#nbTO17 | Julie Mollins

NUIT BLANCHE TORONTO 2017

Casting Yarns: forest-street disequilibrium Rebirth amid urban decay

Installation to be slightly different. Drawing: Julie Mollins

Sat., Sept. 30, sunset to sunrise

TORONTO (Sept. 18, 2017) – A niche on an inner city street is transformed into a forest paradise with colourful oversized flora, fauna and other mixed media objects.

Rocky Dobey and Julie Mollins, co-creators of the temporary art installation fleetingly on show from sunset on Sept. 30 to sunrise on Oct. 1, 2017, offer passersby the chance to gather around a table to peer into a glowing crystal ball, recline beneath a living wall made of crocheted vines or cozy up to a fireplace made of cement and metal.

“Casting Yarns: forest-street disequilibrium,” at 707 Dundas St W outside the Scadding Court Community Centre by the food market, provides a setting for “The Living Library,” produced by the Toronto School of Art, Theatre Passe Muraille and Scadding Court for Nuit Blanche. People known as “human books” will tell tales about the neighbouring Alexandra Park area.

Scadding Court is a buzzing hub frequented by those who use the community centre for key services, and by customers of Market 707 – mini-restaurants in retrofitted containers.

Through the “Casting Yarns” installation the artists aim to draw attention to the harsher aspects of city life and the potential for rebirth amid urban decay.

About the artists

Dobey’s artistic practice focuses on redefining the urban environment through a political lens. He typically articulates his vision in street art and political posters (ie: “Anti-globalization – Quebec 2000;” “Reclaim the Streets;” “Prison Justice;” “Anarchist Gathering – Toronto 1988”). He has been installing street art in Toronto and other Canadian cities for almost 40 years, since he began producing street posters and graffiti in the mid-1970s. In the mid-1980s, he installed painted billboards depicting political parodies on abandoned buildings. He has installed concrete sculptures, street-post mounted books and political historical plaques around Toronto streets. His most recent art is etched copper plaques bolted to street posts.

This is the first street art installation for Mollins, who has primarily produced art and craft for public consumption as a former prop builder and jeweller working at the Stratford Festival, National Ballet of Canada, Theatre Passe Muraille and other companies. Her pastel drawings were exhibited at the Casa de Cultura in Texcoco, Mexico, and her photographs appeared in a group art exhibition at the former Gallery 96 in Stratford, Ont. She recently returned to Toronto after almost 10 years away working as a journalist at Reuters in the UK and as an editor for international food security science organizations in Indonesia and Mexico. Currently, she is working for the same organizations as a consultant writer-editor focused on forests, maize, wheat, agriculture, environment, climate change and food security. She also teaches knitting and crochet lessons part time at Michaels craft store in the Toronto Stockyards. Additionally, she takes classes at the Toronto School of Art.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE AND WHEN

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