Month: December 2022 (Page 3 of 3)

“Community”

December 5, 2022 / Marvin Job / 1 Comment

This bronze artwork, by sculptor Kirk Newman, is located between the two Manulife Financial buildings at 200 and 250 Bloor Street East. The piece consists of twenty-one life-size figures, representing a cross-section of those who typically work and live in Toronto.

Commissioned by Manulife, the sculpture was completed in June 2001.

A Frozen Woodbine Beach

December 4, 2022 / Marvin Job / 4 Comments

Not to rush us into full-on winter or anything, but here’s a frozen Woodbine Beach and a freezing Lake Ontario. I took these images after going through the Winter Stations exhibit at the Beach on March 9, 2019.

What is Winter Stations you may ask? Well, Winter Stations is an international design competition held annually in Toronto. Participants are tasked with designing temporary winter art installations which incorporate existing lifeguard towers spaced strategically across the city’s Kew and Woodbine beaches. The structures (not in use in the wintertime) are considered visual anchor points for the installations. The exhibitions usually stay in place for about 6 weeks.

While Toronto beaches are not typically as well visited in the colder seasons, Winter Stations has captured the imagination of the city. The competition is open to everyone in the world.

Stay tuned for a future post dedicated to the Winter Stations installation I attended. For now, here’s a frozen Woodbine Beach…

**Hang Glider On Woodbine Beach**
Getting ready to go out over the lake

And there he goes… out over frigid Lake Ontario in early March… bbbrrrrrrrrr

A flower in the freezing cold… good thing it’s plastic

“Safe Hands”

December 3, 2022 / Marvin Job / 1 Comment

Sitting in front of the 76-storey tower One Bloor East (1 Bloor Street East) is a sculpture everyone calls “the oil cans”, and it’s easy to see why. Designed by Israeli-born, UK-based designer and architect Ron Arad, the installation is actually called Safe Hands. It stems from the City’s One Percent for Public Art Program, which mandates that 1% of project costs of building a condo/new highrise must go towards public art that is clearly visible at all times from publicly accessible areas.

The sculpture consists of a pair of intertwined stainless steel multi-jointed fingers with ruffled surfaces in spots, and flashes of bright yellow and red where sections end. Rising 88 feet high, the sculpture was designed by Ron Arad, and produced locally by Stephen Richards of Streamliner Fabrication Inc.

Originally planned as a dynamic sculpture with moving upper sections, the piece was redesigned as static when logistics proved too onerous (and likely too expensive to fix should it have broken at some point). The piece evokes a feeling of motion, which I’m sure was the intent of the sculptor’s design.

Alleyway Of Dreams

December 2, 2022 / Marvin Job / 1 Comment

The Alleyway Of Dreams is a mural-filled alley in the eastern part of Toronto, running between Coleman Avenue and Danforth Avenue, just east of Main Street. The Alleyway of Dreams began by homeowners painting simple murals on their backyard garden sheds facing the alley as a way to improve the space, create more safety and beautify an ugly place.

The Alleyway Of Dreams was started by Mark Kerwin and Sarosh Anwar, two local Danforth Village residents. The project is about creating an art and cultural corridor in east end Toronto, embracing nature, human potential, freedom of imagination and community. The project was begun in 2013.

It was a nice sunny day when I visited this quirky and fun alleyway… here’s what I encountered:

Abandoned Houses on Harbord Street

December 1, 2022 / Marvin Job / 2 Comments

I crossed Harbord Street a few months ago to reach Spadina Avenue. Harbord Village is a established, gentrified area but there was a little section of Harbord Street between Spadina Avenue and Huron Street that was distinctly abandoned, with the old houses crumbling. Here are some of the sad, derelict houses I encountered: