Shadow Puppet Rabbit

Location: Bathurst Street, north of Davenport
Date photo taken: 10 April 2014
Image 11 in the Mural Series

This shadow puppet rabbit is one small part of a long thin mural that stretches up the west side of Bathurst Street from just north of Davenport to just shy of Burnside Drive. The mural was unveiled in November 2013 amid controversy, not over its content, which is largely whimsical and nostalgic, but because the City hired Faile, an artistic duo out of Brooklyn, to create it. Many felt that hiring out-of-town artists was a slap in the face to local talent. The City defended its decision in part by pointing out that we couldn't expect other cities to commission our artists if we weren't willing to do the same in return. Another aspect to the controversy was that despite having designed the mural, the execution was not done by Faile but by junior members of their team.