it takes me a full week to read the saturday "globe and mail". last night just before going to bed, i picked up the review section and started reading about the leona drive project. it's an art installation by a number of canadian artists (from all over) who have taken 5 houses in willowdale north of toronto and "redesigned them". i spent my childhood in willowdale. it was one of the first intentional suburbs, built for returning war vets in the 1940's. taking over farmland and erecting rows of tiny identical 2-3 bedroom monopoly style houses (one of the artists actually picks up on this theme). the houses are now slated for demolition (to be replaced by their 21st century version) and in the past few years have been used by squatters. a sad end. and reading about this made me feel strange and old. it made me think of all the people and places that have been "studied". about how much the academics miss. about how much they'll never know or understand.
3 comments:
Very interesting! I can't say I share the opinions of the columnist, however. In fact, having just spent a solid three weeks finding the art in the suburbs, I know that she is wrong. But I am happy that people are thinking creatively about houses who have seen better days. Too bad it is only before the bull dozer arrives...
this project was a year or more in the process, and many of the 'academics' (since when is the thirst for knowledge an ugly word?), grew up in Willowdale. the amount of archival digging, and community outreach that went into this project was phenomenal... the fact that the community embraced this project as their own, speaks to how the show resonated with the past, engages with the present, and is concerned about the future of suburbs...
Many of the 'academics' involved were actually from Willowdale - they grew up there, and this is how the project arrived in Willowdale in the first place. That research began about a year before the project sprang into being...
The way the community embraced this project speaks to how it resonates with the past, present, and future of that community - it touched people of all ages who have dwelled there - pretty amazing if you ask me.
Post a Comment