Traffic Signal Box - Toronto Map Maze

 

Location: Eastern Avenue at Carlaw

Date photo taken: 9 January 2021

Image #21 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

If you find yourself near the corner of Eastern Avenue and Carlaw with some time on your hands, pop over to the north east corner and find this traffic signal box. On it artist Pam Lostracco has created a maze using Toronto's streets and rivers. The CN Tower is marked as the start and there are other destinations, many of them greenspaces, to discover as you work your way through the maze and around the box. A fun and different way to discover the city.

Love Hands

 

Location: King Street east of Bay

Date photo taken: 10 June 2024

This installation for Pride is located on the north terrace of Commerce Court West. It's more than just a fun piece celebrating Pride however, it also channels the power of social media to fundraise for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.  If you happen to visit it, take a snap, share it to Instagram and tag @commerce.court. If you do, QuadReal and Commerce Court will donate $2 to the 519 Community Centre. Hopefully, all those toonies will add up to some serious support for the 519 and their programming.

Legendary Goalies

Location: Maple Leaf Square

Date photo taken: 30 January 2021

As part of their centennial celebrations, the Maple Leafs decided to bring some of the most loved and respected players from the franchise's history out to meet the fans. Over the course of four years, fourteen life-sized bronze statues of Leafs greats were added to an installation on the west side of the arena. Johnny Bower, on the left, was one of the first to be added to Legends Row, in September 2014. He won four Stanley Cups during his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing for them from 1958 to 1970. Turk Broda, on the right, spent his entire career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing from 1935 to 1951.

Control No Control

 

Location: Harbourfront Centre

Date photo taken: 9 February 2022

I used to really look forward to the Toronto Light Festival. Brightening up our long January nights with light-based art installations seemed brilliant. That tradition is back in a new form. Harbourfront Centre and Fjord Studio out of Norway are co-presenting Nordic Lights, a series of pieces by Canadian and Nordic artists. There are six in total, a mix of physical works and projection-based art. You can follow the provided map, or just wander through the park and discover each for yourself. Pictured here is Control No Control by Montreal-based studio Iregular. It's mesmerizing to stand back and watch, but if you're more hands on, it also reacts to touch.

Tagging Trash

Location: Promenade next to Sugar Beach

Date photo taken: 23 June 2021

How often do you think about trash? Perhaps more now than you used to, but I'm going to guess that the average Torontonian still doesn't spend much time thinking deeply about garbage. It's probably a good thing then that someone is thinking about it. One such group is the U of T Trash Team. Among their projects is Fighting Floatables, which aims to understand the problem of trash in Toronto harbour. They perform visual audits as a first step and then deploy trash capture devices in the water to trap floating debris. Collected material is then subjected to both a simple daily quantification and a deep dive analysis. This year they've added another layer to this by releasing plastic bottles containing GPS trackers into Lake Ontario. The bottles act like any other trash in the water, and the GPS trackers help the team understand how trash moves around the waterfront. They've made the movement maps available online so you can see for yourself how the move bottles around. It's one more way they're striving to create an "engaged waste-literate community where citizens are actively working to protect people, wildlife and the planet through the intersection of science, policy, community engagement and innovation that promote waste reduction."

The Big Social: AR Edition

 

Location: Natrel Pond, Harbourfront Centre, Queens Quay

Date photo taken: 6 October 2020

If the fine fall weather that is about to hit the city entices you outside and you find yourself in the vicinity of Harbourfront Centre, make your way to the Natrel Pond to experience THE BIG SOCIAL: AR Edition. Using your own tablet or phone you can access a series of dance presentations brought to life on the pond right in front of you, thanks to this augmented reality experience presented by Fall For Dance North. I had initially intended to use a screen capture for the image here but decided that would be a spoiler! The show is available from dawn til dusk until October 18th and it's a great way to enjoy Toronto's arts and culture scene while socially distancing.

What's this?

Location: Distillery District
Date photo taken: 7 June 2019

Three huge, glowing white forms, humanoid but alien, have landed in the Distillery District. We are all encouraged to interact with them. One is even called Poke, but only gently please. These figures are part of a larger art project known as Fantastic Planet, the creation of Amanda Parer and Parer Studios, the ones responsible for the huge bunnies that intruded upon Brookfield Place back in 2016. The inspiration for the project was the stop motion film of the same name from 1973. Toronto isn't the only city these figures will be visiting. Over the summer they will also make appearances in Bilbao, Central Queensland and L.A. They'll be hanging out in the Distillery until July 31.

When I Was a Stranger

Location: in front of St. Paul's Anglican on Bloor, east of Church

Date photo taken: 6 January

This hooded figure, presented life-sized and sitting outside St. Paul's Anglican on Bloor Street, is one of Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz' representations of Jesus. His first and arguably most famous depicted Jesus similarly cloaked, hooded and barefoot, sleeping on a bench. He explained his inspiration to the CBC: "If you look at the history of Christian artwork, most of the representations of Jesus have him embodied as physical perfection... So this is a breakaway from that. I started thinking, how would Jesus want to be portrayed? Would he want to be made out of marble, perfect and wavy, with beautiful gowns? And if you read the Gospels, I don't think that would really interest him. I think he would want to be represented like the least of his brothers.

This installation includes a ring of bronze stools surrounding the figure which welcome passers-by to sit awhile. St. Paul's encourages those who do to take a picture and post it using the hashtag #SittingWithJesus.

Parcade

Location: King Street, between Church and Jarvis

Date photo taken: 30 July 2018

When it comes to the King Street Transit Pilot I am definitely in the "love it" camp. Except for having to remember to wait before walking once the light turns green, my walks to work are pretty stress free and lunch time is far more relaxing thanks to the groups of Muskoka chairs placed conveniently close to my office. Now add to this some fun new installations spaced along the route. Parcade is one of four designed by students at Ryerson University's SpaceLab. The planters provide some interactive fun, even if it's a bit more low-tech than their namesakes. 

Hockey Heritage Mural - Summit Series

Location: Rail underpass on Davenport near Caledonia Park Rd.
Date photo taken: 10 September 2015

It was 45 years ago this week that Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in game eight to clinch the first Canada-USSR Summit Series. That moment, with Henderson celebrating and being embraced by teammate Yvan Cournoyer, was captured by Canadian Press photographer Frank Lennon. That image has been recreated on a railway underpass at Davenport and Calendonia Park as part of a hockey heritage mural. At over thirty metres wide it depicts personalities and moments from Canada's golden years of hockey, from 1951 to 1993. Created by the Davenport Arts Community, they endeavour to go beyond the creation of static murals, incorporating augmented reality and interactive animation into their designs, a process they call murography, allowing the viewer to interact through their smartphone. I wish I had known this when I visited the site. If you've interacted with the mural, please leave a comment below and share your experience.

Pillars of Justice

Location: 361 University Avenue, south of Armoury St.

Date photo taken: 20 October 2012

While not immediately obvious, this sculpture is meant to be interactive. It consists of eleven figures and one empty podium. The number is significant. When you stand in the vacant space, you complete the twelve person jury. The piece sits near the western edge of the pedestrian walkway between University Avenue and Nathan Phillips Square, home since 2007 to the McMurtry Gardens of Justice. Pillars was the first piece to be installed in the Gardens and it sits in front of the Courthouse. It is by international artist Edwina Sandys and was fabricated in Windsor, Ontario.

Heart of the Distillery

Location: Just south of the south east corner of Parliament and Mill Streets

Date photo taken: 19 August 2015

Sitting in almost the same spot that Koilos once stood, this grand heart now greets visitors to the Distillery District. It was originally installed in 2014 to welcome visitors to the Toronto Christmas Market. At that time, it was adorned with a large sprig of mistletoe, which has long since been removed. The press releases described "Under the Mistletoe" as a 14 x 12 foot sculpture of hot rolled steel inviting "lovers to walk inside the sculpture's arch". With the festive foliage gone, it continues to be a hot photo stop.

Bird Banding

Location: Waterfront, near the base of Dan Leckie Way

Date photo taken: 30 April 2015

Toronto, with its waterfront and many naturalized park spaces, provides lots of great habitat for many species of birds. If you're the type to take notice of birds, you've probably also noticed that sometimes they can be seen sporting coloured and numbered bands on their legs, wings, or as in this picture, their necks. The North American Bird Banding Program has banded over 60 million birds since it started back in 1904. Information on banded birds helps scientists learn more about them, including their movement and behaviour. Did you realize that you can help with this work? Ordinary citizens are encouraged to record sightings of birds wearing tags and report them to the program. You'll be asked for information such as the colour and placement of the band, the number on the band, and where and when you saw the bird. In return, you will be sent a Certificate of Appreciation which will provide you with some information about the bird you saw. In this case, the banded goose is a female, about a year old, and it had been banded in the Toronto area just over a week before this picture was taken. Observing and reporting bird bands would make a great summer science project for kids of all ages, and it would help the Canadian Wildlife Service better understand the birds it tags.

Glenn

 

Location: Outside the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC Building, Front St.W.

Date photo taken: 27 March 2013

 

If you're not paying attention, it's easy to walk right by this statue, mistaking it for a living, breathing person taking a rest on the bench. The life size bronze sculpture of legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould was created by Ontario artist Ruth Abernethy. He appears appropriately bundled for our current weather, but those familiar with Gould's eccentricities will know that he often wore warm clothing even when the weather didn't warrant it. He was also a recluse who hated being touched, but today anyone can take a seat beside him, rest their hand on his knee, or rub his shoe for luck.

 

If you're a fan of Glenn Gould or want to learn more about him, you can download the Tiny Guide To Glenn Gould's Toronto which highlights some of Gould's favourite places in the city. It was produced by the Glenn Gould Foundation.