From May 5-22, 2011, I exhibited Figure and Ground with Derek Flack at the Gladstone Gallery. This exhibition is part of CONTACT, Toronto's annual month-long festival of photography.
Eight images from this body of work are shown below. Each limited edition print is available for purchase in 36” x 36,” 18" x 18" and 9" x 9" sizes. Please contact me for more information.
Toronto Tower Apartments #3 (2011)
Toronto Tower Apartments #9 (2011)
Toronto Tower Apartments #11 (2011)
Toronto Tower Apartments #17 (2011)
This project began in May 2007 when I exhibited Landmarks and Monuments: Residential Complexes in Toronto’s Urban Periphery at the Larry Wayne Richards Gallery. At that time, I described the work as follows:
The residential complexes in the periphery of Toronto are definitive landmarks: markers of boundary and locality, points of orientation, representations of an instance and turning point in time, and structures of compelling historical and aesthetic interest. Their monumental significance is belied by a lack of conscious popular awareness of their presence and status. By presenting these buildings as consequential architecture, I aim to stimulate discourse about their role in our city.Or, to put it more succinctly: by shooting the tower apartments as places of beauty and significance, I help make them worth renewing.
By adopting the technique and style of commercial architectural photography, this work deliberately deviates from a more common artistic approach to the subject of
Images from this growing body of work have formed the visual basis for a large number of
The new images shown above will serve as a launching point for a book project on the topic of Toronto tower apartments. The work featured in the book will be disseminated through a variety of media and distribution methods, including public exhibition at non-traditional venues (e.g. shows in tower neighbourhoods) and facilitation of the work’s use in future scholarly and public outreach initiatives (e.g. publication-ready image packages). The book will be funded in 2011, shot in 2o12 , and published in 2013.
This ongoing project is important because it creates visibility for the subject matter, making it familiar, accessible and emotionally affecting for scholars, design professionals, artists and the public. It also serves an important documentary function, cataloguing this ubiquitous buiding type at a pivotal moment in its history.
On May 12, 2011, I presented this body of work at the second Tower Neighbourhood Renewal Symposium. The poster from this presentation is shown below.
