May 22, 2015
Toronto City Councillor Sarah Doucette (Ward 13 Parkdale-High Park) was joined by partners Metrolinx, Cresford Developments and artist Dereck Revington last night to launch the BlueGold Variations public art light installation in Windermere Avenue underpasses.
"The artist has created a work that cleverly transforms these underpass walls into canvasses of colour and movement," said Councillor Doucette. "This project displays public art's ability to inspire us to revision the urban landscape, and makes the underpasses more welcoming."
Installed along the retaining walls of the Gardiner Expressway and Metrolinx Railway underpasses on Windermere Avenue between The Queensway and Lakeshore Boulevard West, BlueGold Variations consists of strings of LED floodlights that illuminate the underpasses from dusk until dawn nightly.
"This project is an excellent example of how public/private partnerships are helping to place public art in communities throughout the city,” said Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), Chair of the City's Economic Development Committee.
In the early evening, the underpass walls are projected in gold and as the night advances they turn to blue, silvering at midnight and then turning to blue again. In the early morning they return to gold. During each phase, contrasting light waves of colour are also projected.
Waves of blue are projected during the gold phases and waves of gold during the blue phase. These wave projections will intensify or decrease in frequency in synchronicity with the wind velocity by responding to a wind sensor stationed along the Gardiner Expressway. The artist has intended the light waves to mimic the wave action of Lake Ontario.
Dereck Revington's art practice encompasses commissioned works of public sculpture, interdisciplinary performance works and museum and site-specific video, sound and light installations. He is the designer of the Luminous Veil on the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto and Skin of fLight at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport.
Over the last two decades, his artworks have been exhibited in Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, New York and Toronto. He has received the Prix de Rome in Architecture, Canadian Architect Awards, and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for outstanding stage design and lighting design. He is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Waterloo.
The public art work was chosen from a national open competition. More information about the City's public art program is available at
http://www.toronto.ca/publicart.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. Toronto is proud to be the Host City for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contact: Shane Gerard, Strategic Communications, 416-397-5711, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
