| art |
has arrived at the toronto zoo
the toronto zooarts festival at the toronto zoo,
from tuesday june 29 to thursday september 30, 2004 |
Looking to add a little art to your life? From Tuesday,
June 29 to Thursday, Sept 30, Toronto zooarts
showcases art exhibits at the Toronto Zoo. Experience
some interesting sculptures, unusual textile exhibits,
unexpected visual arts displays, and more.
The Toronto zooarts Festival explores the relationship
between art, wildlife, and the environment.
Pick up a Toronto Zoo Visitor's Guide and zooarts Festival
Brochure at the Zoo Entrance for more detailed information
about the artists and their work.
The first stop on your Toronto zooarts tour is located
just inside the Zoo Entrance in the Courtyard area.
Look more closely at the trees and you will see Janet
Morton’s
Early Frost. Her tree coverings are made of
hand crocheted cotton lace table cloths and doilies
found at second hand stores and similar sources.
Also in the Courtyard area, you will see a large
sculpture by Canadian artist,
Joe Fafard:
Obilix is a
cast bronze and patina bull calmly standing watch over
the busy comings and goings of the Zoo Entrance.
The patina surface, unlike paint, uses several
interactive, chemical processes to selectively and
permanently alter the natural bronze colour.
The next stop on your Toronto zooarts tour is in front
of the Indian Rhinoceros building, where you will find
The Only Glossy Blossom Tree by Karen Azoulay. The
exhibit features sculptured fantasy plant forms, such as
berry clusters, tropical flowers and dangling vines
fabricated from textiles, ribbons, paper, plastic, and
found objects.
The Only Glossy Blossom Tree is dense,
detailed, and full of whimsy.
In front of the Indian Rhinoceros’ house, you will
find
Balaclava for a Rhino, hand knit for Indira the
Rhino by Janet Morton. Although created to fit the
animals they are knitted for, Janet’s
Animal Apparel
series is not intended to be worn, but to playfully
ask questions about the way we assert our sense of
style and aesthetics onto the natural world. Just a
little farther down the road, in the Indo-Malaya
Pavilion, you will notice another Janet Morton
design: Puppe the Sumatran Orangutan has a
colourful new pullover.
Continue in the direction of the African Savanna,
and you can’t miss more of Janet Morton’s whimsical
hand knit pieces. A pair of gloves will help keep
Charles the Lowland Gorilla warm in our cold
Canadian winters, and in the Elephant exhibit, Patsy
the Elephant just loves her new work socks!
If you enter through the northern entrance to
Kesho Park in the African Savanna, you will find
the Masai Giraffe area, and two more exhibits on
your Toronto zooarts tour. In front of the
Giraffes, don’t miss Janet’s
Cardigan. This sweater
for Twiga the Giraffe is hand knit in black and
blue acrylic wool, with almost 100 buttons to fit
Twiga’s looooooong neck!
And right across from the Giraffe exhibit, at the
Zoomobile stop, you won’t be able to miss
Serpentine Mounds by
Ian Lazarus and Badanna
Zack! This large sculpture is a 92 meter (300 feet)
long installation composed of obsolete cars, earth,
and ground cover. The effect appears as a revealed
archaeological site embedded in the natural
landscape, and portrays the continuing battle
between our love affair with the car, the roads and
resources that are built to sustain it, and the
environmental damage caused to animals
(including humans!) and their habitats.
Our next stop on the Toronto zooarts tour is in
the Americas area, where, in the underwater
viewing area of the Polar Bear exhibit, you will
find
Flow by
Jeff Winch. This magical installation
features three video windows projected beside the
underwater viewing area windows, creating the
impression that humans and polar bears are
swimming in the same pool. Both playful and
surreal, the work is a celebration of human and
animal diversity, interaction, and movement.
Also in the Americas area, near the Polar Bear
exhibit, you will find a second sculpture by Joe
Fafard,
Valentina, a young, standing colt.
One last exhibit you won’t want to miss is
Mobile
Fun by Dutch artist John Körmeling, a large
ferris wheel with a twist: four cars are hoisted in
the air for a bird’s eye view of Lake Ontario and
the surrounding area.
Mobile Fun is part of a
larger exhibition of Körmeling’s work, presented
at
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at
Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre from June 3 to
August 8.
Toronto zooarts and artists gratefully acknowledge the
support of the following organizations: Toronto Zoo
LiveARTs; Nataley Nagy, Executive Director,
The Textile Museum of Canada;
Noel Harding, artist (Noel Harding
Studio);
City of Toronto Solid
Waste Management;
Standard Auto Wreckers;
Terrafix Environmental
Technology Inc; and
The Power Plant
Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre.
