ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021–2022

This week, we head back across the Atlantic to my beloved hometown of Toronto. Like many of us living abroad, I haven’t had the chance to visit since the beginning of COVID-19. As if the milestones reached by friends and family in the time that I've been away weren't enough to make me long for that iconic skyline, the launch of ArtworxTO this autumn means there is yet another reason to be there. This newly conceived year-long arts initiative promises to reinvigorate the city the way only public art can. Over 1000 artists, both local and international, have developed or will be developing public art projects situated across the city. With it, a programme of public engagement events will build community and support creativity in each corner of the metropolis.

The year-long program launches Toronto’s 10-Year of Public Art Strategy, a scheme that will bring with it commissions and initiatives to support the arts community at large. The importance of this strategy is manifold. Public art isn't just a nice thing to have in a city; it's transformative in its ability to inspire, it elevates our collective experience of cities and it renegotiates the ideological lines between public and private space. Whilst art is often thought about as something contained within a white cube, waiting to be swept up into a private collection, public art turns this narrative on its head, inviting the public to engage critically not just with the subjects of the artwork, but with the space that it occupies. 

Amber Webb, Qaspeq Project II, 2018.

ArtworxTO promises to do just that, offering residents and visitors an experience of their city through the inviting lens of unrestrained creativity whilst acknowledging the land that it stands on, with the tangible goal of indigenous placemaking to advance reconciliation high on its list of commitments. Some of the artworks that are currently on view reflect this goal, including Qaspeq Project II by Yup'ik artist and activist Amber Webb, which highlights the over 250 murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls for whom justice still hasn't been executed, as well as Kǝdǝdzǝ́hehtsį by Laura Grier, who employs traditional print mediums to express the ineffable between emotion and language. 

John Notten, Over Floe, Salvaged Expanded Polystyrene, Epoxy Resin, Paint, 2021.

Other notable artworks that are on view now include John Notten's Over Floe, which uses irony and styrofoam from demolition sites in Toronto to highlight the impermanence of material, contrasted to the delicate fragility of the icebergs which they represent. Of similar critique but a different approach is Carolina Caycedo's The Collapsing Model, a diptych that directs our attention to the complex networks of economic interest involved in impending climate disaster. The work details the collapses of the Hidroituango dam on the Cauca River in Colombia and the Brumadinho mining dam in Brazil, both of which had caused the mass destruction of the environment and life, and both of which has ties to Canada.

Keerat Kaur, Mother, painted mural, 2021.

ArtworxTO also highlights Toronto as a richly multicultural place whose vibrancy is derived from the varied groups who call the city home. I remember fondly of my immigrant mother telling me how she always feels comfortable in Toronto because there are so many people of all kinds. She always feels like she belongs, a sentiment shared by many. Although immigrating is never without its hardships, the diverse offering from this programme reflects the welcoming nature of the city, with stories of crossing borders and forging new identities unfurling through many artworks. One such artwork is Mother by Keerat Kaur, whose ode to Sikh women who emigrated from Punjab and held fast the traditions of matrilineage reminds me of my own mother, who differs in place of origin but who reflects the same sense of resilience and strength that emanates from Keerat’s work.

You can find more information about ArtworxTO on their designated website, curate your own route through the city and keep up to date on upcoming events by following City of Toronto Culture’s social media pages.