Results tagged “devonostrom”

       

A giant jigsaw puzzle was unveiled at the Rotunda in City Hall last week. It wasn’t much of a head-scratcher, since it had already been solved, but what it lacked in convolution it made up in sheer optical awesomeness. Commissioned for the Manifesto Festival of Culture and Community (which just wrapped up this weekend), the puzzle—entitled Toronto Artmap 2009—was created by artists representing each of Toronto’s forty-four wards. Ranging from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, each artist was given a slab of wood shaped like their particular ward, on which they were free to tinker as they so desired. Once the pieces were finalized, they were linked up Voltron-style to form a massive tessellated map of Toronto.

We've been at City Hall a fair number of times, but it wasn't until this week that we had the rather delightful experience of being met by a beatboxing duo at the front door or rocking out to OutKast in the Council Chamber. The occasion for this upending of formality? A town hall meeting, hosted by a network of organizations known collectively as the Beautiful City Alliance. The coalition is working to convince city council to direct revenue from the billboard tax it plans to introduce this summer towards art in the public sphere and is stepping up its campaign efforts as the vote on that tax approaches. The town hall, attended by some two or three hundred artists and activists, as well as several city councillors, was part informational meeting and part pep rally, with a bit of spontaneous art production thrown in for good measure.

No victors were declared last night in the ongoing struggle between the street and the man, between high and popular culture, between the alleyway and the gallery. In a panel discussion on the evolving nature of street art, the only consensus was that more conversations—open-ended, open-minded, open-hearted—are required.