The City of Toronto’s free outdoor public art celebration, BigArtTO, continues to offer residents with opportunities to safely explore their communities this week, while still respecting public health guidelines. And OCAD University is excited to participate as a proud partner.
This week, BigArtTO visits the neighbourhoods of York Centre and Scarborough North.
Twenty-one of the BigArtTO productions are the result of a close collaboration between the City of Toronto, OCAD University, and AVA Animation & Visual Arts Inc. Three of the BigArtTO productions are being delivered at waterfront locations and will be activated by program partner, The Bentway. These meaningful partnerships will provide opportunities for emerging Toronto-based artists and students.
October 14 to October 17: daily from 8 to 11 p.m.
Ward 6: York Centre
(Earl Bales Community Centre, 4169 Bathurst St, North York, ON M3H 3P7)
Artist: Lily Yùnrú Lü (呂韻如) (OCAD U Graduate)
Title: Untitled (Snow Scene Social - 冰界之中 佳人戲遊) 2nd edition, digital video loop, edited 2020, from series Beyond Spaces of Belonging, 2019
This work is from the lens-based series Beyond the Spaces of Belonging, a new mythos documenting the lives of Asian-Canadian, female-identifying bodies, who are displaced due to the hybridity of cultural identities through diaspora. Blurred between fiction and documentary, performative and candid, this work is reflective and affirmative of our claim for our bodies and the spaces bodies occupy, while investigating the body’s relationship to colonial land and the patriarchal gaze.
Lily Yùnrú Lü is a multidisciplinary Chinese-Canadian artist who immigrated from her birthplace Anhui, China to Toronto, Canada at a young age, and is currently situated in Hong Kong. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography from OCAD University in 2019 and is the winner of the 2019 OCAD U Photography Program Medal, in addition to other awards. Drawing from personal, narrative and investigative approaches, she explores concepts from identity politics to the body’s relationship to the landscape, mental health and spirituality. The mediums she works with include digital and analogue photography, video, installation, painting and, beyond that, she continually explores more ways to tell stories and create. Instagram: @__luminari
Ward 23: Scarborough North
(Milliken Park Community Recreation, 4325 McCowan Rd, Scarborough, ON M1V 4P1)
Artist: Bidemi Oloyede (OCAD U Graduate)
Title: BL|ARCHIVE (Excerpts)
Artist Statement: Bidemi Oloyede is an emerging street and portrait photographer, who captures the energy and emotion of people in their natural environment and social landscapes, in a documentary style using predominantly black and white film. His impulsive documentary style is a reflection of the interaction or dialogue between the photographer and the subject. Oloyede is interested and invested in the physicality of film, the historical and chemical context and legacy of image-making, and the laborious process of traditional darkroom techniques. He seeks to explore the ‘human condition’ of everyday people, and the influences upon people in their social-political contexts.
Bidemi Oloyede is originally from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and is currently based in Toronto. He holds a BFA in Photography from OCAD University.
The BigArtTO initiative runs to December 5, 2020. A complete event schedule is available on the City of Toronto website.
