from Bessarion. You can see as far as the condos on Don Mills Road.
There is a reason that you haven’t seen many people in these pictures and it’s not because I waited for people to get out of the way. Sheppard Avenue is a “major arterial road” under Toronto’s road classification system and traffic movement is its major function. 20,000+ cars are expected to use it every day.
I don’t like to say it, but why would you be walking along Sheppard anyhow?
below: Bayview Village parking lot at the NE corner of Bayview and Sheppard.
As you might know, scroll down to the next blog post to see some pictures of Bessarion station!
Planet IndigenUS is a ten day festival co-produced by the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto and the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford. It features 300 artists with dance and music performances as well as visual art exhibits at a number of venues. One of the venues is the gallery at Harbourfront Centre where a number of artists of Anishnabe heritage are showing their work. Two of the artists are Christian Chapman and Scott Benesiinaabandan, and a sample of their work is presented here.
Screenprints by Christian Chapman
gaawiin wiikaa ji gwerina-ka-nawich
miskwadessi opixwanak misa oi kitimagia
miskwadessi wag dash awessiwag
ji manaadji-a-ka-ni-watch
never turn a turtle on its back so that it is helpless
turtles and all other animals are to be accorded respect
gaawiin wiikaa zaagi-dandaweken
wassetchiganatikong wayti-endaian
ai anike dibadjimowin eta ga nibodwach
sa gitinacasowug
never climb out a window in your house,
traditionally, only dead people are brought out like that
***
below: ‘God Save the Queen’ by Scott Benesiinaabandan
a series of photos in which the queen is partially covered by the artist’s Solidarity Flag
More art under another bridge over the Humber Recreational Trail, this time as the trail passes under St. Phillips Road (near Weston Rd and the 401).
Painted by Gabriel Specter and Dan Bergeron, it represents the energy of a hurricane. Sixty years ago Hurricane Hazel was responsible for flooding of the Humber River that killed people and destroyed many homes.
below: A purple graphic representation of a cyclone beside swirling water is the backdrop for the red slinky-like spiraling energy of the hurricane.
This spiral crosses under the road and connects the two side murals.
Fourteen murals are planned along the route of the Pan Am Path, a trail that will connect Brampton to Pickering running south along the Humber River and then east along Lake Ontario.
as I walk Toronto 