GREY MATTER IN MANY COLOURS
A neurotic art installation, made up of brains, brains and more brains, lights up Toronto.
The Brain Project, a neurotic art installation made up of 100 brains — one crafted by Kim Kardashian and her daughter — will dot the city all summer long. Embodying themes from personal reflection to cognitive corrosion, these cerebral sculptures are part of an effort to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s and dementia research.
BRAIN SLICE Nathan Phillips Square pond, Queen St. W. and Bay St.
Called Concussion, this laser-cut artwork is inspired by the use of scans to visualize the brain as a diagram. Toronto-based artist Michael Truelove, who has suffered from concussions, sliced this data to present cross-sections, finishing the piece in a copper sulphate patina. Inspired by New York City’s Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, the broader Brain Project is the brainchild of Noah’s Godfrey’s wife, Erica. “Who comes up with this insanity?” he says. “My wife comes up with this insanity.”
BRIGHT MIND Nathan Phillips Square (east side), Queen St. W. and Bay St.
Toronto designer Kris Jackson covered half of this brain with unglued black Bunchems — small toy balls with squishy, interlocking spikes — to represent the darkness that can envelop memory and imagination during dementia and Alzheimer’s. All the black Bunchems can be removed, allowing the interactive piece to return to a “healthy, colourful, symmetrical state,” Jackson’s project profile states.
MENTAL ROOTS RioCan, Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. W.
This organic environment could symbolize the nourishment demanded by the brain or cell regeneration in certain areas. Or it could contrast the renewal of nature with the slow deterioration of the human body, says Canadian-born artist Uno Hoffmann. With Alzheimer’s and dementia, which hinder thinking and memory, “the signposts that help us navigate our life are irreversibly reduced to an abstraction and eventually disappear.”
GREY MATTER Union Station, Front St. W. and Bay St.
Toronto artist Ekow Nimako showcases the building blocks of the brain with Lego. His lifelong infatuation with robots, spaceships “and anything related to futuristic modes of transportation” drew him to Duplo-esque art, his profile states. But his focus isn’t fun and games; as the population ages, the number of Canadians suffering from neurodegenerative diseases is expected to climb to 1.4 million in 2031 from 750,000 in 2011. Presented by Telus, the Brain Project runs all summer with the goal of raising more than $2 million — $1 million has already been donated — for Alzheimer’s and dementia research at Baycrest Health Sciences. The majority of works will go to auction after further display en masse this fall.