I've been listening out for ways to visit Toronto again since my stay in June 2011 during the Canadian research visit . The combination of long-overdue holiday desire and confirmation of my collaborative project with Toronto-based artist Lynne Heller ('Engines of Difference' selected for ISEA Dubai in October 2014), plus a good offer on spring flights across the Atlantic, has successfully brought me back. Not just to Toronto, but to join Lynne for a short residency at Artscape's Gibraltar Point Artist Residencies on the South beach of Toronto Island.
We were greeted at the ferry terminal by a bare-footed opera-singer with icecream celebrating the sunshine and Daniel, on placement as one of the team at the Point, who gave me the island history and a tour of facilities. Lynne's introduced me to several of the current residents and the interesting array of projects they're working on: including a Vancouver-based anti-poverty project and book collaboration, dance and visual art collaboration, several other writing projects.... Several other people also arrived yesterday - it's inter-semester break here so quite a few Arts lecturers from Ontario's various Universities have come to write, make, collaborate, retreat.
Based in the old school, the place has a wonderful feeling of flexibility, creative dialogue, with a curious mix of focus and ease. Surrounded by woods and 2 minutes from the first Blue Beach in Toronto, it's not unlike a mini-Banff in it's respectful and open support providing a protected time and space for creative replenishment. Spring has only recently arrived here. I've heard tales of slushy snow in the city one day last week, and school closures only an hour or tow further north even within the last fortnight due to snow! The view from the airplane over most of Canada was of white still-frozen lakes and waterways until not long before landing. And the island, being mid-week, is quiet. No-one on the beach, silent with the rhythm of lapping waves, birdcall, and the occasional plane departed from the city airport. The lake is calm, water the magical iridescent colour that happens with sand under shallow still expanses after a clear day in the hour or so before dusk, and beach scattered with driftwood and water-sculpted tree stumps, just asking for a sketchbook or sculptors hand. And I'm told there's a Gibraltar point geocache nearby.
More to follow...
No comments:
Post a Comment