up to this moment consists of a wall treatment based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (a collage of the first stanza from 17 existing English translations) and a video program that loops a different video every day of the year. For the 365 videos, the artists worked with numerous image archives housed in Toronto, including lesser known and private archives, looking for images of transformation. Hadley also worked directly with various community organizations and individuals in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood, includiing facilitating a video-production workshop with local youth at UrbanArts, and documenting local businesses who are being effected, for better and for worse, by the new LRT station in the neighbourhood.
Thursday’s videos were created in collaboration with a group of young artists through a workshop hosted by UrbanArts in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood (2019). Our theme was urban camouflage, or “hiding in plain sight,” and our setting was Supercoffee, the local coffee shop at the corner of Weston Road and Eglinton Avenue, from whose windows one could watch the process of the LRT station’s construction. Thank you to Ksenia Khan from UrbanArts, and Sameena Anis, David Greco, Natalia Morales, Natalie Nathaniel, Anne Vo, and Xavi Meza-Wong for their creative contributions.
Friday’s videos were created in collaboration with four local businesses on Weston Road, within a couple hundred meters of the new LRT station. We documented a “day in the life” of Emilio’s Barbershop, Friendly Coin Laundry, Da Vince Nails & Spa, and Prehistoria Natural History Museum, from opening their doors to closing up at night. The footage highlights the intimacies of the services these small businesses offer by focusing on workers’ hands as they open shop, raise the blinds, sweep the floor, set up the register, answer the phone, eat lunch, shake a customer’s hand, and perform other tasks specific to their vocations. Thanks to Maximilian Vartanian (behind the camera), and to all these businesses for opening their doors to us.
Saturday’s videos were created with images from the Arquives, contributions from independent photographers and archivists in Toronto, and the artist’s documentation of Toronto neighbourhoods (2019-21). Thanks to Taymah Armatrading, the Arquives, and the many photographers who contributed to this day’s archive.