TO Cityscapes

Toronto Through My Lens

Category: Sculptures (Page 7 of 8)

“Ballast”

December 27, 2022 / / 1 Comment

In front of the Hudson condo at 438 King Street West, there sits a sculpture by artist Jed Lind, entitled Ballast.

Installed in 2013, Ballast is a patinated bronze sculpture of the prow of a ship, anchoring the corner of King and Charlotte streets in Toronto. Rising like a skeletal prow of a Great Lakes freighter, the five-metre tall bronze sculpture is described by artist Jed Lind as a visual metaphor for the transformation of the King Street corridor from working class to creative class. The artwork began as a maquette that was laser scanned and enlarged. After hours of meticulous sculpting and finishing of the enlarged positive form, the sculpture was cast in bronze in small sections. The sections were welded together, finished, and the bronze was patinated.

Jed Lind’s photographs, sculptures, and installations are populated with nautical vessels and vehicles, though they are not always immediately recognizable. On this particular creation, Jed Lind has commented:

Transformation is central to my work whether physical, emotional, or metallurgical. Ballast represents for me a transformation of the King Street corridor which is so drastically different than my memory of it growing up. Ballast is modelled on the frontend of a working lake boat, or Lakers as they are called. The boat is a nod to the blue collar working class that used to occupy the now vacated commercial and industrial spaces, while the geodesic pattern is a reference to Buckminster Fuller who inspired youth culture—in the late 1960s and 70s—to transform their existing circumstances through architecture. I hope Ballast will be a model for the younger generation who have taken over downtown en masse.

“Brickman”

December 13, 2022 / / 3 Comments

Brickman was created by a German abstract group called Inges Idee in 2010, and sits at the corner of Jarvis Street and Adelaide Street East.

Commissioned by Aspen Ridge Homes as part of the City of Toronto Private Developer Percent for Art Program. Brickman is an urban figure, both abstract and figurative blending elements of 19th century history with a contemporary take on monumental sculpture. The sculpture poses questions of human scale and urban development and comments on distinctive architectural materials and features in this historic area.

Plaque at base of brickman

The 8-meter high sculpture depicts a prospectively distorted, anthropomorphic figure made of bricks of ever-diminishing size. The perspective distortion with an extreme vanishing point makes the figure seem expressive and dynamic, and simultaneously larger than it actually is.

Brickman is an abstract “urban figure” that quotes the smokestacks and dynamic of the big city and the grid of the streets surrounding it. It takes up the plunging lines of the rows of high-rises and the vanishing points of the streets that run perfectly straight for miles. It relates to the masonry buildings of the neighbourhood and takes people’s thoughts back to the period of Toronto’s early development.

Tembo, Mother of Elephants

December 9, 2022 / / 2 Comments

Elephants in downtown Toronto!

These bronze elephants, created by artist Derrick Stephan Hudson in 2002, are located in the Commerce Court Courtyard on the south side of King Street West. The work is entitled Tembo, Mother of Elephants.

The three elephants reflect the strength and loyalty of a mother for her children. The massive mother elephant stands solidly guarding her youngsters, providing protection and care. Weighing almost as much as 80 people or 6 automobiles, this enormous mother elephant is one of the largest bronze elephants in the world.

“Community”

December 5, 2022 / / 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.

“Community” in the wintertime

“Safe Hands”

December 3, 2022 / / 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.

“U.V. Ceti”

November 29, 2022 / / 1 Comment

U.V. Ceti is an abstract sculpture by Andrew Posa, a Hungarian-Canadian sculptor. The piece was established at 30 Wellington Street East in 1992.

This large bronze sculpture sits on a base in the centre of a fountain. The sculpture looks like an asymmetrical V, with its arms spreading out to the sides and upward. Resting at the joint, in the centre of the V, is a large round ball. The V form looks like it is a cross-section of something larger. The front and back surfaces are smooth and slightly concave while the top and bottom of the V are rough with the look of earth. The sphere in the centre of the V looks as if it is a planet or asteroid that has crashed and formed a crater in the V.

U. V. Ceti by Andrew Posa
Dedicated to Edward Isaac Richmond
Architect 1908 – 1982
A kind man who shared his love of beauty

dedication plaque, attached to the base

Just in case you were wondering what a U. V. Ceti is:

Our galaxy is filled with billions of red dwarf stars, all of which are too dim to see with the naked eye. Lying at the faint, red end of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, their small masses — a few tenths that of the Sun — make them much cooler and dimmer than our own Sun. In fact, few of these stars have been detected beyond a dozen or so parsecs of our solar system. However, some of these stars belong to the spectacular class of variables known as the flare stars or the UV Ceti variables. At irregular and unpredictable intervals, they can dramatically increase in brightness over a broad wavelength range from X-rays to radio waves for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The fact that such small, unassuming stars can suddenly undergo incredibly energetic events make the flare stars one of the more intriguing targets for variable star observers.1

1 UV Ceti and the Flare Stars

“Remembered Sustenance”

November 27, 2022 / / 2 Comments

These unusual looking creatures outside Metro Hall on Wellington Street West were created by Toronto artist Cynthia Short. Completed in 1992, Remembered Sustenance contains 19 bronze sculptures in total.

The inspiration for Remembered Sustenance is drawn from the location of the sculpture’s site. Adjacent to the outdoor Metro Hall daycare playground, the work has been created to convey the sense of playfulness and whimsy associated with children’s stories and games. This group of bronze, non-specific cartoonish animals appear to be migrating across the lawn, towards, then away from a curtain drawn by two birds (at left in shot below). Below the curtain, a plate set in the ground holds a negative impression of the shape of a small ballerina that might be found in a child’s music box (this might have been visible in the shots if there hadn’t been so much junk on the ground that day!).

The various elements found in the artwork represent the remembered experiences of childhood that the artist suggests can sustain us throughout our lives. Open and abundant with possibility of meaning, it is the artist’s stated intention that the work should most of all be enjoyed by children.

Cynthia Short is an artist working in Toronto. For the past several years she has been working on small sculptures using materials such as wax, soil, and paper mache. She remarks: I try to make things that have a quality of something remembered or recognized. I hope that my images grow from a place that we all have inside.

“Liquid Echo”

November 17, 2022 / / 0 Comments

This sculpture is located in front of the Penrose condos at 750 Bay Street. As part of this condo’s development in 1999, this waterfall-inspired artwork by Catherine Widgery was installed. Liquid Echo was commissioned by H and R Developments as part of the program of integration of art and architecture for the City of Toronto.

The entire plaza in which the sculpture sits is over 100 feet long by about 33 feet wide and was designed as part of the work. The vent shafts to underground parking across the front of the site, that would have been massive concrete planters in the original plans, were razed and replaced with circular openings that house the supporting structure for the twenty-four spiral cut columns that turn to create the impression of a water fall.

All the language of the elements in this work is a translation of the experience of nature. My goal is to find a language and materials appropriate for the urban environment. Large boulders were cut and reassembled along the grid of the pavers to be seating in the warm weather. Inlaid into the pavers are sections of circles made from stainless steel to suggest the way light bounces off of water that has been disturbed. Small groves of honey locusts (on platforms to minimize the massive planters necessary for this site) frame the space and the stairs provide additional seating.

Catherine Widgery

“Immigrant Family”

November 15, 2022 / / 4 Comments

I love these! There is something incredibly adorable about the characters in this sculpture.

Immigrant Family, a work by New York sculptor Tom Otterness, sits outside the Lanterra condos at 18 Yonge Street. The 10-foot high bronze work was unveiled in 2007.

Selected through an international public art competition, Otterness’ work recalls the experience of visitors and new immigrants to Canada, capturing their sense of wonder at seeing the city and Lake Ontario, while bringing them close together as they embark on their new life.

I think it is a good purpose of public art that it sort of honours being a newcomer in the country and acknowledges it is an important role to play in the society.

Tom Otterness

The artist and the developer discuss the project

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