Barren Ground Caribou, ArtworxTO, TTC Subway-Spadina to Runnymede Stations, Spadina Station, Toronto, ON

Excerpt from webapp.driftscape.com/map/62fd1ffe-db0e-11eb-8000-bc1c5a8...:

Barren Ground Caribou

Spadina Station

In 1977 artist Joyce Wieland travelled to Kinngait (Cape Dorset) for the first time, to the West Baffin Eskimo Co-op, by then a well-known print-making studio. She had already, in 1971, established a firm reputation as an artist, being the first living woman to have a solo exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. So when she was invited to create a piece for the new Spadina subway line, she declared that she wanted to bring the Arctic tundra to the city, but in a surprising and feminine way. She says, “I think of Canada as female.”

This large 8' by 30' quilt features a herd of seventeen barren ground caribou on a low rise. Barren-ground caribou are a species of reindeer that comprise about half the caribou in Canada and since 1937 have appeared on Canadian quarters. Both males and females have antlers. The colours and textures of the Arctic tundra are reproduced in swaths of bright fabric which complement the pale blue Arctic sky above and the muted tones of the caribou which, coincidentally, mirror the brown tiles of the station floor. Perspective is created through horizontal bands in the blue quilted sky which become progressively narrower as the sky approaches the horizon. The animals face us, observing us, as if we are interlopers in their land, not the other way around.

This quilt was sewn over a period of eight months by Joyce and a team of six quilters. It was created ten years after Joyce Weiland's famous 1968 quilt “Reason over Passion” where she subverted a statement by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau by passionately illustrating his quote with quilted hearts.

Taken in: Canada / Ontario / The Annex (show map)

Taken on: May 20, 2024

Tags:

Toronto

Ontario

Public Arts

Public Arts Toronto

Public Arts Ontario

ArtworxTO

TTC Subway-Spadina to Runnymede Stations

Spadina Station

Toronto Transit Commission

TTC

Barren Ground Caribou « less

Sets appears in: • Transportation in Toronto, ON • ArtworxTO, Toronto, ON

Groups appears in: • Toronto

Stats: 992 views / 22 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder