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What It Is And What It Should Be: Sculptures of St. Lawrence Market

By Dalton Sharp

What if, in Toronto, “great” was the only acceptable standard? What It Is And What It Should Be thinks about ways to improve the cityspace, a few bits at a time.
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  • http://undefined Michael Cook

    I think the article’s criticism of Holt’s piece is unfair, and not just because the photograph used here almost completely obscures the clay-lined trenches that lead to catch basin. While I’m not going to stand here and argue that it’s a particularly attractive sculpture, I think the article’s proposed alternative is completely ridiculous.
    The sort of thinking that believes that water only belongs in a park if it’s in a manicured pond is what has so compromised our city’s relationship with water and put us into the mess we’re in today. Maybe Dalton Sharp just isn’t ‘communicating very well’, but St. Lawrence neighbourhood’s relationship with water is surely a lot more complicated than some trite hallmark sentiment about “the blessing and scarcity of water.”

  • http://undefined dehaasj

    Thank you for creating this. I have to disagree with Michael Cook. I think Holt’s piece is (to put it kindly) a blight on the neighbourhood in which I live.
    It makes me think the developer wanted to give a middle finger to city requirements for public art when they chose that piece. That’s the only justification I think of for somehting so boring/ugly/pointless/ugly/boring.
    Thank you Torontoist for writing this piece. It’s not only entertaining, but it may also get a few people more interested in the public art in their neighbourhoods — which, like so much in Toronto, has been a missed opportunity so far…

  • http://undefined toronno

    The brick man just looks clumsy and amateurish against the very modern VU condominiums. Granted, it’s positioned in a very awkward space (to hide the street entrance?) but every time I pass it, I just have to shake my head and question “What were they thinking?”

  • http://www.vanishingpoint.ca Michael Cook

    Well, dehaasj, I would argue that a more significant blight on the neighbourhood are the several hundred other catch basins that go unremarked on, rather than the one that Holt sought to highlight. As I said, I don’t think Holt’s assemblage is particularly attractive. But to suggest that it should be some kind of pretty little pond instead, as the author of this article does, is a colossal case of missing the point.

  • http://undefined rek

    Dare I say, Richmond and Jarvis has problems that can’t be solved by public art.