Author: artoronto

Statistics tell us we’re spending more time than ever behind the wheel, as the average work-home commute continues to rise to 63 minutes. Though many of us go through the daily grind unaware of the fact that our time behind the wheel is continually re-defining and re-shaping our experience of reality, an understanding of the windshield as a growing cultural lens has characterized the work of a number of artists since the late 1960’s. Bringing together the work of eighteen different artists, Auto-Motive: View From the Windshield explores notions of place, perception and emotional experience as seen through the interior of a car.

Installation view of Auto-Motive: World From the Windshield. Photo: Veronica Scarpati

With people spending a greater amount of time behind the wheel, the windshield has increasingly come to function as a global framing device, mediating our relationship between us and our immediate surroundings.

IAIN BAXTER&, Highway, Northern California, 1979, Chromira print.

Though we may travel the same roads and frequent the same streets, our perceptions of the passing landscape are unique. Reflecting the diversity of these mixed perspectives, the exhibition encompasses a diverse range of artworks in a variety of media, including painting, photography and video.

The exhibition encompasses a range of artworks across a variety of media. Photo: KJ Bedford

Visitors enjoying Maria Penner Bancroft’s O Waly Waly (Leaving Suffolk) 2012-13. Photo: Veronica Scarpati

Given the speeds at which we travel, the landscape appears in a constant state of flux, and our experiences are increasingly formed by mere passing glimpses. The brevity of our encounters with the natural world and our growing detachment from nature are themes that alternately treated by a number of artists across the exhibit.

Monica Tap explores the brevity of the passing landscape in her 2012 series, Borealis. Photo: KJ Bedford

Our detachment from the natural world is emphasized in IAIN BAXTER&’s Cows, Gaspe Bay, Quebec, 1969.

Though many of the works celebrate a culture rooted in freedom and limitless possibility, IAIN BAXTER&, reminds us that this freedom is not always complete. Pointing to his 1968 Passing Through, Trans Canada Highway, the artist—who was present at the opening—remarked, “We’re always moving forward, yes; but we’re also always looking back to see what’s coming behind.” The sense that we’re not entirely autonomous, that we’re dependent upon our surroundings, is exquisitely reflected in his early lightbox.

IAIN BAXTER& with wife Louise, in front of Passing Through, Trans Canada Highway, 1968. Photo: Veronica Scarpati

The interplay between limitation and freedom is a theme likewise explored in Stan Denniston’s from as far away as hope. Though a vast stretch of highway enables us to conquer the Nevada desert, our path is set and our direction limited; we’re only as free as our roads make us.

Stan Denniston, from as far away as hope (production still), 2003, chromogenic print.

Auto-Motive: World from the Windshield runs until August 31, 2013 and is showing concurrently at Oakville Galleries at Gairloch Gardens and Centennial Square in Oakville.

Veronica Scarpati

18th Annual Juried Graduating Sculpture Student Exhibition
Opening Reception followed by Awards Presentation: June 13, 6:30 p.m.
Canadian Sculpture Centre

 

Since 1996, the Sculptors Society of Canada (SSC) has organized, juried and sponsored annual exhibitions for Sculpture Graduates from Fine Art Programs across Canada.

Visitors with Jacquelin Heichert’s sculpture Just Decide

As part of its educational mandate, the SSC is proud to support Graduating Students by providing them with an opportunity to advance their careers as they begin their professional lives as Canadian Sculptors.

From left to right: Richard McNeill was the MC (also the SSC VP), and jurors – Barbara Fletcher and Amanta Scott

The jurors: Manny Neubacher, Director of  Neubacher Shor Contemporary Gallery; Amanta Scott, Artist; Barbara Fletcher, Sculptor / Educator selected the following participants: Brandon Davis, York University, Toronto ON, Shannon Lea Doyle, OCAD University, Toronto ON, Kara Firth, Sheridan College / Erindale College, U of T, Jacquelin Heichert, Concordia University, Montreal QC, Bailey Henderson, OCAD University, Toronto ON, Colin Levesque, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg MB, Amy Liden, OCAD University, Toronto ON, Natalie Nadeau, University of Windsor, Windsor ON, Tashiana Patrick, OCAD University, Toronto ON, Andrea Poorter, Sheridan College, Oakville ON, Ryan Smith, Fanshawe College, London ON, Maria Tsylke, OCAD University, Toronto ON

Bottom row from left to right): Amy Liden, Brandon Davis, Kara Firth, Bailey Henderson. Top Row (from left to right): Tashiana Patrick, Maria Tsylke, Ryan Smith, Andrea Poorter

The gallery was packed with visitors enjoying both the sculptures and the music.

Guest Musicians: Aidan Todd-Parrish and Peter Shoebridge,

The young artists were very exited surrounded by friends, parents and teachers.

Artist Shannon Lea Doyle with Twin

Award Winners are: Bailey Henderson, OCAD University – Abraham & Malka Green Award, Andrea Poorter, Sheridan College – Artcast Inc. Award, Natalie Nadeau, University of Windsor – MST Bronze Ltd Award.

Eric Knoespel presenting Artcast Inc. Award to Andrea Poorter

Award winner artist Bailey Henderson with her sculptures Octopus and Iguana Dragon

The exhibition is on display till July 12, 2013 at Canadian Sculpture Centre, 500 Church Street. Gallery hours: Tue–Fri 12– 6; Sat 11 – 4 p.m.

Photo: Celeste Ringrose

Daniel Hutchinson, Painting For White Light, 2013. Oil on Panel with Fluorescent Light and Wood. Courtesy of the artist

Reminiscent of ultraviolet rays, gasoline rainbows, and northern lights across dark night skies, Daniel Hutchinson’s exhibition at YYZ entitled Paintings for Electric Light features a luminous series of black, light sensitive paintings with a spectrum of florescent lights shining from various angles. Mysterious and enigmatic, Hutchinson relies on the play of light across the texture of his brush strokes to reveal the hidden movement and patterns within his paintings’ seductive black surface. Produced through a meticulous consideration of the gallery space’s architecture, Hutchinson’s geometric compositions only come to fruition when paired with their bright neon counterpart. Light bounces off the vinyl-like canvas and forces the viewer shift their physical position in order to uncover the entirety of the work. In doing so, Hutchinson defies a singular perspective by allowing viewers to experience the work from multi-faceted dimensions, an appropriate strategy for depicting the fleeting nature of light. As a result, the paintings are ever-changing. The highly reflective surfaces and carefully calculated light angles allow the viewer to encounter a new image each time they shift their spatial position.

Daniel Hutchinson, Painting For Coloured Light (Cyan and Magenta), Painting For Coloured Light (Analogous Colour), 2013. Oil on Canvas with Fluorescent Light and Wood. Photo: Sabrina Russo. Courtesy of the artist

Paintings for Electric Light carries on a similar discourse to those begun by Flavin and Le Witt. Although certain light show attributes are present within this collection of works, Hutchinson’s style extends beyond a technical achievement. In consistency with Hutchinson’s artistic practice, this exhibition displays a controlled colour scheme and demonstrates a continuation of the artist’s investigation in monochromatic painting and optical perception. However, Hutchinson has now abandoned the allegiance to representation that his paintings have always maintained. After attempting to capture the effects of water in a previous series, Hutchinson has begun exploring a subject that is even more elusive. Here, the artist has included the refraction of colour in a literal sense to unite all the elements which constitute our perception of light. Paintings for Electric Light embraces a geometric abstraction that defines light as its primary subject and possess a sculptural component which extends the reading of the work from being solely categorized as painting. Due to the use of high-gloss paint which allows for immense depth and movement, Hutchinson’s works immerses the viewer in a heavenly neon glow. By working with a limited palette, Hutchinson uncovers a sublime aesthetic within in the darkness through a unification of temporal light and painted surface, ultimately creating a statement on the power of ephemera and subtlety.

Shellie Zhang

* Paintings for Electric Light runs till August 10th, 2013 at YYZ Artists’ Outlet, 140-401 Richmond St W. Gallery hours: Tues – Sat 11  – 5 p.m.

Photo: Phil Anderson

 

Friday, June, 21 2013, 8:00 p.m.
The Power Plant
231 Queens Quay West
Free Admission

Summer 2013 Opening Party

Join us for a FREE party on the lakeside terrace celebrating the opening of the Summer 2013 exhibitions, and the renewal of ALL YEAR, ALL FREE program thanks to BMO Financial Group.

Our Summer 2013 season offers text as a way to consider the past in relation to contemporary artistic practices. The Power Plant is proud to present the group exhibition Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art and the first Canadian solo exhibition for French artist Jimmy Robert entitled Draw the Line.

The party will feature live performances by Postscript artists Caroline Bergvall and Christian Bök at 8 PM. DJ Serious will be spinning tunes and a cash bar and food by Perse catering will be available.

Proof 20
Exhibition tour with Proof 20 artists and curators: Friday June 21, 5 – 6 p.m.
Followed by the Opening Reception 6 – 9 p.m.
Gallery 44
401 Richmond Street W.

Derya Akay
Pascale Arpin
Lindsey Bond
Maegan Broadhurst
Alexandre Cv
Corey J. Isenor
Petra Malá Miller
Turner Prize*
Yi Xin Tong

Since 1994, Proof has been Gallery 44’s annual exhibition of photo-based work by Canadian emerging artists reflecting a range of current concerns and practices in contemporary photography from across the country. To mark Proof’s 20th anniversary, we chose to respond to a growing curatorial field in Canada, and extend the scope of the exhibition in 2013 to engage emerging Canadian curators. From an open call for proposals, Mikhel Proulx, Alex King, and Catherine Barnabé were selected to curate from their respective geographic areas in Canada. Our aim was to employ local knowledge in achieving a diverse spread of artworks from across the country.

The resulting Proof 20 programme brings together a varied and fascinating combination of artists and perspectives. It is interesting to see how Proof 20’s curators variously interpret the defining terms of their commission: emerging and Canadian. Also of note is that in the absence of a subject theme from year to year, themes nonetheless emerge. This year’s program sees artists interpreting cultural, personal and natural landscapes. Their works address reactions to new locales, the transitions of personalized places, and the inscription of liminal space into the frame of a photograph.

The exhibition is open: June 21 – July 26, 2013 at Gallery 44, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120. Gallery hours: Tue – Sat  11 – 5 p.m.

Darkness at the edge… / Group Exhibition curated by Thom Sokoloski

With a downpour of rain outside of the exhibition walls, it proved to be a dream-like escape from the dreary outdoors.

Installation shot on the opening night: Main Gallery. From left to right: Heather Smith, The Woods Behind My House (2012), Ronald Gonzales, Black Figure Study (2010), Jennifer Laivint, Crawl to Stand (2013).

The curator’s statement regarding the theme of the show included a discussion of liminality, ambiguity, and distortion that occurs in life and dream. However, his desire for the “36 selected works would conjure up each artist’s response to liminality but also provoke a momentary mirror into each of our own” was not fulfilled in my experience. For clarity’s sake, there were two main rooms; the north gallery (which was pitch black and required the participants to use a flashlight to navigate the space); secondly, the main gallery, was dimly-lit and lined with black cloth (like the back room).

Shannon Griffiths, Glipse Prototype, May 2013 (2013)

The bustling crowd on the opening night in the Main Gallery

I greatly preferred the back space because it provided for exploration and had many elements of surprise.

Gordana Olujic, The Blackbirds Singing at Dawn (2011)

Sarah Casey, Mumur (2011)

One artwork in particular caught the eye of many participants was Morgan Chirvers’ Particulate Pulse (inertness is a relative matter) hanging from the ceiling in the North Gallery. Similar to Kira Varvanian’s The Woman in Red Stockings, Chivers plays with the participants exploration of the pieces and watching the artwork transform as we shone flashlight on the pieces. Chivers Particulate Pulse unlike the other pieces had physical vulnerability/fragility, it was accessible (providing each viewer a sense of wonder and playfulness) and had a sense of ambiguity with the thin, snowflake-like quality of the glass which was supported by the neon/xenon/electricity filled glass tube.

Morgan Chirvers, Particulate Pulse (inertness is a relative matter) (2013).

Kira Varvanian, The Woman in Red Stockings (2011)

Overall, the show as a whole had its share of disappointments due to a lack of connection with darkness, edginess, the dream-world and liminality. However, there were many redeeming qualities, particularly the pieces and the atmosphere in the north gallery.

By: Leanne Simaan

*Note: The exhibition is on display June 13 – July 7, 2013 in Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts at 984 Queen W, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed – Sat: 12 – 6, Sun: 12 – 5 p.m.

Since their art school days at the University of Alberta, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have been partners in life and art. Thirty years down the road and a 2001 La Biennale di Venizia Special Award later, the Canadian duo has brought together a selection of key works to show on home turf. Titled Lost in the Memory Palace, the survey exhibition is showing at the Art Gallery of Ontario from April 6th to August 18th, 2013, before travelling to the Vancouver Art Gallery for 2014. The survey covers Cardiff and Miller’s collaborative work from 1995 to today. Each work is housed in its own room, and each room is a place for a discrete and unique experience.

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Storm Room, 2009. Duration 10:00, dimentions: variable. Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Photo: N.M. Hutcgutson, Calgary Alberta. Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Alberta

The art of Cardiff and Miller insists on being experienced rather than encountered. While a Monet or Rodin invokes a viewer who stands beyond it, these installations require the visitor to share the same physical space as the work itself. Stepping into Storm Room (2009), the guest is not just surrounded by the installation, but immersed and engrossed in it. The constructed piece is a traditional Japanese-style room with a dingy sink in the corner and flickering lights above. Aged newspaper clippings are tacked to the wall, a fan rests on the floor, and a hygiene product sits on the sink – these items hint at an inhabitant, eliciting a feeling of intrusion from the viewer. The work runs on a ten-minute loop, beginning with the ominous calm preceding a storm. Before long the rain arrives, rushing down the windows and leaking into the awaiting buckets on the floor. The sensory immediacy of the installation foregrounds the embodied presence of the guest, who becomes submerged both physically and psychologically in the rumbling thunder and flashing lightening. The storm reaches a tempestuous climax before finally dissipating, leaving an eerie stillness in the air and around the body.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, The Forty Part Motet, 2001. 40 loud speakers mounted on stands, placed in an oval, amplifiers, playback computer. Duration 14 min loop with 11 min of music and 3 min of intermission. Photo: Markus Tretter

Equally insistent on bodily presence is Experiment in F Minor (2013). It is an interactive installation comprised of 72 speakers of various sizes, placed face-up on a rectangular table. The speakers remain silent when the room is empty, but in the presence of a visitor, shadows created by the body trigger the speakers to sound. The audio features at one point or another piano, bass, drums, and guitar, as well as spoken words by a female voice. And it turns out that dynamism determines dynamics, where the loudness and intensity of the audio waxes and wanes in response to the level of body movement. The work thus transforms each visitor into an active spectator who participates in the magical awakening of the slumbering speakers.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, The Dark Pool, 1995, mixed media, audio-video-installation. Dimensions: approx. 10 x 7 m

The duo takes a more narrative approach in The Dark Pool (1995). A narrative scene is staged in meticulous detail inside a dusty, dimly lit room. This study-cum-laboratory is crammed with cardboard boxes, electrical cords, strange mechanical apparatuses, and some bizarre juxtapositions, including a flashlight strapped to a leather boot. This enigma of a room is experienced as walking into a moment in time frozen and abandoned. Open-faced books rest on tables, used tea bags sit in a bowl, and food crumbs are left over on a plate – the place was at one moment lived-in and then suddenly forsaken. As the visitor tries to piece together a story from the cornucopia of objects, even more narrative fragments are introduced from the speakers scattered throughout the room. A couple bickers over banal matters from one speaker, while a child narrates a story about a woman who drowned herself from another. These sound bites of the previous inhabitants’ lives and their abandoned objects fill the room with eerie memories and puzzling fictions. There is a beat-up vintage trunk sitting on a table, propped open to reveal a miniature diorama of a mysterious scene. In a way, The Dark Pool is like a life-size diorama, bringing into life a mysterious fiction.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, The Killing Machine, 2007, mixed media, sound, pneumatics, robotics. Duration: approx. 5 min. Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller. Photo: Seber Ugarte & Lorena Lopez

“We like to experience the world in reality,” Miller tells us. Indeed, “reality” and “experience” seem to be the key words that emerge out of this exhibition. A Cardiff and Miller installation seems to become a full work of art only when the two terms come together, when the work’s materiality meets the viewer’s consciousness. The work of art, then, is reality-as-experienced, in which the experiencing subject participates in the production of the final oeuvre. Here looms the age-old philosophical conundrum, “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In light of my two hours at the AGO, I’m inclined to answer, “probably not.”

Amy Luo

Friday, June 14 – Sunday, June 16, 2013, 6 – 9 p.m.
O’Born Contemporary
131 Ossington Avenue, Toronto.

Do come in for a cup of tea…

O’Born Contemporary is pleased to present A Feminist Tea Party: Straddling the 49th, a three-day collaborative artwork by Caitlin Rueter and Suzanne Stroebe. OBC will be the fifteenth venue in the ongoing series and the host of A Feminist Tea Party’s first instance outside the United States.

A Feminist Tea Party lies somewhere between a performance, an installation and a participatory event. Initially provoked by the Tea Party protests subsequent to the 2008 presidential election, A Feminist Tea Party recasts the “tea party” as a playful, progressive, inquisitive and inclusive space. Conceptually, it engages with the history of the tea party (from Boston to Beck) and feminism (from the suffragist movement to Lady Gaga). A Feminist Tea Party’s aesthetics are meant tomirror techniques of the Tea Party movement, which has effectively played on the concept of historical reenactment as a vehicle for political discourse.

Rueter and Stroebe revisit the consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s in the set of a mid-century tea party. Constructing a room in the center of the gallery, they create both a home and a forum. Dressed in 1950s costume and greeting guests in their “parlour”, they draw on the iconographic heritage of contemporary representations of women-sex and service, the consumer and the consumed. The gallery is recast as a home, an open forumwhere essential and discomfiting issues can be discussed freely and with a sense of humor.

Through the duration of their residency at OBC, Rueter and Stroebe invite viewers to join them for tea, sweets and conversation. Each day, a different co-host drawn from Toronto’s vibrant and uniquely varied cultural landscape will introduce a topic to engage guests in an informal discussion about feminism.

All are welcome to participate, regardless of gender, political persuasion, or identity as feminist.

Co-hosts, themes and schedules have been announced on the OBC website: http://www.oborncontemporary.com 

Power Ball: 15 Minutes
Thursday, June 6, 2013, from 8 p.m.
Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

The more than 2500 guests at this years Power Ball at the Power Plant didn’t let the rain stop their sense of celebration and support for one of Canada ‘s premier contemporary art gallery. The outdoor activities scheduled were pretty much cancelled making the crowd even more tight inside.

The Andy Warhol theme with his renowned idea that “ in the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes “ worked well for this years party as I Phone cameras went into overdrive. Forty five years ago is it was the Polaroid SX 70 camera that provided instant gratification and celebrity. Who knows what Warhol would have thought of the his prediction ringing so true with accessible technology.

The crowd at the Power Ball this year included the art, the fashion and some of the financial community as well of just everyone who wanted to support contemporary art culture for institutions such as the Power Plant.

Party Guests

Power Plant director, Gaetane Verna was at busy greeting visitors to the party and looking very elegant.

From left to right: An Te Lui, Consuelo Jackman and Power Plant Director Gaelane Verna

Art Project Director, Claire Taylor (left) and friend

Notable fashion personalities Jeanne Beker, Glen Baxter and photographer George Whiteside were just some of the party goers I noticed in attendance. Guest seemed to relish the opportunity to dress for the occasion.

Jeanne Becker (second from right with her Campbell Soup Purse) and friends

Glen Baxter and friend

Photographer, George Whiteside and friend

Artists Vera Frenkel, Dave Dyment, Eldon Garnet, Mark Labiberte, Jon Sasaki and Peter Bowyer were just a few of the many artists attending this years event.

Artist Vera Frenkel

Artist Dave Dyment (left) and friends

Sara Diamond (centre) with friends

Artists Peter Bowyer(left) and Eldon Garnet (right)

Interdisciplinary artist Zeesy Powers with her performance installation, I Will Tell You Exactly What I Think of You, unleashed what many of us might dream of doing. Participants got a an opportunity to chat about fame and its impact on their lives with Ms. Powers.

Zeesy Powers is performing

Video works were front and centre to take in by Thunder Horse Video out of New York. They have shown their work at Miami Art Basel. MoMA PS1 and MOCA LA before.

Thunder Horse Video Entertainment / Installation

KTL & Sybil (Kaitlin Till Landry and Sybil Prentice) Performance

Plenty of drinks supplied by sponsors Johnnie Walker, Grand Marnier, Tanqueray, Don Julio and Perrier, beer from Kronenbourg and wines from Chateau des Charmes Bosc Family ‘s newest winery, Earth and Sky with an inaugural launch kept the party fluid.

Lots of appetizers making their way through the crowds and a great fresh sushi bar to boot. Music supplied by NYC based Physical Therapy and Deko–ze of Toronto kept the tunes coming through out the event.

Deko–ze, “Canada Hardest working” DJ

I missed the private installation by Toronto artist Scott Lyall apart of the VIP upstairs room that happened early in the evening. Co–chairs Isa Spalding and Anthony Novac did a splendid job along with all organizers of throwing a party to remember for more that 15 minutes.

Party Guests

Party Guests

I had to leave relatively early and guests were still arriving to party into the night. The weather may have kept the party inside but it didn’t dampen the festive spirit. I think Warhol would have enjoyed himself.

Text and photo: Phil Anderson

Be a part of our community, and help the Festival grow!

With the help of the community & Indiegogo, we can reach our goals to help make this coming Festival the best week to date.

From Monday, June 3 on  join us online as we launch our Indiegogo fundraising campaign! With your support, we can continue to be a unique platform to share ideas, and engage in a dialogue about design, with a focus on emerging practices and new work, all within a city-wide celebration that brings together makers and users. Through our Indiegogo campaign, we can help grow the Festival to include events and programs such as film screenings, workshops, student shows, and public installations that take place year-round.

The Festival is a huge labour of love. We love what we do, and we want to do more, but the problem with being an emerging festival, is that we don’t have enough funding to support ourselves. With the help of art and design lovers, our peers, family, and friends, we will be able to take the Festival to its next phase. Working with some of Toronto’s fantastic designers, we have compiled a collection of perks to thank you for your generosity, working with artists like Lana Filippone, the 2013 winner of imm Living’s ‘Not Forkchops’ design exhibition and competition, and designers such as Alissa Coe, who was part of the exhibition ‘Manufacturers + Designers Connect’, recipient of the TO DO Awards presented by Herman Miller for Best in Festival – Exhibition.

For more information please go to http://igg.me/at/TODO2014/x/2950243

The TO DO Fundraising Campaign runs on www.indiegogo.com  June 3 – July 5, 2013.

David Brown, Scorching Metropolis, Encaustic on Birch Panel, 48 x36 inches, 2012

June 10 – June 16, 2013
NXNE ART
Pattison Onestop 
screening every 10 minutes throughout Toronto on Pattison Onestop’s digital subway platforms screens.

Featured works include:
Three 30-second clips from a video panorama by Ulu Braun’s (Berlin, Germany). The Park, which depicts a space between the domesticated and the wild, includes elements from his documentaries and video sequences from his collection of television material.
A slideshow of the work of David Brown (Toronto, Canada). Textured and abstract, Brown’s encaustic paintings reflect the environment that surrounds him, revealing urban culture as a dominant theme.
Two 30-second videos featuring animated GIFs by Michael McDonnell (Toronto, Canada). McDonnell draws inspiration from commonplace items, scientific depictions of select human systems and iconic fashion figures for his illustrative animated works.
Two 30-second clips from Smile Stealers by Allison Moore and Jasa Baka (Montreal, Canada). Smile Stealers is an experimental visual poem employing a campy, surrealist silent film style to tell the story of a girl who becomes a warrior and saves the world from eternal despair.
A slideshow of images by Gary Taxali (Toronto, Canada), an internationally renowned, multi-award winning artist, influenced by iconography, old style typographic and most noted for his story-telling miniatures. My Feelings Like You, is a selection from his London, UK (2012) solo exhibition.
NXNE ART is part of Art in Transit, Pattison Onestop’s ongoing arts and culture programme, presenting thought-provoking projects that enhance our shared environment and transport city-dwellers, if only momentarily, out of our daily routines.