Traffic Signal Box - Shoot the Shooter

Location: North east corner of Dundas and Sumach

Date photo taken: 20 June 2021

Image #17 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Here's another striking mini mural thanks to StreetARToronto's Outside the Box program. This one was done in 2015 by Toronto artist Matt Cohen. For those of you unfamiliar with the neighbourhood, Dundas and Sumach is right in the heart of the former Regent Park housing development which has been the focus of intensive redevelopment since 2005. In the background of this photo you can see the colonnade of the new DuEast high rise condo development at 225 Sumach. If you visit the artist's blog, you'll notice that the background of the photo he took after completing the box looks much, much different. It's almost as if this photographer was placed here to capture the changes taking place in the neighbourhood.

NeaTO: The City of Toronto Archives has a massive photograph collection that documents much of the city, and it happens to have a picture of the north east corner of Dundas and Sumach from 1972, showing the low rise housing of Regent Park. 

Pioneer Village Station

 

Location: 2800 Steeles Avenue West
Date photo taken: 22 September 2018

This is one of two similar-looking buildings that act as entrances to the Pioneer Village TTC station. Designed by SGA/IBI Group Architects in joint venture with Alsop Architects, the TTC page dedicated to this stop describes them as "a pair of sculptural objects, robust and yet embodying playfulness and free flowing movement." They are certainly striking. A friend, on seeing this picture without the aid of their glasses, mistook the structure for a turret. That is forever how I will think of these buildings, and it seems somehow fitting. After all, they sit on opposite sides of Steeles, one in Toronto and one in Vaughan, protectors of their respective realms.

Eagle V.1

 

Location: The Esplanade at Yonge

Date photo taken: 12 May 2021

Through the Percent for Public Art Program, the City of Toronto encourages the inclusion of art in new developments across the city. Sometimes these art works are placed inside or add subtle interest to courtyards or passageways. That can be nice but I really love it when a work makes its presence felt. Eagle V.1 by sculptor Dean Drever definitely falls into this latter category. It's huge and it graces a thin portion of wall adjacent to Yonge Street. That means that there are great sightlines, but it also means that you can appreciate this piece from a variety of angles and distances (here it is seen from further away). I find that its character, or the effect on the viewer, changes depending on where you are. The eagle may be a protector of peace but it's also a mighty predator and standing this close, you can't help but feel a bit like prey.

Fabricated by Lafontaine Iron Werks Inc. from designs by Drever, the giant bird is made of aluminum, fibreglass, polyurea/polyurethane hybrid and lacquer, and painted to match the stonework of the building. It was installed in 2018. The artist's statement can be read here.

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."

Artscape Bayside Lofts - Natia Lemay

 

Location: 30 Merchants' Wharf

Date photo taken: 16 June 2021

I feel like you never know what you're going to see when you visit the East Bayfront these days. Sure, lots of cute dogs being walked is a given. Also construction and views of the water, but surprises also abound. One day recently part of the promenade was decorated with candy coloured paper lanterns and huge pots of flowers. The same day I saw that I also noticed this streetside gallery. It's probably been there for awhile but I've never noticed it. It runs along the west side of the new development at 30 Merchants' Wharf, a building which houses 80 affordable housing units geared to artists and artist-run families. Known as Artscape Bayside Lofts, the units are part of the larger Hines-Tridel Aquavista development and are owned by the City of Toronto.

This particular exhibit is called "Family in Art" and all the works are by Natia Lemay. 

Toronto Hearts

Location: Yonge-Dundas Square

Date photo taken: 14 July 2021

Exploring the ravines is definitely one of the things I love about Toronto. Also Cafes and Patios, The Raptors and the Toronto Zoo. Apparently I'm not alone in loving these things. Members of the community were recently asked what they love about the city and their responses can now be found on hearts like this one, carefully spaced across Yonge-Dundas Square. In addition to calling out all the things we love about our city, these hearts also help us with physical distancing as the city starts to re-open. 

Tentacles

 

Location: Bremner Blvd.

Date photo taken: 1 July 2021

It made me smile when I spotted this on the pavement outside the Ripley's Aquarium. I think this is actually a film that's been applied to the ground, but it reminded me a bit of the sweet little chalk drawings that David Zinn creates. Unfortunately he lives in Michigan, but that's not that far - I live in hope that he'll visit Toronto one day.