Posts Tagged ‘Sorel Etrog’

Just what the doctor ordered?

Posted: April 23, 2024 in construction, locations, public art, reflections
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below: I’d heard that the old Coach Terminal was no longer in use (since mid 2021) but I hadn’t heard anything about its present status.  Now I know: Empty.  Abandoned.

old Toronto coach station, now empty with metal fence blocking entrances

below: Apparently the land is owned by the city. There is talk of redevelopment that includes affordable housing, office space, etc. I am not sure where the plans are at (does anyone?) at the moment.

old Toronto coach station, now empty with metal fence blocking entrances, Elizabeth street view, newer high rises in the background

below: Concrete.  Just a concrete wall…  But an interesting use of concrete.

decorative concrete wall, with vertical geometric designs

below: The sign says “weather” and the weather this day is miserable.  Wet. Grey. Luckily I had a rainy day plan….

plastic coated wire bundled up and inserted between brass plaque and wood pole, lots of staples and bits of old paper in pole, artwork scratched onto the brass, including the word weather

I was meeting friends at Starbucks at Sick Kids.

a woman enters through the large glass doors of Sick Kids newer building on east side of Elizabeth street

below: This is when I learned that Sick Kids Hospital is in two buildings that are across Elizabeth Street from each other.  Only one has a Starbucks!

Elizabeth street, bench on sidewalk, bridge over the street connecting two sick kids hospital buildings

below: Inside the bridge with its zigzagging light

interior of pedestrian bridge, glass walls, a zigzag shaped light in the ceiling, white floor,

below: A white goose

a white goose (not real) on a ledge by a fake orange door on a wall between real windows

below: One side of the atrium, 8 storeys high, in the older building on the west side of Elizabeth

large multi storey atrium of Sick kids hospital, with elevator and stairs and window to rooms on the sides

below: On the east side of Elizabeth Street is the new Sick Kids’ Patient Support Centre – we didn’t venture too far past the main entrance and bridge to the other building, but there was a lot to see just in this space!

coloured lights, glass walls, stairs, atrium of Sick kids

interior at Sick Kids, glass walls, painted murals on interior walls, chairs, coloured lights

blue stair case, hanging public art beside it,

a security guard sits in a chair by a door, a large mobile, or hanging public art installation with hundreds of metal bits floating in the space,

below: Swirly squiggly LED lights turn an ordinary ceiling into something more.

squiggly LED ceiling lights at Sick kids

below: Gerrard Street entrance to Toronto General Hospital (TGH)

Gerrard street entrance to Toronto General Hospital

below: Part of a conference room door.

fractal like design on door to conference room in hospital

below: There aren’t as many photos from TGH for a couple of reasons. First, regrettably (in hindsight) we didn’t explore much of it and second, although hospitals are generally public spaces they are also places where people expect privacy. So you’ll have to settle for some empty chairs and artwork in a waiting area. I suspect that a wander around all of TGH would provide ample material for its own blog post, just not today.

artwork on wood paneled wall and above three blue chairs

below: After TGH we entered MaRS – they call themselves “North America’s largest urban innovation hub”.  A modern building that incorporated part of an older stone structure that was built in 1913 as the original home of Toronto General Hospital.   Ooops, it’s not a building, it’s a “Discovery District”.

interior of mars tower, large escalator

below: 1923 view of Toronto General Hospital with College Street in the immediate foreground and University Avenue on the right.  There weren’t many tall buildings 100 years ago!

1923 colour postcard of Toronto General Hospital, a brick building on College Street

photo credit: Photo found on Wikimedia Commons, image is in the public domain.

As it turns out, MaRS doesn’t like cameras.  It was the only building that morning where security approached us.  Apparently you can take all the photos you want if you use your phone but cameras are not allowed.  Snuck in a few before we got told off.

interior of mars building

a man sits at a wood table, in front of a room with red sofas and chairs, with a glass wall between them

inside atrium of MaRS discovery district, large multi storey space with glass ceiling

below: Here’s the tunnel leading to Queens Park subway station.   Brightly lit but with the minimum of planning and imagination.

people walking through an all white tunnel connecting to the subway, well lit,

below: Back at ground level it’s a bit more interesting.

glass wall and large doors, university avenue entrance to mars building,

below: In front of MaRS is a sculpture of two men talking.

outside mars building on college street, two people are talking, also two bronze statues, buildings on college street

below: Dr. James Till (left) and Dr. Ernest McCulloch (right) having a discussion in the rain (with an onlooker).  There are lots of seats available so if you are passing by you can join the conversation.   The two men were involved in stem cell research at the Ontario Cancer Institute and at Princess Margaret Hospital in the 1960s.  They were pioneers in the field.

Doctors Till and McCulloch, bronze statues

below: Dr. McCulloch needed some help keeping dry!

statue of a man, bronze, holding a real red umbrella

below: Pardon the raindrop – across College Street from MaRS is (the first phase of?) the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus (part of the University of Toronto).

below:  When I saw it, my first reaction was, “This looks familiar” … i.e. the recessed glass withing the window frame is reminiscent some concrete buildings used back in the 1960s such as the Clarke Institute just down the street (built in 1964).  There is also a similar “modernist” building from the same era at Yonge & Roehampton (just north of Eglinton).  I thought that it was interesting to see an older architectural “detail” show up in a modern building.  It’s a nice change.

closer look at cladding features, Schwartz Reisman building, new building on College St

below: Walking on University Ave… which is a mess on the southbound side between College and Queen Street West because of infrastructure upgrades.  Apparently the water mains here were 150 years old.

people walking in the rain on University ave where there is construction, yellow fence, Queens park building is in the background

below: Campbell Family Building, part of the front facade and doorway.  This building was constructed in 1935 for the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario (later Ontario Hydro).  In the 1990s it became part of Princess Margaret Hospital.  Audrey Campbell was the daughter of Roy Thomson and it is her family that the building was named for (because of donations obviously).

front door of Campbell Family Building, an old stone building with large decorative glass rectangle above the door, but behind yellow construction fence because of work being done on University Avenue

below: Across the street from Princess Margaret Hospital, part of TGH.

Toronto General Hospital on University Ave., Robert McEwen Atrium, glass,

below: South on University Ave

looking south along the west side of university avenuse, from princess margaret hospital, on a rainy april day

below: Digging up the street in front of Mt Sinai Hospital

workman standing on sidewalk watching red digger dig up the street in front of him

a person stands under a small porch, beside stone columns, with Canadian flag behind

below: In a small space between two buildings on University Ave are a few small sculptures.  The building on the left is Mount Sinai Hospital where there is now an art gallery. The building on the right is Princess Margaret Hospital.

bronze sculpture outside, human like figure walking upright, greenish tinges

below:   This is a small part of the interior of the Hennick Family Wellness Gallery at Mount Sinai Hospital. All of the pieces are the work of Sorel Etrog (1933-2014, Canadian).

red sculpture in a gallery, human like shape made of two large screws

There is a plaque in Mt. Sinai that tells the story of The Ezras Noshem Society (Ladies Aid in Yiddish) led by four Jewish women who started raising money in 1913 for a new hospital. By 1922 they had raised $12,000 and in 1923 the Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital was opened at 100 Yorkville. They seem to be known only as Mrs. Cohn, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Spiegel, and Mrs. Adler (and others).  They also opened a Jewish Old Folks’ Home in 1917.
Contrast that to the “Hall of Chairs” – a hallway with the portraits of all the past “Chairs” of the hospital, all men.

below: Large mural on the side of the parking garage behind Mount Sinai Hospital

large colourful abstract mural on the side of parking garage behind Mount Sinai Hospital

below: Love Locks

large heart shape grid of metal wires with some filled with locks, in artwork called heart locks, on wall of parking garage

It would have been nice to get a break in the weather but the rain just kept coming.

a group of people huddled together in a bus shelter on dundas, a cyclist going past them, other people on the sidewalk

a man runs along dundas, on the street, cars there too

So a warm, dry place with coffee – with a shout out to Carbonic Coffee on Baldwin as well as thanks to Jeff, Paul and Perry who walked with me today.

taking pictures of cups of flat white coffee in a coffee shop

three people walking in the rain, on dundas street, one man has a black and white striped umbrella with a red border

Davisville

Posted: April 12, 2016 in public art
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A walk towards Davisville subway station on a grey day.

below: At the corner of Mt Pleasant and Davisville stands the sculpture ‘Wind Bird’ by Sorel Etrog.  Etrog (1933-1914) was a Canadian artist, writer and sculptor.

 

a bronze sculpture of a thin figure with short arms reaching up. stylized, almost abstract. no facial features on the head that seems to be looking upwards

I have passed this little figure many times and today I finally decided to take some pictures of it and make a walk of it.  I have always thought that she was a forlorn little creature.   With her arms outstretched, empty,  reaching for something that never appears.  She needs a hug or at least a  warm scarf to keep the chill away.

below: After leaving Wind Bird empty handed yet again, I walked west towards Yonge Street.  Off the street and amongst some trees I saw this sculpture.   It is one that I have never noticed before.  A collection of metal pieces is suspended from the top of a lopsided metal frame, more parallelogram than rectangle.

rust coloured metal sculpture in front an apartment building. The sculpture is a large metal frame that looks like a cube but made of parallelograms and from the top is suspended a bunch of metal pieces.

below: On closer inspection, the metal bits are actually flat human forms with their heads in the center and feet flung outwards as if spinning around a central axis.  I know enough physics to know that either centrifugal force or centripetal forces (or both) are at play here.  But I don’t know enough to know the right answer.

close up of a sculpture of flat metal people shapes, forming a circle with their heads, their feet sticking out like in a centrifuge.

below:  Next door are these two metal shapes.  There isn’t much to it, is there?  What it does have is it’s own little park area and walkway.  I didn’t have to get my shoes muddy if I wanted to get closer.

A sculpture that is just two rectangular metal boxes upright, joined together and on a slight angle. In a small park in front of an apartment building at 141 Davisville in Toronto

below: There is a path that ran on the west side of the above building, 141 Davisville, to Balliol Street.   This tall sculpture stands beside the path.  I am not sure who the artist is.  Is it a couple embracing? Or a totem pole of abstract forms?  Or just something that looked good to the artist’s eye?

tall columnar sculpture somewhat resembling a totem pole, all in grey, beside some trees in front of an apartment building.

below:  Next, from across Balliol, this sculpture caught my eye.  It is ‘Grand Odalisque’ by Sorel Etrog.

Grand Odalisque, a sculpture by Sorel Etrog sits on a wood pedestal in front of the entrance to an apartment building.

below: I’m rarely satisfied with photos taken of public art in front of buildings.  The background is always to cluttered or messy.   I played with various angles for ‘Grand Odalisque’ and I found this one.  The sculpture is quite phallic now that I look at it.

Grand Odalisque, a sculpture by Sorel Ertog sits on a wood pedestal . Looking across Balliol from behind the sculpture. The scene across the street is a few men standing in front of a construction site where a new condo is being built

The phallic nature of the sculpture is possibly ironic .  Odalisque has a few meanings and connotations, but all involve women.  In fact, ‘La Grande Odalisque’ is a famous painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1814.  In French, ‘grande’ is the feminine form of the adjective and ‘grand’ is the masculine.  Ingres used ‘grande’ for his female nude and Etrog used ‘grand’ for his sculpture.  Is there a connection?  Or just my imagination?

below: La Grande Odalisque.  You’ll have to visit the Louvre in Paris if you want to see the painting.

picture of the painting 'La Grande Odalisque' by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1814

The next stop along Davisville was the Al Green Sculpture Garden.  Al Green was a builder,  a founder of Greenrock Property Management, and in later life a sculptor.   It makes sense then that the small garden that bears his name, and is home to some of his sculptures, is between two of Greenrock’s apartment buildings.

below: ‘Leaning Torso’ by Al Green.

Al Green sculpture

below: ‘Embrace’ by Al Green

Al Green sculpture, The Embrace

below: ‘Landing Sculpture’ by Carl Lander (aka Carl Bucher), 1970.  They look like little red spaceships hovering in the air, or as the name suggests, coming in for landing.  Father and son alien ships come for a visit.
Lander (1935-2015) was a Swiss artist who lived in Canada for a couple of years in the early 1970s.

sculpture in front of an apartment building, two red shiny things that look like alien spaceships

below: Another sculpture by Sorel Etrog in the foreground.  Behind it is ‘Greenwin’ by Maryon Kantaroff, commissioned in 1973 by Greenwin Developments.

two tall thin sculptures, one by Sorel Etrog in the foreground and a greenish bronze by Kantaroff in the background.

And last, and very definitely least….

below:  You tell me.  Christmas balls on top of a fence?

three silver Christmas ball ornaments are attached to the top of a chain link fence

below:  Once you’ve figured out the whys and the wherefores of the above, you’ll be happy to know that there is another mystery.  A bagel?  A donut?  Squirrel food? Bird food?  But also a  ring?
These are on the fence that runs between Yonge St and the subway line near Davisville station.

a moldy partially eaten bagel or donut sits on top of a fence pole on a chain link fence