Toronto Through My Lens
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.
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…
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.
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:
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:
As many know, Jimmy’s Coffee is a Toronto coffee shop. There are currently 9 locations in the city, most situated in hip and young neighbourhoods. While neither young nor hip, I’ve been to a few of the locations and found they have a unique interior decor and feel. The Jimmy’s at 84 Gerrard Street West, though, has the other locations beat – it has Jimmy Mount Rushmore!
In the fashion of the real Mount Rushmore, here we have Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffett and Jim Morrison:
The mural was commissioned by Jimmy’s Coffee and completed in the summer of 2014. It measures 26 by 12 feet (approximately 312 sq. ft.). The brilliant artist who created this mural is Christiano De Araujo. Christiano is a self-taught artist born in Anápolis, Goiás, Brazil, but now living in Toronto. He is the founder of Toronto Artists Studio, a studio of visual artists, painters, digital artists and sculptors who design and produce murals and visual communication projects for audiences on a small and grand scale.
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
dedication plaque, attached to the base
Dedicated to Edward Isaac Richmond
Architect 1908 – 1982
A kind man who shared his love of beauty
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
For today’s post, let’s take a little trip to the east end of the city.
The R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant is an absolute masterpiece of Art Deco, located on the shore of Lake Ontario at 2701 Queen Street East in Toronto. The plant was designed in 1929 and built from 1932 to 1937. It opened in 1941 and was later expanded from 1955 to 1958. The plant is named after Roland Caldwell Harris, who was the Commissioner of Works from 1912 until his death in 1945.
The structure looks like a museum, but is actually a water treatment plant. Surprisingly, the inside of the building is similarly elegant, with cavernous halls and marble passages, all full of filtration equipment. This opulence has earned the building the nickname “Palace of Purification.”
There are three buildings comprising the plant: the Filter Building, the Service Building and the Pumping Station. Together they represent the largest example of Art Deco in the entire city. The use of marble, bronze and carved limestone is prevalent throughout and typical of the Art Deco architectural style.
The water treatment plant is the largest one in Toronto. It produces 30% of Toronto’s drinking water and can potentially produce 950 million litres daily.
The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant has been used in dozens of films and television series as a prison, clinic or headquarters.
A beautiful place to enjoy.
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.
Located at 524 Front Street West over the busiest railway corridor in Canada, the Puente de Luz is a sculptural pedestrian bridge and the largest public art installation in Canada. The name Puente de Luz, or Bridge of Light, was chosen to signify the link between North and South and the connection between the two countries that came together to build it – Canada and Chile.
The Puente de Luz was designed by Chilean sculptor Francisco Gazitua with structural engineer Peter Sheffield. Located in the Concord CityPlace neighbourhood, the bridge carries pedestrians and cyclists from the western portion of CityPlace to Front Street West just between Spadina and Bathurst.
The $8 Million bridge was completed in 2011. It was built as required by the City of Toronto for developer Concord Adex to create inter-connectivity with surrounding neighbourhoods.
You know what Marvin ? I never knew about this. I really have never got close enough to see all…
Yes Marvin. I have been to a couple of these festivals in the past. It is a HUGE EVENT now…
I have always admired this sculpture but it seems to disappear amongst all the grey facades of the surrounding buildings.…
11 Walmer Road was originally clad as it is clad post 2018 with black bricks and white bricks etc. They…
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Yes I've seen these sculptures and have enjoyed them. Sculptures and statues really liven up a city!