THE TOY VERSION OF THE DIVINE LADDER
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| image by Teresa Casas |
MEASURING UP AND SCALING DOWN IN THE NORTH YORK CITY CENTRE
Between Sheppard and
Finch avenues north of the 401 high-rises appear suddenly, hiding a
view of the North York city centre until the last moment. However, if
your windows are down you can hear “Mel’s Bells”, named after
city father Mel Lastman, ring out the time from the sky-scraping bell
tower. As you lift your eyes upward you wonder how this regional hub
was successfully anchored on the edge of massive arterial traffic.
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| Willowdale Transit Authority, 2013 by Matthew Blackett; image by Teresa Casas |
The answer is that
it draws from the underground human stream of the Yonge subway line,
filtering it upward into multi-use complexes. However, dependence on
the extension of underground transit for North York’s development
has been a long-standing source of resentment against the City of
Toronto. Matthew Blackett’s Willowdale Transit Authority,
(near the subway entrance within the complex named the North York
City Centre), is a map of a hypothetical subway that proposes an
alternative articulation to this most central and affluent area of
North York. A self-contained system, it dedicates separate lines to
each category of Willowdale’s amenities, assets, monuments and even
political grandees that shaped its current form. A subversive take on
infrastructure, Willowdale Transit Authority fondly satirizes
the metropolitan dreams of a former suburban borough.
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| Willowdale Transit Authority, 2013 by Matthew Blackett |
Up at street level,
Mel Lastman Square features a watercourse flanked by wide paths and
steps leading down to a reflective pool at the entrance of the former
city hall now called the North York Civic Centre. Joseph Muscat’s
Homeostasis temporarily rests in the pool. It is the final
note in the Square’s sliding scale that powers down the monumental
surroundings to create a space for human interaction.
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| Homeostasis, 2013 by Joseph Muscat; image by Stephen Cruise |
The playful form of
Homeostasis invites you to turn it over in your mind as it
transforms from different sight-lines. From one angle it resembles a
child’s first drawings of a house. And yet, it is tilted and as you
shift perspective the symbol collapses. Appearing both concave and
convex the work capriciously morphs as you walk around it. Images of
the flicking of cards in a dealer’s hands or a delicately balanced
house of cards come to mind as Homeostasis evokes the high
stakes of real estate in the surrounding affluent residential area.
The prevalence of luxury condominium towers and “monster” homes
side by side with modest postwar houses signal the loss of a standard
scale of domestic life that has come with the widening income gap.
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| Homestasis, 2013 by Joseph Muscat; image by Stephen Cruise |
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| image by Stephen Cruise |
Enter the Civic Centre at the entrance beyond the reflective pool. Turn to your left and take the stairs up to the ground floor. The former city hall now houses offices for citizens’ groups and district services. There is a constant passage of people using it as an interior walkway from the adjacent North York City Centre to nearby offices, parking lots, streets and parks.
At the Civic Centre’s south entrance are two large photographic prints—one taken by day, the other by night—of the high-density development on nearby Yonge Street. Rare Earth, a work by Ian Chodikoff, refers to minerals essential in the manufacture of mobile phones. Foreign students and recent immigrants rely heavily on these devices that make round-the-clock global communication possible.
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| Rare Earth (day), 2013 by Ian Chodikoff |
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| Rare Earth (night), 2013 by Ian Chodikoff |
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| image of Toronto Centre for the Arts by Otino Corsano |
The former North York Performing Arts Centre was built in 1993 when mega-musicals were at the peak of popularity. Garth Drabinsky’s production company, Livent, was contracted by North York Council to operate the theatre complex in 1994 but four years later the company was bankrupt. Another production company took over but was defeated by the plunging market for Broadway shows.
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| Otino Corsano's North York Video 1 "Optimus", 2013; Video Still, Credit: Directors Jeff Hamill & Maddie Goodall |
Enter the screening
salon, just beyond the ticket windows. Otino Corsano’s North
York, 2013 presents three videos edited in the style of television
commercials. The richly layered soundtrack from the headphones
enhances the intimacy and poetry of the worlds created by different
artists. These subtle productions are whispers that have replaced the
booming notes of musical theatre. The recorded gestures, artistic and
mundane, celebrate habitual activities that make North York
environments a stage.
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| Otino Corsano's North York Video 1 "Optimus", 2013; Video Still, Credit: Directors Jeff Hamill & Maddie Goodall |
The porch of the
historic John McKenzie house, headquarters of the Ontario Historical
Society, is the site of Paola Poletto’s a hundred times, the
excesses of daily living. This red brick home was built a hundred
years ago on a fragment of the owner’s farm. Sold to create a
residential subdivision, the only clues to the past existence of a
farm are several outbuildings behind this house, parent to the
surrounding Empress Subdivision homes. The extension of the radial
railway line out of Toronto spurred settlement in the subdivision
just before the First World War.
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| a hundred times, the excesses of daily living by Paola Poletto; image by Stephen Cruise |
In the space of the porch, objects accumulate before they are put in their proper places; it is a service area where discarded packaging is sorted, possibly appraised for use as up-cycled craft material or put out on the curb. The city-issued “blue box” is a familiar unit of measure representing the hypothetical amount of recyclable material a household produces for weekly pick-up.
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| a hundred times, the excesses of daily living by Paola Poletto; image by Stephen Cruise |
On the John
MacKenzie house porch a recycling box, painted white to draw
attention to its unusual contents, holds containers from what the
artist served to her family. Pick one up and examine it closely; each
discard has been customized through a labour-intensive embellishment.
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| a hundred times, the excesses of daily living by Paola Poletto; image by Stephen Cruise |
The accumulated containers are a diary of comfort or drudgery-filled meals. Merging with the refuse of other homes in the Ganges River of matter that ends in the recycling stations, the act of filling of the blue box translates a private into a public gesture of nourishment, conversion and renewal.
Head back to Yonge Street, go south to Empress Avenue and cross to the west sidewalk of Yonge Street. Go north through the covered hoarding that marks the edge of a construction site, turn left at the sign for Gibson House, walk through the lane and turn to examine the hoarding directly in front of the historic house-museum.
Like the
half-completed behind-the-curtain set-change, this grouping of
apartment buildings, historic house, and condominium construction
site has the drama of elements caught in a transitional state. The
window-shuttered farmhouse holds the memory of Willowdale’s rural
roots. But it is also a look-out: from its windows and its front
lawn, past and present are set in a fresh dialogue through the works
of Bailey Govier and Stephen Cruise.
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| Home Economics (condos) by Bailey Govier, 2013; image by Stephen Cruise |
Govier’s
multi-part installation Home Economics explores the peculiar
boundaries and countervailing forces of this site. Her painting on
the construction fence can best be appreciated from the front lawn of
Gibson House. On the flat surface the three-dimensional shape of
towers is created in three point perspective by the angle of lines.
Whether the thin diagonal lines atop the towers are pushing them off
balance or keeping them upright by pulling them together is an open
question. Their bases are cut off in the picture plane, giving the
viewer a sense of being poised to fall into the sky. These dynamic
optical effects contrast with the weighty stability of the half-way
constructed condominium visible above the fence. Yet high up in the
cat walks workers, along with local residents below, might relate to
the strain of keeping balance in a constantly shifting environment.
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| Home Economics (Gibson Museum) by Bailey Govier, 2013; image by Teresa Casas |
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| Willow BOX by Stephen Cruise, 2013; image by Stephen Cruise |
Cruise’s Willow
BOX is a mysterious apparition on the Gibson House lawn. Willow
Dale was the name of the postal station located here and serving a
widespread rural area. Covered in a tree bark pattern, the
mysterious object has a shape similar to that of a mailbox, but
Canada Post situates these on public sidewalks and Gibson House has
lost its connection to public pathways and service routes. Severed
from its surrounding streets by high-rises on all sides, this
container of history is recessed both by its retrospective function
and its stranded location.
However, the
isolation helps in switching into a reflective state of mind. By
walking around the house and observing details or through discussion
with the costumed staff you may be taken back to an earlier moment
that you yourself experienced in the history of the neighbourhood or
it may remind you of your first vivid impressions on your arrival
here.
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| Willow BOX at North York Central Library by Stephen Cruise, 2013 |
Teresa Casas is a specialist in contemporary art in heritage settings. She has worked in such historic sites/art venues as the Freud Museum, London, The Power Plant, Toronto and Oakville Galleries, Oakville. She is currently writing about rural heritage and urban farmers’ markets as well as helping to set up the Regent Park farmers market in the heart of this re-developed community. Visit Back to the Park for her work on the history of Toronto parks.
