The dancing light of the aurora borealis, a wisp of Arctic sea smoke rising from an ice floe, walling wind as it blows across the tundra, these are the sights and sounds of Canada’s North, transported to the middle of the city for just one night. A custom audio piece by Joseph Murray features recordings of atmospheric sounds captured in Nunavut and set against the urban-inspired ambient beat.

Monuments serve as reminders. Typically, they commemorate an event or a person. While memory is fleeting, monuments encourage us to tell and retell stories - To invite a history we did not experience in our present lives. But what if the monument is for natural performances that exist in our world but out of reach to most? M.A.P. endeavors to impart the awe-inspiring display of the aurora borealis and the intangibility of arctic sea smoke, arising from the ice floe. It aims to bring elements of the most exotic place on earth to urban audiences for consideration and contemplation. It sits in contrast with its location, aiming in earnest to remind its audience of the marvels of our world.

all photos: alex fischer

Monument to Arctic Phenomena, (M.A.P)

Monuments serve as reminders. Typically, they commemorate an event or a person. While memory is fleeting, monuments encourage us to tell and retell stories - To invite a history we did not experience in our present lives. But what if the monument is for natural performances that exist in our world but out of reach to most? M.A.P. endeavors to impart the awe-inspiring display of the aurora borealis and the intangibility of arctic sea smoke, arising from the ice floe. It aims to bring elements of the most exotic place on earth to urban audiences for consideration and contemplation. It sits in contrast with its location, aiming in earnest to remind its audience of the marvels of our world.

Presented By: NAMARA for BRANTA

Construction by: Six Penny Architectural Fabrication

Year: 2019

Photography: Szilveszter Mako

From the exterior, Expanded Horizon is a simple linear structure sited westwardly, on axis with the sunset over Lake Ontario and the Cinesphere. 

Though it is small, its open ends suggest a narrow passageway, and curious visitors are drawn to the light emanating from within. As one enters, the anticipated narrow view of the lake through the other end of the space is contradicted: the lake is reflected on both sidewalls of the passageway, multiplying its colors and lines, stretching it horizontally before fading into the distance of a the mirrored surfaces. Above, a crisp plane of polycarbonate transmits light from a hidden cavity. 

Expanded Horizon seeks to juxtapose the spatial narrowness of a corridor with a perceived horizontal expansion of space, using mirrors to create reflections of the lake and of the light-transmitting planes of the polycarbonate above.

With the water and horizon as its primary subject, the piece also seeks to internalize and amplify the changing color palette of winter light, the landscape, and the visitors that inhabit it.  

Exhibition: Winter Light, Ontario Place

Location: Helipad, Ontario Place. Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2017

The Canadian winter is a time of contrasts: cold exterior spaces versus warm interior spaces, shelter versus exposure, bright short days versus long dark nights. In contrast to the exterior landscape of white, snow, and cold, Icebox is a mysterious dark object, providing a moment of respite. The installation is a wood-framed structure with a black outer chamber, covered in acrylic plexiglass to subtly reflect the surrounding landscape. As visitors make their way through the space, they discover a doorway to the expanded, inner chamber—a courtyard clad in chain link fence to collect ice and snow, and mark the passage of winter.

Construction by: Anex Works

Exhibition: TO IceBreakers

Location: HTO Park. Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2017

An ice house is a traditional architectural typology used in northern climates to provide shelter while ice fishing on a frozen lake. In its simplest form, it is a temporary structure constructed from plastic tarps and draped over two-by-fours. The building’s purpose is not only to give protection from low temperatures and high winds but also to facilitate what has become a social activity in many Canadian regions. 

HotBox mimics this typology and heightens the contrast between inside and outside, allowing visitors to experience warmth through visual, auditory, tactile, and associative means while acting as a catalyst for social exchange during Toronto’s Winterstations Festival. Entering from the harsh landscape through a cold, dark, rubber exterior, one finds themselves in an insulated, soft, muffled and light-filled space that conjures feelings of shelter, intimacy, quietude, and a sense of respite from the often-unforgiving Canadian landscape. Where traditional ice houses enclose a hole in the ice, HotBox is centered around an oculus that permits a solitary view of the sky and lets light and snow fall silently within. 

Project Management: Justin Ridgeway

Construction by: Zone Six Design Build LTD.

Exhibition: Winterstations

Location: The Beaches Park. Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2015

Lucent Sky was inspired by light pillars, an atmospheric optical phenomenon that occurs in cold, arctic regions. This phenomenon is seen when light is reflected off tiny ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere and appears as a vertical beam of light in the sky. Designed and fabricated by Polymetis, presented at IDS 2020.

Today we are busy, always busy. Over-scheduled, Overdrawn, over-stimulated. Living in environments that are set to a killing pace. The city is chaotic, distracted, and distressed. 

In response, LIV is an immersive environment, offering an interval space of reprieve, a moment of respite. This is a space of intention, intentionally open and unprogrammed. A passive space dedicated to mostly, nothing. Offering a space for perhaps, meditation, contemplation, or reflection. 

The interior space is divided into two rooms: light and dark, both open and stark. The Light: white, water, and horizontal. The Dark: black, marble, and vertical. The environment explores these elemental contrasts using the slow-moving media of water and marble. 

Exhibition: Concept Space, Interior Design Show

Location: Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2019

Invisible Geographies responds to the exhibition’s brief by coupling and contrasting the tangible physical bathymetry of Lake Ontario (the underwater topography of a water body) with the intangible, political boundary of the CANADA/USA border. The severe orthogonal geometry of the cut (or legal boundary) is juxtaposed with the soft, organic form of the lake, revealing two distinct territories that are physically inseparable.

The sculpture is sliced and pulled apart creating a separation, a gray political realm between two mirrored, identical sections.

This piece speaks to the larger context of how invisible borders separate otherwise indistinguishable territories, and in this case, how a political boundary is overlaid onto the physical world. It speaks to the permeability of borders and how they can invite or repel passage across them; and it also makes evident a border that, in recent times, has become increasingly defined and strengthened.

Exhibition: Surface Tension, Harbourfront Centre, Artport Gallery

Location: Toronto, Ontario. Canada

Year: 2019

The project’s title, “Sounding Lines,” refers to the early technique of measuring bathymetry (the underwater depth of a water body) by lowering a weighted cable over a ship’s side.  The maximum depths of Lake Ontario, the Lake of Shining Waters” is revealed. This piece aims to engage visitors in a territory that is familiar from an unusual perspective. 

Exhibition: Grow-Op Gladstone

Location: Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Ontario. Canada

Year: 2014

My Chemical Garden takes its inspiration from a children’s crystal-growing science experiment that produces delicate formations of tubular tendrils resembling seaweed.

 These “chemical gardens” emulate growth patterns found in nature, such as ice growth above the freezing surface of the water, the patterns of sap dripping from trees, or the way molten wax forms twig-like growths dripping from a candle.

They result from an inorganic chemical reaction, catalyzed by mixing metal salts with sodium silicate, and they can be ‘seeded’ with other compounds to give color.

 My Chemical Garden will grow and change over the entire 4-day length of the exhibition.

During the 18th century, the first Christmas trees were illuminated with small candles, carefully secured to the branches with melted wax. In this abstracted Christmas tree, the traditional, tiny candle lights have been electrified, enlarged, and exaggerated to create an environment of reflections and refractions. 

Reflective surfaces and light give the appearance of depth, even though the sculpture is tightly encased. In the absence of a solid form, the light implies the tree, creating an ethereal moment with an intangible material. 

Exhibition: 12 Trees, Let there be Light

Location: Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2017

Drawing inspiration from Brutalist architecture, BLOCK 01 juxtaposes its monolithic form and rigid geometry with the ethereal qualities of lightness and transparency inherent in clear acrylic, to create a versatile piece of furniture that can be used as a stool, side table, or object d’art for any home. Its multi-functionality ensures that it can adapt to various roles, from providing extra seating to serving as a convenient surface for everyday items. The piece explores the concept of transparency through its material meaning and viewer expectations. The cylindrical legs are arranged in a quincunx pattern, structurally offering the optimal balanced weight distribution and representing harmony. The work creates a sense of mass through the repetition of clear elements, and layered transparency creating a paradoxical visual experience that challenges the viewer’s perception of solidity and fragility.

Location: Umbra Concept Store, Lucid Ideas Exhibition, DesignTO

Year: 2024

The installation Pink Punch aims to attract visitors by its striking color, off the beaten path, through the shaped garden rooms, and into the forest. The new garden room uses the traditional technique of tree wrapping (used to protect trees from the elements) and the color pink to divide the “wilderness” from the garden, in a non-traditional way.

This pinkscape is made from natural rubber pink latex rope wrapped around each tree at a height of 10', then wound until it reaches the ground. At the ground, the rope then continues to wind around the base of the tree to a radial distance of 3' to 4'. When a small cluster of trees are wrapped to their bases, the rope then envelops them all, creating a communal seating area at the base of each tree.

Depending on the site, this installation is improvised, yet predetermined by the author’s set of instructions. This installation is meant to be temporary and re-installed the following year in a different location.

Exhibition: Jardin de Métis, Reford Garden Internation Garden Festival

Location: Grand-Métis, Québec CAN

Year: 2013/4

The light installation, Pink Punch v.2, aims to lure visitors off the street with its color and luminance. By wrapping trees in a three-meter high protective pink LED light net and bubble wrap. The installation aims to draw attention to the importance of trees in public spaces and the need for environmental stewardship. Through the installation, the visitor understands this natural resource's preciousness, especially in the city and particularly in the downtown core, where vegetation is scarce.

Tree wrapping is an ancient technique whereby trees are wrapped in material to protect their trunks from harsh environmental elements. This traditional technique will be used in a non-traditional way to create a new garden typology in the city. 

Exhibition: Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

Location: First Canadian Place Plaza. Toronto, Ontario CAN

Year: 2013

sun-SET takes primary inspiration from the traditional technique of tree wrapping, where materials such as burlap or rope are wrapped around a tree to protect it from the elements. Conceptually, the installation elevates trees to the level of precious objects by carefully adorning them in an extraordinary material. In this way, sun-SET draws attention to the importance of trees in public spaces and serves as a reminder of their civic value, despite their seemingly ubiquitous presence. In the end, the installation does not require a complex understanding of urban landscape or environmental stewardship; it is intended for people of all ages to experience and enjoy. 

Exhibition: Proposal-Hurontario Street Tree Wrap

Location: Mississauga, Ontario CAN

Year: 2017