Posts Tagged ‘public art’
[PHOTO] “Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.”
This mural by Canadian artist Isabella Vella, built around a quote from Canadian politician Rosemary Brown, decorates the front of the Sistering women’s shelter in Bloorcourt.
[PHOTO] The six painted rhinoceri of Woody’s, Church Street (#woodystoronto)
Church and Wellesley bar Woody’s has taken advantage of the CaféTO program, setting up tables on sidewalks and parking areas to make up for the inaccessibility of its interior spaces. The barriers protecting the street spaces of Woody’s were painted with images of the bar’s rhinoceros, each one with different colours and patterns.
[PHOTO] “Anthem” by Cohen, in chalk and in song
The other day, I was walking along College Street in west-end Brockton Village when I saw that someone had written, in chalk on the sidewalk, the lyrics of the Leonard Cohen song “Anthem” from his 1992 album The Future. I had seen similar chalk inscriptions on nearby sidewalks, but this was much the most extensive, occupying eight panels of concrete.
A 2008 live performance of the song by Cohen is as close a we’ll have to an official video.
Four years ago, Quartz shared an explanation by Cohen of this song, a rarity.
The future is no excuse for an abdication of your own personal responsibilities towards yourself and your job and your love. “Ring the bells that still can ring”: they’re few and far between but you can find them.
This situation does not admit of solution of perfection. This is not the place where you make things perfect, neither in your marriage, nor in your work, nor anything, nor your love of God, nor your love of family or country. The thing is imperfect.
And worse, there is a crack in everything that you can put together: Physical objects, mental objects, constructions of any kind. But that’s where the light gets in, and that’s where the resurrection is and that’s where the return, that’s where the repentance is. It is with the confrontation, with the brokenness of things.
The full lyrics, of course, are sheer poetry.
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to beYeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never freeRing the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets inWe asked for signs
The signs were sent:
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to seeI can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
And they’re going to hear from meRing the bells that still ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets inYou can add up the parts
You won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart, every heart
To love will come
But like a refugeeRing the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
[PHOTO] Our Mother Mary in blue, Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church (1515 Queen Street West)
I was walking last weekend west past Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church, in the west of the neighbourhood of Parkdale, when I saw this statue of the Virgin Mary. I had wanted to take a photo of the tatue, framed so nicely by the window behind it and with a coat painted in an earnest sky blue, for aesthetic reasons. I also recalled the old tradition of asking the Virgin Mary to intercede with Christ for mercy in–for instance–times of plague.
This image has turned out to become one of my most popular photos on Instagram, largely because of apparently Lebanese users finding the image via hashtags.
[PHOTO] Twenty-nine photos of Winter Stations and Woodbine Beach (#winterstations, #woodbinebeach)
Saturday, the 21st of March, was a perfect day to see the public art works in the 2020 Winter Stations, the sadly diminished crowds enabling me to have a socially distanced trip down to Woodbine. There, the three of the four Winter Stations artworks that were not destroyed by errant children at play still stood, sounded even when designed to do so. The grey sky hung over the damp brown beach, and the pale green-blue sea lapped at the shore.
[PHOTO] “Deeds Speak” (#oldtoronto, #yorkcounty)
The Toronto Plaque website explains the significance of this sculpture, located [i]n front of the parking garage of the building on the east side of Berti Street just north of Richmond Street East”, quoting its 2010 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here’s what it says:
The adjacent York County Coat of Arms and the female figure inside the entrance once adorned the York County Registry Office, formerly located on this site. Commissioned by the County in 1941, the sculptural reliefs were created by Jacobine Jones, a leader in the field of architectural sculpture, who later became the Director of Sculpture at the Ontario College of Art. These sculptures remained with the building when the County left this site in the mid-1960s. Before demolition of the old building in 2008, the sculptures were removed. They were reinstalled on the present building in 2010.
“Deeds Speak” was the motto of the 3rd Regiment of York Militia, and has survived the liquidation of old York County to remain the motto of York Regional Police.
Wikipedia’s article on Jacobine Jones provides a convenient overview of the life of this sculptor, most active in the mid-20th century.
A Bit More Detail 