Hello again, everyone! This blog will cover our walk through Trillium Park and Ontario Place for the 3rd annual Winter Light Exhibition 2020. The Exhibits were located on the West Island grounds of Ontario Place from February 8th to March 29th of 2020. As of March 13th, 2020 the park was closed to help stop the spread of COVID19.

The theme for this year’s Winter Light Exhibition - “Utilizing creativity, innovation, light and discovery, Ontario creators from all artistic streams will showcase their exhibits following the curatorial theme of “Cocoon“ “. - Courtesy of The Ontario Place website: http://ontarioplace.com/en/special_programs/winter-light-exhibition-2020/

We start our walk along The William G. Davis Trail on the night of February 12th 2020.

A view of the Toronto skyline from Trillium Park.

A few stickers we found along our walk.

Here is a view of the old Ontario Place water slide tower. It is the only thing left from the water park that was located on the east island.

As we walk a little more, we come to the Marina area. It was certainly a windy night and we wanted to take a picture that would demonstrate that there was a strong wind. This is a long exposure photo with the camera mounted on a table. if you look at the flags they are flying almost straight pointing to North-West.

Here is another view of the marina which was referred to as The Marina Village.

Walking though what was once known as the Marina Village we come in to view of part of the remaining part’s of Ontario Place.

Built in 1971, the Cinesphere was the first permanent IMAX theatre.

A view of the Ontario Place sign lit up near the entrance area to the park.

There has always been a fascination to the architecture of Ontario Place.

The Triodetic Dome of the Cinesphere lit up at night leaves people in amazement.

As we walked away from Cinesphere, we arrived at the first exhibit.

Eye and Mind

What if we could build a respite where we could protect ourselves, but still have to ability to come and go as needed? Eye and Mind is a semi-sheltered alcove that protects against the winds of the open grounds of Ontario Place while remaining open; sharing the light it has to offer.

P.A.Pax

Philip Aaron Pax is a self taught light artist and electrical worker. Growing up and studying in the trades has given Phil an understanding of labor and materials, while sparking curiosity around how light plays into all environments. This awareness, as well as his journey around emotional and mental health in the trades, motivated him to start exploring site specific installations that connect people to their inner selves and to place. Pax uses a combination of found and purchased light sources. The materials he uses depend upon the project’s demands. (LED and assorted bulbs, gels, acrylics, metal, wood, concrete and paint.) Some works are objects and some are environments. All projects serve to evoke community, connection, and a social spirit.

filamentpallet

https://www.instagram.com/filamentpallet/?hl=en

Just a little ways away we walked over to this exhibit. Unfortunately, some of the columns didn’t light up at all. When using a flash we thought it turned out pretty well.

The Good Path

The Good Path is an interactive light installation honouring Indigenous teachings. It welcomes all to engage and embark on a personal journey in a safe space where art sparks contemplation. The Good Path consists of seven rectangular reflective columns arranged in a circular formation. Outside of the circle, any light cast on it reflects back towards the source of the light. This is representative of the protective nature of the circle, protecting those on a journey of discovery and growth just as a cocoon protects the growth and development happening inside it. To experience this reflectivity, a flash photograph can be taken or a phone flashlight can be shone in the circle’s direction. Each column is equipped with a motion sensor controlling internal lighting. When a motion sensor is triggered, the light in that column turns on to reveal a carving of an artistic interpretation of one of the seven grandparent teachings. Each carving casts shapes of shadow and light onto the ground within the circle for viewers to consider and absorb. Each column’s motion sensor operates independently so each column must be approached to reveal the light, journeying through each teaching. This is representative of learning in life as it is rarely linear and lessons can be learned in a varied sequence. The Good Path, through the teachings it focuses on and its medium, honours the landscape and aims to bring people of all backgrounds together in a space of solace encouraging growth.

Bekah Brown

Bekah is an artist of Anishinaabe, German Mennonite, English, and Welsh descent who grew up in northern Alberta on Dene territory. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, working in fashion, beadwork, and installations. Her installation practice includes Chasing Red, presented during Nuit Blanche 2019 in partnership with Cadillac Fairview and Dear Sisters, presented during Come Up To My Room 2020 at the Gladstone Hotel. It is Bekah’s ethos as an artist to collaborate and create work that reflects what is happening in society. Through collaboration her vision expands past her personal experience, resulting in work that centres on community. Bekah’s work is a form of communication between her and the world. She is continually learning her Anishinaabe culture, using her creative practices to connect and heal. Through her work, she aims to use the platforms she can access to amplify the voices of Indigenous women and to foreground issues colonialism perpetuates.

We headed toward the forest.

Silk

Emerging from the ground as delicate tendrils, Silk is an ethereal and light-weight structure that seeks to create space through a minimal envelope of thin but resilient threads. Carefully woven together, the silky strands gently delineate an inhabitable interior sanctum forming a cocoon that is paradoxically enveloping and unbarred. Soft glowing lights highlight the links in the weave, forming an organically shaped enveloping structural constellation that emerges from the innate qualities and behaviour of the slender rods. These soft glowing lights pulsate throughout the night, their rhythm and intensity responding to the inhabitation of its gently defined space—a playful and graceful relationship between the cocoon and the occupant.

Silk extends from the studio’s applied research into light weight hybrid spatial structures inspired by natural and biological systems—it’s experimental nature a nod to the daring and innovative spirit of Ontario Place’s buildings and landscapes. Its structure takes advantage of two complimentary material systems for its basic character and organization. The first is a networked system of bending-activated structural elements made from engineered pultruded glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) rods.

These bending-active members gain compressive strength when held in bending, producing forms that are both incredibly delicate in appearance and exceedingly robust. These elements are sprung into a network of structural shapes through a second complimentary network of nodes and ground connections. It is at these nodes¬—the critical elements that define the cocoon and give it its strength—that the soft glowing LED lights are located. The structure gains resilience through networked connections, each element of the structure helping support the rest.

Denegri Bessai Studio in Collaboration with Urban Visuals

Founded in 2008, Denegri Bessai Studio is a Toronto-based architecture and design studio with a firm commitment to well-designed and considered spaces that leverage the latest materials and technologies to the benefit of its inhabitants and the city. We hold a deep belief that good design can and must be accessible and within reach for all, and this principle has encouraged our practice to find innovative ways to maintain the quality of our work while adapting to a variety of budgets. At our core, we are problem solvers – our best work the product of challenging constraints that lead to innovative solutions. Projects in the studio are carefully developed through an iterative design process that combines experimental research with engaged client consultation. Extensive material testing and prototyping is a constant factor in the design work of the studio. This approach is made possible thanks to our in-house fabrication lab equipped with a wide range of prototyping tools which allow us to quickly and effectively produce mock ups, models and prototypes. Our interest in fabrication has also led to the commissioning of numerous installations across the country where the studio is able to test, refine and celebrate our research.

After walking up the hill and into the forest there was a red glow.

As we walked closer the glow became brighter.

Woven Blanket

Participants are encouraged to gently touch the woven lights and wrap the woven pieces around parts of their body. Viewers may interact with the piece using touch along with experiencing the visually warming effects of being surrounded by a red glow.

Colleen McCarten

Colleen McCarten is a Toronto-based artist exploring minimalism & Op Art through combining textile techniques, such as weaving and stitching, with drawing and collage. McCarten holds a Bachelors of Material Art and Design from OCAD University, and is the recipient of the Material Art and Design Medal for her graduating year. McCarten has held solo shows at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and in Angell Gallery’s Project Space. Her work as also been included in group shows at Harbourfront Centre, The Idea Exchange, and the Textile Museum of Canada. She has received grants from both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Her work was recently added to the permanent collection at the Bank of Montreal.

As we followed the trail, we came across a metal enclosure with red glowing strings. This was one of the most popular spots for people and dogs to pass through. It was difficult to get a photo not only because of the traffic but it was also windy which made it difficult to get a better exposed photo by a tripod.

Passage

Passage is a journey through struggle, intention, transformation and illumination. A metallic structure invites visitors to pass through converging on them along the way.

The centre point is a moment of tension, resolving as travellers cross over. Passage rewards travellers who persist with a show of light.

Please travel gently, you may use the metal components for support but the cables are fragile!

Tag your photos #gatheringPASSAGE, we’d love to see them.

COLLECTIVE BIO

Gathering is a Toronto-based art collective. Drawing from diverse backgrounds in design, architecture, photography and programming, Gathering produces new media installations with technological leanings.

Individually and together, Gathering’s work has shown at institutions including the Ontario Science Centre, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto, Black Cat Showroom and Ontario Place. Members have also contributed to festivals, events and temporary and permanent public art.

Artists

Aaron Wong-Ellis, Isaac Strang, Nuff, Anthony Furia, Kevin Meric, Hugo Flammin.

We followed the glow in the trees and came across this cloud with a bench

People couldn’t seem to stop themselves from looking up at it from up close

And that bench is certainly inviting people to have a seat and get a picture taken.

Thought

Vessel.

Incubator

Cocoon

In THOUGHT, we express the concept of a vessel that carries an idea. A cocoon, incubating the living, breathing energy of our thoughts.

On the exterior, the THOUGHT is made of hundreds of translucent ping pong balls, dyed a multitude of colours. Suspended from the surrounding trees with aircraft cables, it floats in mid-air.

On the inside, a multitude of carefully arrayed points of light emanating movement. The light flickers and on and off at times, actively attracting attention; slowly dimming form light to dark other times, giving the sense of a breath, a life within. The colours range from white to burnt orange, varying in hue but keeping on the warmer, sunset-like side of the spectrum, gifting a warm, ember-like glow on the snowy ground and surrounding trees.

The other half of the installation, is a solitary, long, wood bench directly below the cloud. Here, the audience is invited to sit and reflect.

Here, the THINKER, can reflect, wonder and dream.

Dream, and engage. A sensor on the bench allows the thinker to communicate with the THOUGHT. The lights bursting through cone alive as the interaction takes place. The quickening, intensity and variance of the effect, solely left to the tinker of the THINKER.

What are you thinking?

What inspires you?

What is going on in your mind

…right now?

Collective: oneandoneandone x Reila

Follow us on Instagram @thought.thoughbubbleproject, @oneandoneandone_, @reilap and hashtag #oneandoneandone and #thoughtbubbleproject

Artists

oneandoneandone x Reila

Kyung Hyun (Kay) Kim, moved to Canada from Korea in 2003. He has a strong history of innovative work from the creation of high-level concept work, through design to project management. Since completing his studies at OCADU with a degree in Industrial Design, Kay has gained experience in a variety of roles, most recently as the Lead Designer of Future Foods Studio, where he led the concept and execution on a variety of projects, the most recent being the WNDR Museum in Chicago. He is skilled in sharp design thinking, visual delivery software and project implementation. Kay is a keen observer of trends in design, technology and art and the recipient of numerous international design awards. As one of the oneandoneandone founders, Kay's input resonates throughout all of the studio's work.

George Foussias came to Toronto from Greece in 1985, where he studied Architecture at Ryerson and UofT. He has focused his practice in Interior Design for the past twenty years, with a primarily A-list clientele, and projects in every continent. Recognized with a number of prestigious design awards, George currently serves as the Design Director of an international Architectural firm. Along a proficient understanding of design and construction, he has been very involved in developing branding and marketing strategies for a variety of clients, in the hospitality, commercial, retail, residential and industrial sectors. A strong creative, George has been involved in art and design and built projects for Nuit Blanche, Burning Man, the WNDR Museum and a number of other venues; it was only natural that he would be part of founding oneandoneandone creative studio.

Dian Carlo was born in Pasig City, Philippines and moved to Vancouver in 1994. From there, he moved to Toronto where he founded the Toronto-based collective Sodi Designs through which he has been honing his artistic and design skill both in concept and execution /fabrication, placing him among the top of Toronto's specialty project creators. An accomplished artist first and foremost, Dian's sensitivity to design is perfectly matched by his vast experience in building and fabrication. His work has varied in scale from production line light fixtures to commercial and residential work, to City- sponsored large scale installations. Among his larger pieces are productions for such events as Toronto's Nuit Blanche and Burning Man. A natural collaborator, Dian is one of the oneandoneandone creative studio founders, collaborating on a number of projects both for public and private clients and bringing his rare abilities from vision to final product.

Reila Park is a Korean-Canadian architectural designer who uses technology as a main tool for her designs, taking pride in bringing ideas to reality. She has a BDes in Environmental Design from OCAD University and currently works at FORREC, an entertainment design company that has worked with the world’s biggest influencers in the industry, such as Universal Studios, Chimelong Groups and Dubai Parks & Resort. Reila specializes in 3D modelling, visualization, immersive design and VR in a themed environment.

And right beside the exhibit, ‘Thought’ was our next stop

Genesis

When I began to think of the curatorial theme for this year’s Ontario Place Winter Festival it didn’t make any sense to me. What does cocoon have anything to do with light, or winter? Then I realized that light had everything to do with cocoon. Light is energy. It generates life and as a form of energy it embodies a cocoon that nourishes growth and transformation. So I designed an installation with light as the central medium. In GENESIS, the beams of light are all directed to the centre of sculpture, and even though the beams will have visible trajectory, light will still pass through the centre. It will only be when someone stands within the sculpture to capture the beams of light that the true form of the sculpture takes shape. Standing at the centre of GENESIS people are given a moment to experience being saturated in light. Every movement they make will be deflected by the beams creating a dynamism between the person(s) and the light of the piece. The focus of light to a single point has many cultural, scientific and religious references. What they all have in common is the notion that the concentration of light creates a focus of thought, a form of incubation, a point of transformation, a genesis. So I welcome everyone to pose within GENESIS to become the focal point of light and energy.

Tonya Hart

Tonya Hart was born in Grand Falls Newfoundland in 1973 and grew up in rural Ontario before moving to Toronto in 1992. She studied at York University and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Visual Arts degree in 1998. Her artwork draws inspiration from nature, science and light. Notable solo exhibitions include the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018); Canadian Sculpture Centre (2009); and group shows at the Portal Art Fair (2017) in SoHo, NYC and two previous exhibitions with the Ontario Place Winter Light Festival. In 2011, Tonya entered the public art realm with INFRA commissioned by the city of Toronto for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, becoming the first of three exhibitions for Nuit Blanche. She has since worked with cities across Canada including three commissions for the National Capital Commission in Ottawa.

Just a stones throw away from Genesis we arrive at our next stop.

Special thanks to Kelly Robinson and Navnith Ravindran and Amanda Cottreau

From Home to Anywhere

Every journey begins with a starting point. It is with the nurturing support of our home, our cocoon, that we can then excel and reach our fullest potential. From Home to Anywhere is an Art Installation that invites passers-by to step up to it and experience the cocoon for themselves, serving as a reminder that while our world is a big place, home begins with where you are.

Upon entering a nest, participants will be surrounded by birds fluttering overhead and invited to project their hopes and desires onto the birds flying above them, taking a moment to imagine how they would feel if they too could fly.

From Home to Anywhere encourages human interactions that are designed to inspire connection and to evoke the sentiment of possibility and hope. This body of work is particularly relevant today where we are displaced from our realities and caught up in our daily routines. Where our relentless pursuit of ‘success’ comes at the expense of forgotten aspirations and dreams. This Installation grounds participants in the current moment, giving them an escape from the chaos to rekindle and reimagine possibilities. The act of simply looking at these birds is a prompt for mindful reflection and presence.

Participants are encouraged to take a moment to reflect on possibilities and share their visions with the world using #fromhometoanywhere.

Amit and Kanika collaboratively realize Installations that push the boundaries of their individual practices.They intend for all collaborations to embody themes of hope and unity.

This installation is produced in collaboration with Kelly Robinson and Navnith Ravindran.

Artists

Amit Kehar

Amit Kehar is a cinematographer and motion director that uses light as his language to tell the stories that haven’t been told. His practice is dedicated to the art of capturing and creating emotion to bring others into worlds that capture the reality of environments they otherwise wouldn’t experience. All of Amit’s work embodies a holistic approach to inclusiveness, where he tries to place himself in the shoes of others in order to capture their stories.

Kanika Gupta

Kanika Gupta is a visual artist and graphic storyteller who uses art as her language to break invisible barriers. Through multi-modal and sensory based work, Kanika is passionate about engaging public audiences with art in ways that are meaningful and inclusive to them. She collaborates with cultural institutions and organizations to make their practices and physical environments more inclusive through breaking both physical and invisible barriers to access. Kanika is the author of BRAVE.

We walked from “From Home to Anywhere“ and over through what was known as Adventure Island on the Ontario Place grounds. We came across what looks to be really big helmets.

Surround

Inspired by the magical shape shifting qualities of illumination, SURROUND reimagines cocoons found in nature as vibrant luminescent shelters. As a solo experience, each vessel of light invites you to enter within and be transported to a visual fantasy of metamorphosis. Gently enter the cocoon or stand beneath it, neither the artist or Ontario Place are liable for any injuries that may incur.

Daniele Guevara

Daniele Guevara is an award nominated lighting designer. She has designed and assisted on more than 70 productions with companies including Rubberband Dance, Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Theatre Gorlitz, The Royal Opera House, Trey Anthony Productions, The Shaw Festival, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, The Banff Centre for the Arts, The Blue Man Group, Tarragon Theatre. Daniele’s creativity in the performing arts is accentuated by her interest in creative technology. In November 2014, Daniele was one of seven applicants to participate in the Convergence Lab, a Banff Centre residency meant to expose the intersection of art and interactive technology. Daniele has created a variety of interactive experiences, including game art for the 2014 Vector Game Art and Convergence Festival and real time live visuals for Toronto based artists LAL, Maylee Todd,Jasmyn Fyffe and Esie Mensah. Daniele is currently the Lighting Supervisor for the Canadian Opera Company, Canada’s largest opera company and one of the largest producers of opera in North America.

Right beside “Surround” there was this bright flashing light which certainly attracted a lot of attention.

Beacon Silo

Nested amongst the iconic Ontario Place silos, Beacon Silo is a freestanding installation that mimics these architectural forms. Housed within the structure, a slowly rotating mirrored sculpture projects dynamic columns of light on to the surrounding landscape. This beacon, both lighthouse and disco ball, is visible from a great distance and creates a constantly changing spectacle throughout the day and night.

Chris Foster

Chris Foster is a visual artist and designer based in Toronto. Working across disciplines, he works to understand and deconstruct subliminal structures of power in architecture by engaging conversations about local histories and the built environment. His creative process is motivated by public projects, site-specific installations and design/build collaborations. Foster's studio practice embraces a do-ityourself methodology, engaging acts of resistance in reuse, repair, and maintenance to subvert systems of built-in obsolescence and to reimagine material ecologies.

Just beside “Beacon Silo” there was this warm light radiating from an enclosed area.

Hearth

Providing a sense of warmth, Hearth welcomes visitors with vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows with shelter from the winds and weather. It has been designed to combat the isolation and loneliness so often felt in the long winter months with a canopy of fire in place of the cold night sky.

A key feature to Ontario Place in the winter is the communal bonfire, where people come to huddle together under the stars, still enjoying the magic of our winters. Hearth serves as a secondary gathering place for people to do the same: to look up and feel that sense of wonder, of family, and of warmth. With this piece I hope you find a moment of reflection, of peace, and of joy as we come together in this cocoon.

Participants are encouraged to use their time in Hearth to reflect on their community and share their experience using #hearth

Caterina Stambolic

Caterina Stambolic is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated with a BA Honours Studio Art from Brock University in 2017. Her work has been shown at The 2018 Annual Ontario Society of Artists’ Emerging Artist Exhibition, at the S Walter Stewart Toronto Public Library and at Ontario Place’s 2018/19 Winter Light Exhibition. Caterina works primarily in sculpture, photography and animation, but is always experimenting in new mediums. Harnessing her own experiences with depression and anxiety, her work seeks to make sense of those feelings and create spaces where people can feel a sense of togetherness and peace. This line of inquiry has led her to investigate how our brain chemistry, and specifically mental illness, affects so much of how we relate to our world on a physical level. Recently, her work focuses on examining feelings of isolation and creating pieces which inherently bring people together to view them. By using light and colour as her main materials, the sculptures await activation by a viewer as people move around the work to see each piece fully. While her sculptures shape light on their own, the participation of people is crucial to each piece, and is indicative of the powers of community and conversation when considering mental health.

In the distance there was this glow.

There were many different colours.

Envelopod

Like the familiar legend of the Loch Ness Monster, Lake Ontario holds tales of unexplained, snake-like creatures that are said to cause shipwrecks and violent wakes. Since there’s little tangible evidence of these cryptids, there’s room for imagination. I believe that like most creatures, they can form either physical or metaphysical cocoons. Not unlike the cycle of a butterfly undergoing transformation, these cocoons can act as a protected place in which internal development cannot be seen externally.

Humans create cocoons in the same way. Living with invisible chronic illness is just one instance in which our perception of another’s external appearance is far from a reflection of the work that is happening within. Through my wife, Eva, I have seen how sufferers of invisible illness are treated like cryptozoological creatures because their truths are not easily seen or understood.

This installation stands to demonstrate that our protective shells should be celebrated for providing us room to grow without the need for meeting societal expectations or pressures; a place inside all of us where self-care and self-love can be the focus. And from within that cocoon, we can still glow.

Envelopod is made of hand-cut acrylic and copper scales. Guests are invited to reach out to the inhabitant of this cocoon by placing a hand upon a copper scale to allow the myriad of changing colours to emanate from within.

Allow this installation to be a nod to those who suffer silently, the cryptids among us.

Matt Charalambides

Matt Charalambides received a BA in Industrial Design before finding his calling as an artist. With years of experience doing fabrication and design for retail, and a penchant for building over buying everything since adolescence, Matt left the office to become one with the wood shop when he launched Bear Bones Woodworks in 2013. Since then, his mixed medium art installations have been on display at events in Toronto, Chicago, New York, Houston and Miami. Creating work with an emphasis on challenging societies perceptions of the unknown, Matt’s work also challenges traditional design by utilizing eco and animal friendly materials throughout. When he’s not busy creating, he can be found wandering the tool aisles or the woods, finding inspiration in the everyday.

In the distance.

There are people looking through what we thought to be a door way and taking pictures in front of this interesting looking billboard.

Kizmet’s Portalis

Kizmet’s Portalis: emerging from Earth, inter dimensional hands cradle a passage. The vibrant morphing palms guide you to the lap of the gateway where you are enveloped within the enclave. The aura glows as the cocooning hands embrace your presence. You have now activated Portalis, a passage from one dimension to another. From one universe into new uncharted realms. A transformative leap from the known reality into new worlds and capacities of perception.

Kizmet Gabriel

Kizmet Gabriel is a Toronto based artist and adventurer who’s current works explore manifestations of evolving ethereal future beings and electric extra dimensional realms through reactive illuminated mural installation.

This next exhibit we wouldn’t have found unless we looked on the map and it’s really different.

Shadow Machines

Building on old magic lanterns and other 17th-century projector technologies, these apparatuses present viewers with a duet of cinematic projections created without film. The Shadow Machines project the delicate and crisp shadow of a small cocoon-like sculpture. As the focal lens shifts slowly forwards and backwards, the projected image appears to turn the small sculpture almost inside out. The visual illusion of shifting focus through an object leaves us unable to decipher the difference between the inside and the outside of the sculpture. The small cocoon is transformed from a still, static form and metamorphosed into a moving shadow.

Layne Hinton

Layne Hinton is a multi-disciplinary artist and independent curator based in Toronto. Through analog projection, sculpture, installation, video, drawing, and printmaking, her artwork examines collections of architectural forms, geometric structures, and the way in which line, light, and shadow play with these spaces. Continuing her exploration of space, she has curated for Art Spin since 2010, alongside her collaborator Rui Pimenta, a not-for-profit arts organization with a focus on presenting site-specific and temporary public art projects in alternative spaces. Most notably in 2016 Hinton led the in/future festival as Co-Artistic Director, an ambitious and unique 11-day multidisciplinary art and music festival that reopened Ontario Place to the public with site-specific installations, screenings, talks and performances. Most recently Hinton curated a major exhibition area for Nuit Blanche Toronto in 2019. Hinton holds a BFA from OCAD University in Integrated Media, with a minor in Printmaking. Her work has been shown in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario; YYZ Artist's Outlet; O'Born Contemporary; InterAccess Electronic and Media Arts Centre; and Pleasure Dome. And abroad with WRECK CITY, Calgary; Forthwith Festival, Winnipeg; the Lower Gallery at University of Buffalo SUNY; Mono No Aware NYC; The Frank C. Ortis Gallery, Pembroke Pines, Florida; L'École des Beaux Arts Paris; and the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

We have covered almost everything on the “Adventure Island” portion of the old Ontario Place grounds. We then walked toward the old “ Go Zone”. The fastest way there is through the cave path.

And there it was! A piano and what look to be two Woolly Mammoths that lite up.

Buried Echoes

The 2 papier mache mammoths represent in a literal sense, the unearthing of such ancient animals from activities such as mining as well as climate change from their “cacoons”. The use of paper in this exhibition mirrors a sense of both fragility and resilience in creation.

The electronic timer will turn on the build-in internal lighting of the mammoths at the beginning of the exhibition evening to give them a continuous soft warm yellow glow. A secondary build-in lighting system consisting of multi-coloured lights is connected to a toy musical keyboard that is accessible to the viewers who are encouraged to interact and play music with. The coloured lights are sync-ed with the audio from the toy keyboard and will flash with the notes being played to add to the soft lighting.

Jungle Ling

Jungle Ling is a Canadian artist based in Toronto Ontario. He is of Hakka heritage born in Taiwan and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario in the 70's and early 80's. Jungle did have a brief career as a Certified Steel Fitter prior to enrolling in Universities and subsequently settling in Toronto in the late 80's. Although he'd consistently excelled in the arts through school, it was in his role as a counsellor and art program facilitator at a First Nations' recovery lodge in Toronto in the late 80's that generated the spark to pursue art unapologetically. His art work, whether in fine art or sculptures and murals in the public realm, reflect his life journeys and the connections he'd made particularly with the common people, the marginalized and minorities. These are reflected in part in his hundreds of portraits drawn of people across Canada and elsewhere over the years of criss-crossing the continent on a bicycle. The acknowledgement of the unseen or the often overlooked elements in society or nature are areas of great interest for him and represent topics to be celebrated or at the least, acknowledged through his art.

We took a look at our map and decided to go back toward The Marina Village area to see the last exhibit in that area before moving on to the Go Zone area.

Enveloped in a Field of Grass

Grasslands cover a huge amount of the surface of our planet, some 30 percent worldwide. They are inextricably tied with the human story. As children we play in tall grass. Our memories of this time are ones of safety, playfulness and protection. The sensations of being enclosed in tall grass throw us back to our youth; it is at once a space to play but also a space to hide. As adults we yearn to return to a place of safety and for the playfulness of youth.

“Enveloped in a Field of Grass” is the latest installation from Luvère Studio. As the viewer passes through the installation they will experience the simulation of a field of tall grass made up of a mass of semi transparent acrylic rods illuminated by multiple LED light sources. The intention is to invite the viewer to walk into the field and brush past the rods. As the participant passes through the field the intensity of light increases to visually simulate the recalled emotions related to cocooning, feeling safe, being nurtured and being protected

Luvère Studio

Luvère Studio is an Art and Design concept collective who intertwine nature and technology to produce emotive creations that enhance our relationship with the natural world. They are drawn to concepts emanating from our current changing world, the effects of urbanization, the impact of our ecological footprint and people’s increasing demand for a more sustainable, healthier way of living. The studio’s intention is to create connections with nature and spark a dialogue involving that relationship, how we can move forward merging the natural with the technological. Applying a new approach to each work, their creations bring sculpture into installation, resulting in an alluring experience. Founded by Joel Esposito and Oliver Welton, Luvère Studio is based in Toronto, Canada. Winners of the Wanted Design, Launch Pad for Lighting in Manhattan, NYC in 2017.

On the way to the old “GO Zone” grounds of Ontario Place we pass by the Community Bonfire area that was set up. There were bonfires held here Fridays through Sundays. As of April 1st 2020 The City of Toronto banned all open air fires.

Physical Distancing rules were made law. Who knows when a scene like this will be possible in Toronto? As of February 12, there were only 7 cases of Covid19.

We cross the bridge from the bonfire pit into the “Go Zone”. Along the way we couldn’t help but notice this bring purple glow.

Metamora

Metamora is a seed of lights that shines brightly though its protective shell. The powerful light represents a growing seed that morphs and changes through sensors placed around the base. Breathe life into Metamora and see how it grows. Plant a seed of positive vibes and good intentions and this creature will come to life. A fragile embryo placed with in the fortress of pipes needs your energy to truly shine.

Ryan Longo

Lead by Ryan Longo this multidisciplinary project utilizes the strengths and skills of the artists and makers collectively sharing a shop on Geary Avenue. As a group we hope to achieve a message of unity and growth. Additional artists: Bobak Ghaempanah, Austin Simps, Patrick Leckie, Alexander Forster, Calder Ross

Looking toward the centre of the area there was a tunnel.

Lumina

“Lumina” is an immersive installation that uses the medium of light and colour to create a three-dimensional optical illusive cocoon. Based on the concept of “light art and light painting” this playful installation invites the public to be submerged in a series of never-ending glowing canvases.

The installation uses LED UV black lights to highlight a chromatic ellipsoid shaped geometry. Spectators are placed in the midst of this luminaire, where their constant movement allows them to experience a 360-degree photo assemblage of different patterns and forms.

Our team includes Victor Perez-Amado (Assistant Professor of Architecture-UofT), Anton Skorishchenko (Exhibition Designer-UofT) and Robert Lee (Exhibition Fabricator-UofT) and Shamim Khedri (Master of Architecture Student-UofT).

The team is interested in exploring design conceptualization research, digital fabrication, material prototyping, and visualization processes. Having worked with a variety of different designs in the past, the team has developed skills in cnc machining, 3D printing, lighting design and custom woodworking throughout various projects such as “Obscura” at Ontario Place Light Festival, “Woggle Jungle” on King Street “Everyone is King: Design Build Competition”, Making Waves (2019) in Montreal, the Generative Pavilion (2018) in the Autodesk Lobby, the Winter Stations (2019) “Cavalcade” and most recently the New Circadia Exhibition at the University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.

Artists

Victor Perez-Amado

Assistant Professor of Architecture + Urbanism | University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design | Master of Architecture and Post Professional Master in Urban Design

Anton Skorishchenco

Exhibition Designer | University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design | Master in Architecture & BA in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies

Robert Lee

Exhibition Fabricator | University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design | Master of Architecture & Bachelor of Community Design Honours in Environmental Planning

Shamim Khedri

University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design Master of Architecture Student

These old stairs lead to the Wilderness Adventure Ride and Adventure Island.

Walking along, we come to a box. There were different sounds that you would hear coming from it such as crowds cheering.

Huddle

Huddle is a winter ‘chapel’, the warm glow of which invites the viewer into an immersive, contemplative experience on a cold winter night. With a formal structure reminiscent of European Gothic cathedrals, the light within offers a temporary haven from the harsh conditions outside.

The internal space, however, offers a surprising twist as viewers find themselves in the middle of a ‘huddle’: one that combines the opposing images of sport and church. This is an experience that may be at once welcoming and disconcerting. Within these dualities of strength and fragility, Huddle seeks to investigate tropes of masculine power and institutional control.

Through the ironic use of football helmets and stained glass, conventions of organized sport and religion are questioned. Huddle invites the participant to contemplate the connections (or incongruence) between these two worlds and the associated issues of masculinity and control that surround them.

Audio component sourced from recordings of St.Peter’s Square, Rome, upon the announcement of a new Pope.

John Notten

John Notten is a Toronto-based contemporary artist and educator. His art practice focuses on the transformation of a wide range of materials and common objects into new and surprising configurations. The immersive, interactive environments he creates address issues of displacement, privilege, and power. He has created numerous large-scale installations for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche and his work has been shown across Ontario and Internationally.

A look across the channel that’s Lake Ontario and on land that is The CNE and BMO Field.

So we walked to the next exhibit and as you can see it wasn’t working. (Please do read the description on the next picture)

Enlightened 2.0

As an animated interactive projection, “Enlightened 2.0” relates to the Festival Theme of Cocoon through the concept of existential contemplation, specifically relating to the individual. How does self-image relate to the authentic self? How does light itself determine one’s perceived reality, and what is the impact of that when applied to one’s own existence?

This artwork invites the audience to step into the kiosk and face themself under a different light. Symbolically it is like stepping into a cocoon to contemplate self-perception. We ask the audience to give the artwork a few moments of their attention while a sequence of lights transforms their appearance. When the sequence has ended, and the lights have stopped emerge to see yourself in the context of the city.

Artists

Reanna Niceforo

Reanna Niceforo is a multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto. Her work spans from jewelry to interactive installations, with many creative projects in-between. She has exhibited locally in a number of galleries, festivals and boutiques. She has permanent artwork on display in Toronto's Liberty Village and has explored sound art through an installation for Nuit Blanche. Together they are a dynamic team that has received international recognition for their unique approach to interactive light art.

Phil Sutherland

Phil Sutherland is a photographer and owner of Revprint Studio’s Toronto, he has an extensive background in the production and facilitation of large format commercial installations. He is the founder and creative force behind The West Toronto Photography Group, where he shares his love of photography and lighting with the community. Together they are a dynamic team that has received international recognition for their unique approach to interactive light art.

On to the last exhibit.

A Long Story III

A moment suspended, illuminating the inherent interconnectedness—between human and human, and to our shared environment—and at the same time, our yearning for connection to both. A Long Story III is interested in how our relationships to each other and to the natural world—and our willingness to confront our shadows, individually and collectively—can lead to growth and healing. Loyal to the natural and the supernatural, with human nature at the centre, everything here is connected and intertwined. Coiling shapes softly reference serpents, which are often perceived as evil, but hold ties to the Earth Mother, creative energy, water, and the underworld and meld fully here with fantastical anatomies. The pillowy forms wrap around the frame of the entrance-way bridge to creating a cocoon-like passage.

A cocoon signifies comfort and transformation and correlates to the themes of healing, growth, and connection to nature. The structure of the bridge is itself a great symbol of transition and relationship between human and nature; providing passage for visitors and spanning the water below. With the bridge as its frame, the sculpture interacts with the man-made architecture of Ontario Place in a natural setting. At dusk, the piece illuminates from within, bathing visitors in a glow as they cross the bridge and enter Winter Lights—a fitting welcome to enter this dreamy world through an illuminated cocoon-like passage.

A Long Story III is a site-specific installation, fabricated with weather-proof fabric, polyester stuffing, sculpture wire, and LED lights, responding to the environment and structure of the entrance-way bridge.

Visitors are encouraged to interact with the sculpture by squeezing the index finger of the extended hand to prompt a colour change — the human interaction signals a shift in the light from cool to warm spectrum.

With thanks to fabrication partners Karin de Wolfe and Julia Appugliesi, and interactive partners, The New Beat

Lauren Pirie

Lauren Pirie is a multidisciplinary artist, art director, and curator with an interest in environment, immersive experience, and socially-engaged art. She’s curated collaborative art experiences, intimate gallery shows, and large community events, including recent exhibits at PRIDE and MOCA Toronto. She was a co-founder of grass-roots art and environmental organization The About Face Collective and has worked with organizations like Sketch, Centre for Social Innovation, Skate4Cancer, and DDBX Community Projects. Lauren recently spoke at TEDxYouth on the subject of art and its power as a tool for inward reflection and outward connection—subjects that often show up in her personal practice. Her work includes a range of media and scale, from delicate, intricate ink drawings to large-scale murals, as well as painting sculpture, and installation. Her current practice explores environment in relation to connection, desire and healing, both as themes in her own artwork, and while collaborating with and supporting other artists.

Well that concludes our walk through The Ontario Place grounds and our tour of The Winter Light Exhibition 2020. In view here is the channel between Ontario Place and main land Toronto with The Etobicoke skyline in the distance.