Joint Art Initiative NEW MONUMENTS FOR NEW CITIES

THE BENTWAY presents New Monuments for New Cities, a joint art exhibition of the High Line Network—a group of 19 North American infrastructure reuse projects—and an ambitious touring public art exhibition, May 11- August 30, 2019.

New Monuments for New Cities, is a collaboration between five members of the High Line Network, who each invited five local artists to create proposals for new monuments for a 21^st century city. The Bentway, the only Canadian project in the Network, will launch their Spring / Summer 2019 Season with New Monuments for New Cities, and a Monuments Summit, on Saturday, May 11, 2019.

Monuments to the deeply imbalanced history of the Western world are being toppled and issues of legacy and hierarchy are being challenged. New Monuments for New Cities offers 25 diverse and provocative responses to “What should a contemporary monument look like? Who are they for and what should they represent?” The artworks, which employ a variety of techniques including illustration, painting, digital rendering, and photography, take the form of large-scale posters displayed along The Bentway Skate Trail and in front of the Fort York Visitor Centre.

“In many ways, the poster format is a direct counter to the bronze statues we typically think of when we think of monuments,” says Director of Programming, Ilana Altman (recently appointed with David Carey as Co-Executive Director of The Bentway). “We are asking artists to work with a more ephemeral form, recognizing that civic histories are not singular nor static. The series of 25 posters will be presented differently from site to site; at The Bentway we will be displaying them across our Bents, the Expressway’s iconic concrete columns.”

Toronto artists include: Susan Blight, an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker from Couchiching First Nation, Anishinaabe, Turtle Clan; Coco Guzman, a visual artist whose work addresses the dynamics of exclusion and normalization; Life of a Craphead, the collaboration of Amy Lam and Jon McCurley, whose work spans performance art, film, and curation; An Te Liu, currently engaged in sculpture and installation work which explores issues of function, occupation and cultural coding; and Quentin VerCetty, whose work addresses issues of representation, immigration, and decolonization through the lens of afrofuturism; Their work will join posters by the Guerrilla Girls, Hans Haacke, Xaviera Simmons, and more.

New Monuments for New Cities reflects the social and political status of the times by confronting controversial public monuments; broadening the definition of what contemporary civic structures can be; and proposing alternative people and histories to memorialize.

Susan Blight honours the Anishinaabeg peoples of Canada and the United States with her poster, Untitled (Land and Life). Blight depicts Nanaboozhoo, the half-human, half-spirit teacher, in the traditional Anishinaabeg pictograph technique. She articulates an interconnected landscape that includes land, sky, spirit, humans, and consciousness, referencing the inextricable link between land and life.
Coco Guzman’s poster Missing Democracy engages with the missing pet poster format as a recognition of everyday actions of reclaiming public space and sharing stories, and of asking strangers for help to find what is lost. The poster also works as an ephemeral monument to private relationships made public.
The Treaty of Huế (1884), signed after the French colonialists seized the Imperial City in Huế, Vietnam, marked the beginning of French colonial oppression in Vietnam for the next 70 years. Life of a Craphead member Jon McCurley’s ancestor, Phạm Thận Duật, was a governor and high ranking public official who was forced to sign the treaty on behalf of court. This poster, Angry Edit of a Wikipedia Page, is a screen capture of their disruption to this treaty’s Wikipedia page, which suppresses information about the Vietnamese and is riddled with French biases. For a single day, their fact checking shed light on the truth of the conflict.

Memoria is a collage based on a painting by Hubert Robert (1733 – 1808), known for his fictional renderings of architectural ruins and landscapes. By inserting the fragment of an elevated highway into Robert’s landscape, An Te Liu imagines a future where key elements of urban infrastructure are preserved and memorialized. Memoria questions narratives of technological progress—from the vantage point of an uncertain future, the structures and landscapes we find in the city today will inevitably pass into obsolescence, either as monument or as ruin.

Quentin VerCetty’s monument reimagines the statue Alma Mater at Columbia University’s Low Library as a Ugandan woman, displacing the existing statue into an alternate universe—an Afrotopian world where people of color are safe, empowered, and appreciated. The pictured monument bears the inscriptions “new school” (ādīsi timihiriti bēti) and “unlearning” (timihiriti yelemi) written in Ethiopian Amharic G’eez. The words replace the Latin phrase “alma mater” from the original monument as a commentary on the unlearning of ancient languages and knowledge. The work also contains elements of carnival and West African adinkra symbols.

About The Bentway
The Bentway is a unique and innovative public space that transforms 1.75km underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway into a new gathering place for our city’s growing population.

The Bentway knits together seven local neighbourhoods with over 70,000 residents, becoming a gateway to the waterfront, while providing access to important attractions and destinations – from Fort York National Historic Site, Ontario Place and Exhibition Place to Harbourfront Centre and the CN Tower. The Bentway offers year-round activities and events, including gardens, a skate trail, recreational amenities, public markets, public art, special exhibitions, festivals, theatre and musical performances, and more. Since opening to the public in January 2018, The Bentway has welcomed over 150,000 visitors to experience free year-round programming including public art installations, performances, festivals, recreational activities, and much more.

The initial phase of The Bentway stretches from Strachan Avenue in the west to just east of Bathurst Street underneath the Gardiner Expressway, this section of The Bentway is located on the lands of Fort York National Historic Site, recognized by the Government of Canada as a site of national significance. The Bentway is maintained, operated, and programmed by The Bentway Conservancy. The Bentway is a proud member of the High Line Network, an international network of projects that transform underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes.

About the High Line Network
Presented by Friends of the High Line, the High Line Network is a group of infrastructure reuse projects—and the people who help them come to life. As cities become denser and land for traditional parks becomes scarce, citizens are finding creative ways to bring greenspace to their neighborhoods. Projects in the High Line Network transform underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes. Redefining what a park can be, these hybrid spaces are also public squares, open-air museums, botanical gardens, social service organizations, walkways, transit corridors, and more.

The High Line Network is made possible by the founding support of The JPB Foundation. Additional funding is provided by Amanda and Don Mullen.

About Fort York National Historic Site
Fort York National Historic Site is one of 10 Toronto History Museums operated by the City of Toronto. Since 1793, Fort York has been an important military location and is where Toronto was founded as an urban place. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, this 43-acre heritage conservation district is home to Canada’s largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings. Fort York offers permanent exhibits and immersive multimedia displays at the Visitor Centre, ongoing programming and events, site tours, military displays, historic cooking demonstrations, and the annual Indigenous Arts Festival.

Fort York National Historic Site is also home to the first phase of The Bentway. For more information, visit http://www.toronto.ca/fortyork.