TORONTO — The four winners of the Toronto WinterStations international design competition were announced recently in a year that organizers said was all about making bold choices.
Now in its fourth year, the contest brings temporary public art installations to The Beaches in Toronto and celebrates the city’s winter waterfront landscape.
The theme for WinterStations 2018 was “RIOT: violent disturbance; uproar; outburst of uncontrolled feelings,” states a release. It was a call to artists and designers to act out after an uncertain 2017.
Artists, architects and designers were asked to create bold designs at the site of the lifeguard stations along the beach. The lifeguard stands were used as the armature for temporary installations, which are required to withstand the rigours of Toronto’s winter weather.
Among the winners were the Pussy Hut, submitted by Martin Miller and Mo Zheng of Ithica, N.Y. The Pussy Hut celebrates the symbol of the pussy hat, which united the world on Women’s Day, and expands upon it to create a warm shelter from the cold, states the release.
The installation Obstacle, submitted by Kien Pham of Surbiton, U.K., is the metaphor for the narrative of a person facing unspecific, seemingly insurmountable problems of the world and the journey they undertake to confront and overcome those problems.
According to the release, the installation Make Some Noise by Alexandra Grieb and Jorel Heid is an oversized noisebox based on an invention by Italian futurist Luigi Rusollo in the early 1900s which shocked traditionalists of the Italian classical music scene and caused an uproar at its premiere in the Milan Opera House.
The Wind Station, designed by Paul van den Berg and Joyce de Grauw of Rotterdam, Netherlands, is a call for a nuclear power phase-out. There are still about 450 nuclear plants around the world, including the Pickering station 30 kilometres from Toronto, the release notes.
The four winning designs will be joined by three university installations including Revolution by OCAD University in Toronto; Nest by Ryerson University; and Rising Up submitted by the University of Guelph.
The winners were selected by a jury from hundreds of submissions around the world. The exhibition will run from Feb. 19 until April 1.
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