On the Front Street Promenade in the Canary district there resides an interesting sculpture entitled The Water Guardians. Created by Toronto artists Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, the painted steel and concrete piece was installed in 2015.
The Water Guardians is an integrated artwork, landscape design and play project. It depicts three towering abstract figures, keeping watch over a stylized river made of recycled rubberized play surface, which flows underneath them. The riverway runs on the same axis as Front Street (east to west within the artwork site) and is punctuated by green mounds of rubberized play surface.
It was a sunny Sunday (finally!) this past weekend, so I opted for a little wander through Queen’s Park to shoot a few of the statues, monuments and memorials there.
Tribute to Salome Bey, Canada’s Queen of the Blues
Not in Queen’s Park but this utility box on my way there caught my eye. In front of 2 Grosvenor Street, west of Yonge Street is “Tribute to Salome Bey, Canada’s Queen of the Blues” by Adrian Hayles, mounted in 2021. If the style looks familiar, this DJ/artist/muralist has done numerous murals in the city. In 2016, Adrian took 8 weeks to paint a 22 storey Downtown Yonge BIA music mural on the north wall of 423 Yonge Street, just south of College Street. The next year, he painted the south wall of the same building, continuing the musical theme. Adrian also painted a substantial mural on Reggae Lane in the Oakwood Avenue/Eglinton Avenue West area.
Hours of the Day Monument Whitney Plaza, 23 Queens Park Crescent East
In 2018, Paul Raff Studios designed a sculpture flanked by granite benches as a way to honour the passage of time, reflecting the hours of service by correctional workers in the justice system, as well as in their communities. Each year, a Ceremony of Remembrance acknowledges correctional workers who have paid the ultimate price in their service.
Ontario Police Memorial Whitney Plaza, 23 Queen’s Park Crescent East
In 2000, two bronze statues featuring a 1950’s male officer and modern era female office were unveiled atop a 30,000 pound granite pedestal base. There are 8 cascading granite walls known as the “Wall of Honour” that recognize the names of Ontario Police Officers who died in the line of duty.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe Monument
Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe 1752-1806, First Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, 1791-1796. Founder of the City of Toronto July 30th 1793.
Northwest Rebellion Monument
By Walter S. Allward. The monument commemorates the Northwest Rebellion of 1894-1896.
Ontario Veteran’s Memorial Queen’s Park, 100 Wellesley Street West
In 2006, a black granite wall was designed by the landscape architect Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg to recognize the service of Canada’s military. It measures 8′ 6″ high and 100′ long. The wall features Canada’s military actions since 1867 and words from poet Jane Urquhart and military historian Professor Jack Granatstein.
Afghanistan Memorial Queen’s Park, 100 Wellesley Street West
Adjacent to the Ontario Veteran’s Memorial, a companion memorial was installed in 2020 to recognize the 40,000+ Canadian soldiers who served in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. One part is a bronze ribbon inspired by the Afghanistan mountains. Another part is a piece of granite from an Inukshuk built by Canadian soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.
Danger
Someone at Queen’s Park has a sense of humour
Robert Raikes
This bronze statue of Robert Raikes was executed by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock in 1930. Raikes was often regarded as being the founder of Sunday schools. This statue was first erected in Great Britain in July 1880 and replicas where installed in Gloucester (1929) and then in Toronto.
Dr. Norman Bethune 1890-1939
Dr. Bethune was a Canadian surgeon who graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School. He first gained fame as a doctor for the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, and then for providing medical services to the communist-led Eighth Army during the second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930’s.
The statue shows Dr. Bethune seated, dressed in a doctor’s apron, taking field notes. The following quote is inscribed on his apron: “I am content. I am doing what I want to do. Why shouldn’t I be happy – see what my riches consist of. First I have important work that fully occupies every minute of my time… I am needed.” At the bottom of the statue is inscribed, in English and Cantonese: “The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto proudly celebrates its shared history with Dr. Norman Bethune and China, and its ongoing research and education collaborations with China.”
Cannons at the Legislative Assembly
At the entrance to the Legislature there are two Russian cannons that were captured by the British during the Crimean war and sent to Toronto as a gift.
Queen Victoria Monument Queen’s Park, 100 Wellesley Street West
Installed in 1902, this bronze statue of Queen Victoria on a stone pedestal was designed by Mario Raggi.
Post One Monument Queen’s Park, 100 Wellesley Street West
To celebrate Canada’s centennial in 1967, a bronze map of the country was installed. It features surveyor tools and a time capsule to be opened in 2067.
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Monument
This monument to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, erected on the grounds of the Ontario provincial legislature in Toronto in 1995, was the first to commemorate Canadian involvement in International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. Approximately 1500 Canadians volunteered to fight for the Republican cause, many out of ideological motives and class convictions underpinned by the experience of the Great Depression. They were often forced to make the long and arduous journey to Spain independently, since in 1937 the Canadian government had forbidden the involvement of its citizens in the Spanish Civil War through the passing of the Foreign Enlistment Act. Initially a number volunteered with the American Abraham Lincoln Brigade, but the substantial number of Canadian volunteers would ultimately lead to the formation of a separate battalion, named after two leaders of the unsuccessful Canadian rebellions against the British Crown in 1837-38.
Makeshift Memorial
Pairs of shoes have been placed in front of Queen’s Park as part of a makeshift memorial in response to the discovery of 215 children whose remains were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Plaque: King George V’s Silver Jubilee
Installed in 1935, this plaque commemorates the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Time and tide have taken its toll on the inscription and it’s difficult to see, but the text reads: “This tree was planted by James Simpson, Esq., Mayor of Toronto, on the occasion of the celebration of the Twenty-Fifth anniversary of the accession of King George the Fifth to the throne. May 6th 1935”.
Whatever…
Mural outside the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus at Queen’s Park Crescent and College Street.
The last couple of times I’ve passed through Yonge-Dundas Sqaure I’ve noticed these odd gyroscope things, with people spinning them around. It turns out this is a project entitled Optik.
Optik is an interactive installation that incorporates sound, light, and touch to create a multi-sensory experience. The installation features 10 gyroscope-like displays that produce various rhythmic sounds and cascades of colour when manipulated in a spinning motion.
It’s a bit of a multimedia experience: users spin and rotate the disks to reveal a spectacle of colour. No matter the time of day, the dichroic film built into the centre of each display reflects rays of lights. There is also sound: you can hear notes of 10 different instruments that sing out as the user manipulates the forms to create unique sounds and rhythms. The sounds match the speed the discs are spun – fast, slow or in harmony with another.
The Creation Team
Optik was created by The Urban Conga team in collaboration with Serge Maheu
Click here if you’d like to learn a little more about the project in Yonge-Dundas Square.
Is it a whiskey still? A droplet of liquid? A man and woman dancing?
Myself, I’ll go with the idea of a whiskey still. The sculpture in question – Still Dancing – is by artist and creator Dennis Oppenheim. He describes Still Dancing as a “combination of sculpture, architecture and theatre”.
Installed in the Distillery District in 2009, the piece seems to be an acknowledgement of the Distillery’s brewing/distilling past (if you go with the interpretation of the piece as a whiskey still, that is).
The installation is quite large – the top of the copper apparatus reaches almost 40 feet in height.
So, I don’t know if shots from 2014 qualify for inclusion in my so-called series From The Vaults (i.e. old shots of Toronto). I found these the other day while browsing and thought I’d post them as they are a bit of a blast from the past, so to speak.
Some of the shots are slightly “arty”; I was experimenting at the time with capturing urban life using a slow shutter speed, hence the intentional motion blur.
The Bay at Queen and Yonge
The original Bay store at Yonge and Queen Streets only partially exists since Saks Fifth Avenue took over the entire east half of the building in 2016. These shots are prior to the merge and remodel of the building.
The Bay’s southeast entrance on to Yonge Street. This entrance is long gone; in its place is a trendoid coffee bar/resto, which is part of Saks Fifth Avenue.Pay phones!!?? Remember those? In the lobby of The Bay’s southeast entrance.The Bay sales floor, ground levelRiding The Bay’s escalatorsMore people moversGround level sales floor, Women’s jewellery (note Ivanka Trump’s jewellery line, far right – that dates it!)
In The Old Queen Street Bridge
I shot these while crossing over from The Bay to the Eaton Centre in the old pedestrian bridge spanning Queen Street West. This bridge has long disappeared and been replaced with a new one (check out my Eaton Centre bridge post here).
Above Queen Street during a rainstormThe old Eaton Centre pedestrian bridge
Inside the Eaton Centre
Another busy Saturday afternoon in the Eaton Centre
Located at the very foot of Yonge Street at Queen’s Quay East/Lake Ontario sits a curious sculpture entitled Between The Eyes. Established in 1990 by the artist Richard Deacon, this enormous piece resembles a mangled egg beater on steroids. Its gentle curves and angles make for an inspired photoshoot; the structure looks interesting from any direction.
The sculpture is called Between the Eyes. The idea for it developed after my preliminary site visit at which point the site was just an empty lot. I don’t know if they even started breaking ground yet. And there were a couple of things that kind of struck me kind of forcefully at the time. The one was the location at either the beginning or the terminus of the longest street in Canada – Yonge Street – which goes for two thousand miles as an old fur trading route. And, also across from the square is the departure point for the ferries going out to the Islands. So, the site had an implicit kind of focus to it. And the title of the sculpture, Between the Eyes, is somehow reflected ideas about centrality, about distance travel as you came down Yonge Street with your sled load of beaver furs ready to raise trade.
Richard Deacon, Sculptor
The sculpture’s huge but I hadn’t wanted to make a huge lump. So that’s why it’s a skeletal structure, to lighten it, to make it something you can look through rather than it always being something you look at. And the seed of the idea was probably as much to do with just some idea about walking as anything else. The sculpture was intended to look itinerant on the site – that it had arrived and could depart or was going somewhere or had just arrived from somewhere. And that seemed to be the essence of the place, that it was a point of arrival and departure.
The Rosetta McClain Gardens at 5 Glen Everest Road in the east end of Toronto is a beautiful park filled with rose gardens, a rock fountain and a pergola, among many other things. Perched near the top of the Scarborough Bluffs, it also offers fantastic views of Lake Ontario.
A Brief History of the Rosetta McClain Gardens
Thomas McDonald West, owner and operator of J. & J. Taylor Limited, Toronto Safe Works purchased the 16.2 hectare Rumph farm overlooking the Scarborough Bluffs in 1904-1905. He and his wife, Emma, then divided it among their four children, Joseph McDonald, William Needham, Howard Thomas, and Rosetta. Many of the historic landscape improvements enjoyed today were initially undertaken by Rosetta’s husband, Robert Watson McClain, and her brother Joseph McDonald.
Rosetta McClain died in December 1940 and in 1959 her husband donated their property (about 4 hectares) to the city of Toronto in her memory. In 1977, this land was conveyed to the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and combined with portions of the J.M. and H.T. West properties. A further parcel from the W.N. West holdings was added in 1985, creating a 7.5 hectare park.
Shady PergolaThe gazebo – a shady place to restThe shell of an old pine house reminds park visitors that people once farmed this property
A spectacular view from the Scarborough Bluffs…
Lake Ontario, looking westLake Ontario, looking eastHow is it that every time I visit an urban park or garden, I either crash a wedding or model photo shoot?! Here, I encountered hordes of Asian photographers converging on their innocent victim.One last look
History of Rosetta McClain Gardens courtesy of the City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry & Recreation web site.
I hadn’t originally planned on publishing two posts on the same day, but I learned earlier this afternoon that today is officially City of Toronto Day; it seemed worthy of notice here on TOcityscapes….
What exactly is City of Toronto Day you may ask? Well, Toronto is 189 years old today. On this date in 1834 the town of York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto. Our city was designated as the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation.
Here’s the official proclamation of City of Toronto Day:
March 6, 2023
WHEREAS today marks the date that the city of Toronto was officially incorporated in 1834, as we reflect on 189 years of history.
For hundreds of years, Toronto has been the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. Indigenous history is ingrained in our contemporary experience of Toronto. The very name Toronto is an Indigenous word, Tkaronto, meaning “where there are trees standing in the water” and it holds importance in the Indigenous community. Our city is built on sacred land and is covered by multiple treaties, including Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties and is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We are all treaty people, called to peacefully and respectfully honour the land, the Indigenous heritage and its people, which dates back to over 10,000 years.
Since its incorporation, Toronto has continued to flourish and embody its motto “Diversity Our Strength”, which can be seen in our city’s cultural and social fabric. As one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, our city has a global reputation for being a friendly, diverse, culturally rich city filled with vibrant neighbourhoods and unique cultures that make Toronto a great place to live and visit.
The valued contributions of Toronto’s multicultural communities strengthen our society and contribute to our city’s reputation as a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture.
NOW THEREFORE, I, Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, on behalf of Toronto City Council, do hereby proclaim March 6, 2023 as “City of Toronto Day” in the City of Toronto.
What did Toronto look like in 1834?
Here’s some interpretations from the City of Toronto Archives, Museums & Heritage Services:
On April 22, 1834, Council agreed to petition His Excellency Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant Governor, to arrange to have a plan drawn up of the new City of Toronto, its liberties, and its harbour, showing its division into wards and the relative connection of its limits with adjacent township lands.
City of Toronto, 1834
Third Parliament Buildings, 1834
The Old Gaol, Fireman’s Hall built by Mr J.G. Howard, on Church Street
In front of Regis College at 100 Wellesley Street West there resides a bronze statue inspired by Matthew: 25. Homeless Jesus – aka Jesus the Homeless – was installed in 2013 by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz. It highlights how Christ could be mistaken for a marginalized individual living on the street.
The Christ figure is shrouded in a blanket with His face covered; the only visual indication the figure is Jesus is the visible wounds on the feet.
At the doors of Regis College, U of T, is a bronze sculpture by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz depicting Jesus as a homeless person, sleeping on a park bench.
Worldwide Versions
There are multiple versions of the sculpture located worldwide, including the Vatican, New York and Madrid. In Canada, there are five other locations, including Ottawa and Hamilton.
Here are a few versions of this sculpture from around the world. Photos courtesy of the sculptor’s website:
This is such a lovely part of the city. I love how they fixed up that square and the fountain…