The Underpass Project

on Saturday I checked out the Underpass Project, at BIG, the Bloor Improvement Group’s new street festival. i thought their name might be a titch overambitious, but in fact no, the festival was really big, stretching from Christie Pits park all the way to Lansdowne, with shiatsu massage, art for kids, drumming circles, you name it…

but i was there because of a new art project just west of Lansdowne: the bleak south side of that underpass on Bloor is sporting a whole new look, thanks to Toronto artist Richard Mongiat. The Underpass Project is sponsored by the City of Toronto’s Clean & Beautiful committee, but Mongiat’s 400-foot minimalist mural is very different from the super-bright “cover-ups” i’m used to seeing in city murals.

Mongiat originally conceived the concept for the Dupont underpass; local artist & activist Dyan Marie convinced him to connect with the BIG festival project, which necessitated this new location. This underpass has a different type of wall from the Dupont underpass, which meant that Mongiat had to rethink his original idea. “These frames,” he says, pointing to the raised rectangles within the Bloor wall, “set up the design elements. I needed a visual throughline, a thoroughfare.”

He found his inspiration in the barren trunks of winter trees. “Like this neighbourhood,” he says, “dormant but coming to life.” His final design contrasts iconic grey tree trunks with other panels focusing on black ink buds, flowering.

There are four visual elements at play here: three from Mongiat–grey tree trunks, white wallpaper-style sworls, and close-ups of spring buds–and a fourth, surprisingly active element–the worn concrete of the underpass itself. “By keeping my work muted, black, white, grey, the wall really came through,” explains Mongiat. “Now, the weather, the rain stains become part of the design. The wall comes alive.”

the wall now seems to add to the conversation people have, on their journeys to & from home, through the neighbourhood.

i think it’s a fine metaphor for the place of artists in struggling parts of the city–not for art to paint over the history here, but to augment what’s already in place, to contribute & open up further dialogue.

[for an extra photo or two, check out my post at the blogTO]