TORONTO – Now in its 12th year, the Winter Stations public art exhibition is bringing some colour to what can only be described as a white, cold Canadian winter.
This year’s themeMirage,invited artists and designers from around the world tosubmitproposals for installations that play with the boundary ofwhat is seenandwhat is realin the age of AI, and explore public art as infrastructure, explains a release.
Three winning designs were selected from Canada, the U.S. and Germany–Ukraine out of 300 submissions worldwide, alongside two installations by local universities.
Since 2015, Winter Stations offers the winners full materials, fabricationlabour and a $2,000 honorarium to support what is often the winners’ first public art commission.
The competition is made possible because of sponsors such as RAW Design,kg&a, Northcrest Developments, the City of Toronto, Mechanical ContractorsAssociationof Ontario, Ontario Association of Architects, MicroProSienna, Feeley Group, Sali Tabacchi Brand & Design and Meevo Digital.
This year’s exhibition on Woodbine Beachlaunchedon Family Day and will be on display until March 30.
Here are your winners:
CHIMERA by Denys Horodnyak (Ukraine) & Enzo Zak Lux (Germany)
HorodnyakandLuxshare a Berlin-based creative practice.Horodnyakisayoungarchitectwhoseprofessional experiencerangesbetweenthe fields ofarchitecturaland installation design,aswellasspatial researchandurban planning.
Luxworks as a multidisciplinary architectural designer.
Their art installation was made in partnership with the Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario.
Fabricationwasled byCourtney Chard, apipe welder with MultiTech Trades Corp and memberof UA Local46. She isalsoa metal artist, fabricating unique designsout of her shop in Georgetown, Ont.
Embrace – Will Cuthbert (Canada)
Cuthbertis an art director and 3D artist currently based in Saskatoon, Sask., having been a lifelong Toronto east-ender.He’scurrently the art director atWealthsimple.
Cuthbertpreviously won Winter Stations in 2022 for The Hive, in collaboration with KathleenDogantzis.
His art installation was made in partnership with Northcrest Developments and theirdirector of programming and placemaking Alana Mercury.
“Will’s art embodies the playful and uplifting warm embrace that people crave during the winter months,” saysMercury. “We were delighted to premiere his piece at YZD, as part of our annual Hangar Skate, and to see thousands of people experience the optical illusion in motion as they skated around thecolourfulhands.”
SPECULARIA – TORNADO SOUP: Andrew Clark (USA)
Clark is a Portland, Maine-based interdisciplinary designer, who creates site-specific interventions under the name TORNADO SOUP.
His art installation is beingfabricatedwithMicroProSiennatreated lumber, a sponsor for the sixth straight year.
“This showcases our wood in a uniqueway,andtheelements provide the perfect showcase for its durability,”saysJana Proctor,marketing manager,timber specialties.
University Installations
Crest – University of Waterloo: Clay te Bokkel, Isabella Ieraci, Matthew Lam, Sasha Rao, Simon Huang, Oskar Peng, David Shen (Canada)
The students at the University of Waterloo designed this installation to resemble, from afar, a mere pile of driftwood washed up on the beach. As one approaches, the geometry of the wave gradually reveals itself, the release explains. The waffled plywood form acts as an illusion where individual pieces appear and disappear with different directions of arrival.
Glaciate – Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Architectural Science (Canada), in collaboration with Ming Chuan University, School of Design (Taiwan): Finn Ferrall, Nicholas Kisil, Marko Sikic, and Vincent Hui
Students and faculty supervisors at Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Ming Chuan University, designed Glaciate as a corridor of vertical polycarbonate panels, filled with water from the lake nearby, creating a set of ice lenses.
As the lake water freezes and thaws, the panels cycle through phases of transparency, translucency and full opacity.
“From outside, a red lifeguard stand is never wholly visible or wholly concealed,” the release notes. “It appears through fragments, outlines, and momentary flashes of red. From within, the surrounding beach appears a mirage.”
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