This Saturday, we decided to head down to the Steam Whistle Brewery for the Winter Beer Festival... except, the tickets were sold out when we got there. So instead, we went to have a look at some outdoor art installations on the lakefront... except, we got distracted and ended up at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery instead. Which was great!
After failing to get in to the Winter Beer Festival - which looked like a lot of fun from the outside - we grabbed a tasty bite to eat at Taverna Mercatto. It was brunch time, so we enjoyed some brunchy twists on Italian classics like pizza and pasta. We were then refueled and ready to check out some outdoor art installations, but along the way we came across The Power Plant and decided to check that out instead!
The Power Plant is a free contemporary art gallery and houses an eclectic mix of art installations from different artists. Walking into the gallery, we were greeted by a beautiful corridor that looks out over Lake Ontario, which also houses the first installation; a crumbing fresco of a cloudy blue sky by Latifa Echakhch.
The Power Plant is a free contemporary art gallery and houses an eclectic mix of art installations from different artists. Walking into the gallery, we were greeted by a beautiful corridor that looks out over Lake Ontario, which also houses the first installation; a crumbing fresco of a cloudy blue sky by Latifa Echakhch.
We also spent some time watching the film of Jonathas de Andrade, which depicted ten vignettes of fishermen embracing their fish as they slowly die. The film is shot as though it is a documentary, and the ambient sounds and action pulled us in until we had forgot how long we'd been sat there watching. Obviously had some sort of an effect on us!
We continued to explore the gallery out of order, seeing one more exhibition on the ground floor by Maria Hupfield before heading upstairs to see the installations of Kapwani Kiwanga. Kiwanga's work explores how architecture is designed to shape our behaviour, particularly in prisons, and how these design decisions impact us. The main installation, a corridor that is half blue with blue lighting, and half pink with pink lighting, demonstrated very powerfully the impact of colour by immersing us in it. Apparently, the colour pink that was used is used in prisons for its calming effect, and the blue lighting makes it harder to see veins, and is therefore used as a deterrent against intravenous drugs.
Heading back downstairs we quickly stopped into the second half of Jonathas de Andrade's exhibit, which told story of civil unrest surrounding the prohibition of horse drawn carts in the city of Recife in Brazil. Andrade's exhibit featured photographs from a horse-drawn cart race he had organised in the centre of the city by claiming it was for a feature film. The exhibit shed a tiny bit of light on an issue we had never encountered before, and was a reminder of the many issues are being faced by people around the world, every day, that we are completely unaware of.
After a couple of failed Something Saturday attempts, we were very glad to have stumbled upon the Power Plant (its quite big, so its fairly easy to stumble upon). We also had an enjoyable Sunday staying indoors, as a snow storm hit Toronto, making for a nice afternoon stroll in the park. All in all, a pretty good weekend!
After a couple of failed Something Saturday attempts, we were very glad to have stumbled upon the Power Plant (its quite big, so its fairly easy to stumble upon). We also had an enjoyable Sunday staying indoors, as a snow storm hit Toronto, making for a nice afternoon stroll in the park. All in all, a pretty good weekend!
This time last year we were enjoying the NBA All Star Game, and two years ago we were making Pillow Tops. That was a weird one.
