Artist profiles

In this thought-provoking exhibit thirteen local artists explore all aspects of living with Toronto's beaches. Through performance, sound, visual, and media art, they present artworks that examine such themes as fun at the beach to dismay at the pollution. The visual impact of art gives Toronto's citizens the opportunity to contemplate the ecological and social values of their urban beaches. They are encouraged to re-make their lakeshore and re-vision the fate of Toronto's waterfront. The exhibit also includes an historical look at Toronto's beaches through archival photographs transferred to video.

An opening night performance piece by Ilona Staples will bridge the gap between young and old, past and present, art and community, as she teaches gallery goers the finer aspects of dancing 'The Balmy' in honour of 100th anniversary of The Balmy Beach Club.

A solo performance by Fedora Romita, (prior to the opening) explores the notion of 'shoreline', the area that straddles the boundaries between land and water. She measures the distance found between waves as they rush and recede along the shore. Her findings are presented in a written document displayed in the gallery.

For photographers Schuster Gindin, Paul Grajauskas and Dyan Marie, Toronto's beaches are a reminder that humans are both organically and socially connected to the lake. By combining photography and text in the form of an accordion book, Schuster Gindin examines water as an essential and visceral part of us. A metaphor for what Toronto is and might be. Dyan Marie's photographs of cement casts of discarded liquid containers strewn along the beach remind us that these containers are re-cycled back into the lake system as waste and contamination. And for Paul Grajauskas the idea that a simple action, whether intentional or incidental, can have an altering effect on the environment, is the basis for his photographic documented walks around Ward's Island Beach.

For many artists a simple walk along the beach informs their artmaking. Wende Bartley, a composer and sound artist, debuts two new aural works at Lakeside. One is an oral history of the Toronto Islands based on recorded interviews with Jimmy Jones, who has lived on the islands over 70 years. The other is a soundwalk that acoustically reveals the hidden voices of the environmental world that live in close proximity to the waters of Lake Ontario. Freddie Towe, Maria Pracz and Lois Schklar, are collectors, and they use objects found in their walks along the beach in their artmaking. These works range from close up photographs of organic forms, such as driftwood and feathers; to natural objects sculpted into human and animal forms; to a wall installation based on discarded materials and garbage.

The intersection between the human made and the natural environment is evident in other works. The video work of Catherine Lathwell and Paul Grajauskas parodies the late Robert Smithson's earthwork 'Spiral Jetty', and depicts their own hand hewn jetty, fashioned with the aid of a toy bulldozer. Katharine Harvey's multi-layered painting portrays an unrestrained waterscape that evokes the bodily sensation of being underwater. In contrast, Rick Vincil's photograph of a tiny island entirely surrounded by concrete that floats off Bluffer's Park in Scarborough, stands as a metaphor for a present day culture that attempts to constrain nature in absurd ways. And The Lovely Guys--Veronica Verkley, Gene Threndyle, Peggy Ann Berton , Mark Hazen and Tom Campbell--document in video and installation, the construction of a shelter of found materials at The Leslie Spit beach, inspired by the fate of Toronto's homeless people.