ART STICKS TO THE SHORE
Driftwood sculpture is one of the latest creations to pop up along waterfront
A long, silhouetted body reclines on Lake Ontario’s western shore, facing downtown Toronto, as if watching over the city.
The 25-foot-long driftwood installation is a tribute to Toronto from artists Julie Ryan and Thelia Sanders-Shelton.
“It’s just a figure, an androgynous one caught bathing,” Ryan said. “We wanted to do something sculptural to show that we could do it, to prove to ourselves that we could.” On Tuesday morning at Humber Bay Park, the stick figure sat in front of a washed-out cityscape with slender pieces of wood assuming the appearance of tendons roping around a lean frame.
The duo used thick pieces of wood to function as the skeleton and then drove deck screws through the outer pieces of wood to secure them to the frame. They said they expect the project, already two weeks in the making, to be finished Friday.
Multiple guerrilla art pieces built of natural objects have cropped up on Toronto shores this summer, some large, others small. A stone’s throw away from the site stands another artwork the pair made in July, one they consider to be less ambitious, though increasingly popular on Instagram: a Toronto sign with a heart made of the same material.
On Canada Day, Ryan, 51, and Sanders-Shelton, 49, created another sign celebrating 150 years since Confederation, but it was later vandalized and destroyed, they said.
To the east, the Leslie St. Spit appears to act as a magnet for creative impulses: you don’t have to walk far to come across delicately stacked rocks by anonymous creators. Brian Pace pieced together bits of concrete debris to make small sculptures on the spit in 2010. And more recently, another artist has built towering, villa-like formations there, intriguing — and confounding — locals for years. He, too, made use of what was most plentiful in the area: bricks rounded smooth by the waves, in his case. A complex made by Robert Zunke was demolished over the summer, but about three weeks ago, he sent the Star images depicting large, elaborate structures rebuilt in its place.
Unlike Zunke, who is seemingly indifferent to praise and prefers to keep a low-profile, the driver behind Ryan and Sanders-Shelton’s project is the enthusiasm and support emanating from surrounding community, they said.
“We have scores of people who thank us,” Ryan said. “The community has been fabulous.”
Indeed, during about an hour spent at the site, at least five people stopped to chat and offer compliments.
“It’s amazing,” said Soudabeh Majidi, a nearby resident and art teacher. “I was just telling them it’s amazing to create art using nature without having too much impact (on the environment).”
Roger Weaver, who also lives in the area, has seen each project progress, he said.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s something different to look at. I’m just so impressed by the quality of it.”
The voluntary installation is being completed without charge. The women plan to crowdsource other community art projects in the future.
“We’re working really hard,” Sanders-Shelton said. “We’re putting in long days. It’s physical, mental, emotional, it’s all of that, and while we’re not getting paid, per se, we are in other ways. The response is incredible.”