Posts Tagged ‘sidewalk’

It’s common to see posters pasted on walls so finding movie posters on the walls of the tiff Bell Lightbox didn’t strike me as unusual.    I walked past this display until I noticed the sign that marked this as a CONTACT Photography Festival installation.  Fake movie posters, many designed with a touch of humour, that look just like the real thing.

detail of an art installation that is a wall of fake movie posters made with ads and illustrations from old books and magazines

below: The installation, titled ‘Coming Attractions’ covers the corner windows and wall space.   The posters were designed by ‘Long Weekend’ which is a collective of artists working out of Winnipeg.   They were made from ads and illustrations from old books and magazines.

at the corner of King and another street, the TIFF Bell Lightbox building has an art installation on two sides, walls of fake movie posters. The installation is called 'Coming Attractions' and it is by a collective of artists known as The Long Weekend.

detail of an art installation that is a wall of fake movie posters

On the other side of King street, and just a but further east, is a series of eleven large images taken from past editions of ‘Toilet Paper’, a biannual magazine founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.   They hint at advertising and they blur the line between fantasy and reality.

below: Muhle is a German company that makes shaving products and one of their blades looks identical to the one in this picture.

A woman with her phone in her hands walks past a large poster of two women face to face where all you can see is their nose, mouth, chin and tongues that are stuck out. A razor blade balances between the two tongues.

People walk past two large posters that show a girl lying on a large pile of french fries.
People walk past two large posters that show a girl lying on a large pile of french fries.

A man walks past large posters on King St.,

a man stands in front of a picture that is a large globe with everything painted light blue except the USA

a man stands in front of a picture that is a large globe with everything painted light blue except the USA

If you like these images, you might also like Toilet Paper’s website.

 

Refugees in a State Apartment, Jens Ullrich,
Photo exhibit, on a fence outside the Italian Consulate, Dundas West at Beverley.

Part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - 3 of the photographs, people walking past

Ullrich has taken found black and white photographs of the interior of a large home near Bremen Germany.  The photos were taken in the late 1920’s.    Each photograph is of a different room in the villa and to each picture Ullrich has added  one person.   If you knew nothing about the series, you wouldn’t know that the subjects were refugees.

In each photomontage, singular individuals are depicted—usually with their faces hidden from the camera—within empty yet elaborately fashioned spaces that emphasize their solitude and unstable status. “

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - phot by Jens Ullrich of a woman refugee with her face obscured by clothing, sitting on a chair in the bathroom of a large bathroom. also a photo of a male refugee in another room, looking in a large mirror

One of the concepts behind this series of images was the desire to

respectfully capture the disparate emotions of these individuals and their precarious situations.”

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - as seen from across the street with pedestrians walking past and cars driving past

photos mounted along the exterior of a wrought iron fence around the Italian Consulate, right beside the sidewalk. The consulate is on old brick house (mansion) from the 1800's - the photos are of refugees that have been photoshopped into old photos of the interior of the apartment of a wealthy person from the 1920's
#CONTACT16

There is no theme to this blog post.  I never really had a purpose in mind as I walked yesterday.  I walked to enjoy the spring day.  I walked wherever my feet took me…  and they took me on a route that wove between Bay Street and University Avenue and from Grenville south to Dundas.

two women dressed up and walking down the street. One is in a puffy black dress, black tights and black shoes. The other woman has long red hair and a polka dot sweater on.

below: “Jimmy Mount Rushmore” mural on the side of Jimmy’s Coffee featuring four famous musical Jimmys: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffet and Jim Morrison.

mural on the side of Jimmys coffee, monochromatic in rust, pictures of what Mount Jimmy Rushmore would like, four famous Jimmys, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffett and Jim Morrison

below: ‘Inner City Gate’ by Kosso Eloul.  1978.  A balancing act of stainless steel boxes on the lawn of the R. Fraser Elliott building (part of the old Toronto General Hospital), Elizabeth Street.

black metal sculpture of three boxes precariously balanced, the upper box is almost horizontal and it is being supported by the other two who are falling down but still balancing

below:  A blight on the sidewalk, so-called information pillars that are really just a sell-out to Astral Media.  They needlessly obstruct the sidewalk and obstruct the view of  cyclists and motorists.  Unfortunately they are part of a 20 year contract that the city has with Astral Media which doesn’t expire until 2027.

cyclists ride by an information pillar that has a large ad jutting out towards the street.

below: Incised into limestone blocks on the Edward Street side of McClelland House (originally the McLean Hunter building) is half of an artwork by Elizabeth Wynn Wood (1903 – 1966) called “Communication”.  The woman is sending a message to a man who is apparently shown on the other side of the building.  Sadly, I missed the man so there is no photograph of him here.  When the work was completed in 1958, the incised lines were inlayed with gold colour.

outline drawing of a woman floating in the sky, incised into limestone facade of a building. She is releasing a bird.

below: Across the street from the ‘floating woman’, 480 University Avenue is getting a facelift.

lower part of building have its facade upgraded to glass panels
below:  This picture shows most of the front of 480 University and you can see the different stages of the recladding process.  At the top of the building, the precast concrete grille that was part of the original 1968 Global House office tower is still in place while new glass panels have already been installed on the lower floors.   It is interesting to watch the metamorphosis of an 18 storey office building into a 55 storey condo tower.   Four levels of underground parking have also been added to the site and a new indoor entrance to St. Patrick subway station is in the works.

Tall office building is having its concrete facade replaced with glass. The upper floors are still concrete, the middle floors are bare and the lower floors have new glass

below: Abstract in blues and greys

very close detail shot of glass and reflections that make diamond shaped abstract in blue and grey

There is a lot of building and redevelopment in the area where I walked.

below: Womens College Hospital is totally new.

a lone man walks by the new Womens College Hospital building with its light grey stone facade, large glass section, and large pink glass section.

below: The corner of College and Bay, looking southeast, is now a wall of glass.

cyclist rides through the intersection of College and Bay streets. A wall of glass condos in the background.

below: The new wing of Sick Kids Hospital dwarfs the older buildings on Elm Street.

view from a parking lot, a row of the back of older two storey brick buildings with some mature trees, then taller modern glass buildings.

below:  The old and the new integrated into one building, Princess Margaret Hospital.

Princess Margaret Hospital, with the older stone building at the bottom, and the new modern addition above and beside it.

below: Even the street is being redone.  The center of Bay Street from Dundas to Elm is torn up because of  TTC streetcar track replacement.

A digger and other equipment working on a torn up section of Bay street.

below: Little quirky details:  First, the cross shapes made of contrasting brick on the back of the Red Cross building.  Second, the workings (or barrier?) of the compressed gas tanks that have been made to look like ice.

part of the addition that was added to the Red Cross building, two cross shaped features in contrasting brick on the upper levels. In front of that building are large compressed gas tanks.

below:  Another piece of public art, ‘Liquid Echo’ by Catherine Widgery, 1999, is in front of 750 Bay Street.  They look like stiff and lifeless frozen metallic fountains… or maybe just 12 pencils 🙂 .   Circular vent shafts for the underground parking have been incorporated into the artwork.

public art installation outside 750 Bay street

below: A  lovebot watches over the people passing through the bus station, unaware that he is there.

large lovebot wheatepaste paste up above the downtown Toronto bus terminal. A white bus is parked in one of the bus bays. Condos in the background.

below: And last, a colourful collection of squares and rectangles. Blue and green.  Red and white.

green and blue glass of a building's facade, with a storefront below. The windows of the store are filled with red and white pillows arranged in a grid.

As I was walking across Queen Street West a couple of days ago, I saw a pink sparkly tribute to the musician Prince who died recently.   In 1993 while having contract problems with Warner Brothers, Prince changed his stage name to this symbol.  It became known as the Love Symbol although he was more regularly referred to as ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Prince’ for the next seven years.

A large pink painting on a sidewalk, a symbol used by the singer Prince. The painting is a memorial to him. His dates are given 1958 to 2016.

A few feet away, at the corner of Queen and Spadina I found the artist busy on another painting.  Victor, as in #whatsvictorupto, was in the middle of painting a blue and purple unicorn with pink glitter too.  I asked him if there was any significance to the unicorn.  He said that this was going to be his ‘Year of the Unicorn’.  He also mentioned that he already painted a few unicorns….

A man is painting a glittery pink and purple unicorn picture on the sidewalk as people pass by on Queen Street in Toronto

below: The finished painting

A blue and purple painting of a unicorn with pink glitter added to it too. Painted by Victor and signed as #whatsvictorupto

below: So far I have found two other unicorns.  First, this slightly faded unicorn on a four leaf clover is painted outside the Black Irish pub on Queen Street East at Sherbourne.

A unicorn in green, blue and black painted on a green four leaf clover by #whatsvictorupto The word Kelsey is also beside the painting

below:   Second, a unicorn on the sidewalk in front of Sick Kids Hospital

A blue and gold unicorn head painted in a red heart on a sidewalk, by Victor of What's victor up to.

below: A little bit of fun – it seems that a lot of people have uploaded their pictures of the  Prince painting to instagram in the past day or two!

a screenshot of a cellphone, pictures of the pink Prince symbol that different people have added to instagram

If I see any more unicorns I’ll let you know!

There’s a new mural being painted.  It’s not quite finished

looking down a sidewalk. A wall on the left has been painted with gold orange and brown pyramids, a lift is in the middle of the sidewalk, a busy street, Lawrence Ave, is to the right.

but it is looking impressive!

view of a mural that runs beside a sidewalk, taken from across the street

It is the work of Essenciartcollective, namely brunosmoky, shalakattack and fiyabruxa.

It started to rain quite heavily while I was there so I didn’t linger.
I’ll return soon – and by then it should be finished!  A few photos in the meantime:

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, two woman's faces in green, eyes closed, heads slightly uplifted. long green grass around them, some orange and blue plants that look like water lily pads seen from below.

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, a large owl in purples and reds with a yellow eyes. He dominated the picture. There is also a warthog and an elk (reindeer?) behind him
Parts of the mural are very apocalyptic

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, an apocalyptic view of Toronto with the CN Tower and downtown skyscrapers crumbling in a lifeless city

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, a close up of an old bearded man's face.

Pictures of the completed mural are now available!

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

Apparently Victor has been painting the alphabet, one letter at a time, on the sidewalk along Danforth Ave.  The letter A is near Eaton Ave (just east of Pape) and the letter Z is in front of De Serres art supply store (just west of Woodbine).   The letter O seems to be bigger than the others; it is in front of The Only Cafe near Donlands.

  Here is a sample:

The letter B is painted on a sidewalk in black, with blue, gree, yellow and swirls like ribbons wrapped loosely around the letter

The letter E is painted on a sidewalk in black, with blue, gree, yellow and swirls like ribbons wrapped loosely around the letter

The letters J and K are painted on a sidewalk in black, with blue, green, yellow and swirls like ribbons wrapped loosely around the letter

The letter O is painted on a sidewalk in black, with blue, green, yellow and swirls like ribbons wrapped loosely around the letter

The letter Z is painted on a sidewalk in black, with blue, green, yellow and swirls like ribbons wrapped loosely around the letter

Shortly after I took the above photos on Danforth Ave., I went downtown where I stumbled upon another of Victor’s creations.  I think it’s on Spadina Ave.

A painting on a sidewalk, A large rectangle has been made into the top part of a face, round nose at the bottom of the long side of the rectangle

below:  (added 28 Aug) I saw this hummingbird on the sidewalk on Queen West in Parkdale yesterday.

A painting on a sidewalk of a hummingbird done in Inuit style in blue and white, also some flowers, all enclosed in a green circle.

If you spent any time around Richmond and Spadina a few years ago, you might remember the yellow tape measure on the northwest corner of that intersection.  That was Victor’s work too.   Also on that corner is a “sculpture” of a thimble and a couple of buttons; the tape measure seem appropriate.  In fact, many of us thought that it was part of the art installation.  We learned otherwise when the paint was removed by the city, leaving only the shorter, unpainted tape measure that is etched into the concrete of the sidewalk.   Here is a link to a Toronto Star article written in November 2014 about the “cleaning up” of the tape measure.

Part of a yellow tape measure that has been painted on a sidewalk in Toronto

#whatisvictorupto

“Art Loves Fashion! Fashion Loves Art!” 
Retailer H&M is presently renovating the southwest corner of Yonge & Dundas.  On the Dundas St. side of the development, the hoardings have provided a space for an art exhibit. It is an outdoor digital gallery of images produced by students in OCAD’s Digital Painting/Expanded Animation (DPXA) program.

People walk by the hoardings beside the sidewalk on Dundas St. near Yonge, part of the new H & M store being built there. There are pictures on the wall.

below: ‘Nude Collage’ by Arshia Salesi

colourful image with slices of watermelon, purple hyacinth flowers, and a parrot

 below: Resting against ‘Indeterminate Peony’ by Trudy Erin Elmore.
To the left is ‘Nonscape V’ by Monica Moraru

A man in a white shirt and wearing a backpack leans against a white wall that has a picture printed on it.

below:  A woman walks past ‘Streetcar Style’ by Avery Kua.

A woman walks by a wall that has a picture on it os people getting off a streetcar. The woman is looking at the picture

below: ‘Blocked!’ by Ghazaleh Baniahmad

Artwork in grey tones using pieces of photographs of two women, mother and daughter, It is printed on white and displayed outdoors on a wall. It is called Blocked! and the artist is Ghazaleh Baniahmad

below: ‘Ascend’ by Niya Vaillancourt

A woman walks around a corner and is approaching a wall with a picture on it called 'Ascend'

 below: ‘The New Patronage’ by Cat Bluemke

A picture of two people, man and woman, both drawn with black lines, the man has pink highlights and the woman has blue. Both are from the shoulders up and they are looking at each other.

below: Sign making below ‘ Cloth and Jewels’ by Samet Choudhury

A man is sitting on the sidewalk. He is making a sign on a piece of brown cardboard. The wall behind him has a large picture on it that is part of an exhibit

On Dufferin St., just north of Eglinton there is a bridge under the Beltline Pathway.
The old railway bridge crosses the road and metal culverts provide passageways for the sidewalks on both sides of the street.  It was painted  in November 2014.

One of the sidewalks is closed because of construction on the north side.
In fact, the area looks a bit messy at the moment.

looking north up Dufferin street towards an old railway bridge.  4 orange construction signs in the photo as well as a lot of traffic on the street.
This was a  project by STEPS (Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Spaces) in collaboration with artists Alexa Hatanaka and Patrick Thompson, local residents,  Friends of the York Beltline and local Eglinton-Lawrence Councillor Josh Colle.

culvert passageway over a sidewalk that has been painted in stripes except that the sidewalk is closed - a sign, a pole barrier and 2 orange cones to prevent people from crossing under.

A Dufferin street TTC bus passes under an old railway bridge.  The concrete support on the far side has been painted with a brightly coloured skein of wool on a yellow background.  In the foreground is a culvert that is used as a bridge over a sidewalk.  It has been painted in bright vertical stripes.

The mural was funded by the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto program with support from area businesses and associations.

Mural of a skein of wool in bright colours on the underpass of a bridge

Close up of part of the mural of a skein of brightly coloured, multicoloured, wool on a bridge underpass, also the yellow part of a culvert that provides a passageway (tunnel) for the sidewalk.  Some houses are in the background.

Close up of the brightly coloured strands of wool in the mural under the beltline on Dufferin Street

Link to a video on the making of this mural.

Buskerfest 2014

Yonge Street was closed from College to Queen for the event.

Yonge St. at Dundas, barrier across Yonge St. as it is pedestrians only.  Lots of signs, lots of people,

Yonge Street on the Saturday afternoon of Buskerfest, looking north from Dundas Street

.

A man dressed in green is on stilts as he walks up Yonge St.

Hovering above the crowd.

.

There were street performers……

 

A group of four people are on stilts but dressed in very long pants.  Two are playing a drum and two are playing shaking instruments.  They are walking down Yonge St.  People are on the sidewalks watching them.   Street performance as part of buskerfest.

towering over the audience as they walk down Yonge Street

.

A performer is on a very tall unicycle.  He is juggling lit torches as he slowly goes around in a tight circle.

DyneMike, playing with fire on high

.

A street performer is using a diabolo to entertain a crowd of people who are sitting and standing on the sidewalk around him.

This guy, part of Touch2Catch, was amazing to watch. Great diabolo action!

.

A performer has been launched into the air.  He is holding a large ring that is on fire.  He is turning himself through the ring while in the air.

more Touch2Catch – jumping through a ring of fire

.

One of the street performers from the group Touch2Catch is doing a side flip over a man who is on all fours on the street.

side flip over Dimitri

.

A picture of buskerfest is displayed on an electronic billboard.

Samsung was putting tweets and instagram postings with their buskerfest hashtag on the electronic billboard above Yonge & Dundas. At one point I looked up and saw this one. A great photo! She captured an unobscured view of the exact moment the performer from Touch2Catch did a side flip over five people.

.

A woman has taken the silver guitar from Silver Elvis and is pretending to play it while hamming it up for the small group of people that are watching.

sharing the limelight with Silver Elvis …. or taking over? All in good fun!

.

A woman is having her picture taken with a performer who is dressed in a white dress made of balloons.  She has balloon wings and white feathers in her hair.

Photo op with an angel in white balloons.  Balloon dresses are available from The Twisted Ones

.

A street performer is twisting the upper part of his body in order to fit it through a tennis racquet.

What one does in the name of entertainment – putting one’s shoulders through a tennis racquet…. don’t try it at home kids.

.

….. music

Musicians onstage, a group of adults standing in front of the stage.  The adults all have drinks in their hands and they are all toasting.  One of the musicians has a stuffed fish in his hand.

A toast to the cod, screeching in at Dundas Square.  The Screeched Inn performed on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square, their “kitchen party”.

All money raised by performers on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square went to Epilepsy Toronto.
In addition, Samsung donated $1 to Epilepsy Toronto for every tweet of buskerfest that included the hashtag #samsungsbbf

 

….. sidewalk artists

 

A woman is using chalk to make a large picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the sidewalk

ninja turtles taking shape on the sidewalk (artist: the Chalk Chick)

.

A chalk drawing of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie on a sidewalk.  A man's legs are also in the photo.

Ariel, Disney’s little mermaid is on the sidewalk. Another drawing by the Chalk Chick.

 

 

… and curious kids, entertained kids

Some children are watching buskers perform by peeking through a gap in the red and white plastic banners that are the backdrop to the show.

vantage point

 

.

A dog, a Great Dane, is standing in front of two women dressed as clowns on pink and white ponies.  The dog has barked at them and they are reacting by making faces and moving back

Some dogs don’t like clowns either. Great Danes have quite the bark!

.

 

A large electronic billboard high above Yonge St.  A picture of one of my buskerfest tweets is being displayed.

a narcissistic moment

With thanks to the Second Cup on Mt. Pleasant where I hung out while putting this blog entry together.