Artists cook up show with wheat paste
Citywide display opens today at 11 Niagara Falls sites
It’s not quite edible art, but a new installation opening across Niagara Falls today has one common ingredient: Wheat.
Specifically, wheat paste — an adhesive made from wheat flour or starch with water, used since ancient times for crafts, book binding and adhering posters to walls. It’s part of the artwork being unveiled at 11 separate sites throughout the city.
Mayor Jim Diodati will launch the temporary Wheat Paste Art Installations at 4 p.m. at Post Foods on Lewis Avenue.
At all 11 locations, the work is either linked to the city or an earlier function the building/site once served. Niagara Falls artist Emily Andrews provides two pieces, at the Firehall Theatre (4990 Walnut St.) and the Heart Niagara building at 4635b Queen St.
The Heart Niagara piece, depicting a labourer with tools, conveys the building’s past as a garage and machine shop.
“For each design, I did a lot of research regarding the history of those two sites and tried to come up with images that reflect those individual histories,” she says.
The other nine locations for the installation are:
Niagara Military Museum, 5049 Victoria Ave.;
Canadian Specialty Castings, 4248 Broughton Ave.;
Chippawa Town Hall, 8198 Cummington Square E.;
Hilton Niagara Falls, 6361 Fallsview Blvd.;
Niagara Falls History Museum, 5810 Ferry St.;
Niagara Railway Bridge Underpass, between Park and Bridge streets.;
Old Stone Inn, 6080 Fallsview Blvd.;
Post Foods, 5651 Lewis Ave.; Royal Canadian Legion, 5603 Spring St. The artwork will remain at each site until Sept. 7, weather permitting.