How art can heal

Amanda: This is The Forefront, a podcast that explores ideas for cities. I’m Amanda Cupido. 

So here’s the problem: There's a dark history of colonization and residential schools in Canada. At the same time, Toronto Metropolitan University is overcoming its own legacy legacy of a painful past. As a community and as a country, we’re in the midst of some difficult conversations about identity, history, and a way forward. The university is currently working on ways to better engage with and acknowledge Canada’s complicated history. One of those ways is through a Task Force put together by the President’s office. After consultations with the community, they brought forward 22 recommendations. This included a recommendation for the university to be renamed. And as you may have seen in the news, in August, the university announced it would begin the renaming process. But there are other ways that the university is working toward reconciliation. For example -- by participating in the City of Toronto’s Year of Public Art.

Matthew: [Introduces himself in Kanien'keha, the Mohawk language]

Amanda: That's Matthew Hickey introducing himself in the Mohawk language. He’s the lead designer at Two Row Architect, an Indigenous-led architecture firm located on the Six Nations of the Grand River. They focus on integrating Indigenous ways of being and knowing into their designs. 

Matthew and his team were hired by the university to help design something that would acknowledge that the campus sits on the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory.’ The Dish with One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. 

Matthew: How would we create something like this that isn't you know, a plaque that, has words and is put on the wall. The intent was really to move away from this colonial idea of a plaque, which you see all over Toronto that you know those Historic Site plaques, that are in English, and they're, they're on a wall, they're on a pole. And really, we wanted something that allowed users or people to engage with in a manner that made them feel something.

Amanda: What they ended up with is a sculpture called The Ring, it’s going to be installed near the southwest corner of Kerr Hall later this year. The Ring is a perfect circle. It's pretty big -- 12 feet in diameter. That's basically the width of a car lane. The circle sculpture dives into the ground, which allows people to walk through it. 

Matthew: So if you picture kind of a rainbow going north, south, you can walk through it from the east to the west, which is also an acknowledgement of the movement of the sun, the movement of the setting sun, the rising sun, birth, death, all these things that are really related to our time here on on the earth. And again, as you stand in it, you're really meant to be kind of the continuation of the ring, but also the connection that is made by you to the ground in that spot.

Amanda: So rather than just reading about the land on a sign—or worse, walking by it without noticing it at all—The Ring creates an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to really connect with the land they walk on every day. And if you get a chance to take a close look, you’ll see there’s an incredible amount of detail in its design. 

Matthew: It's perforated through three different sizes of holes that contain the seven grandparent teachings on them. And the teachings are represented by different animals, those animals are on there. There's also the ideas of this cycle of the moons which are also on there. And then there is also the star system Pleiades. And really what the perforations are meant to do, are really to kind of embed us into this idea that we are connected to the larger world around us that we are connected to the stars that we are connected to the animals, our relations, that we are connected to the movement of the sun in a way that's not prescriptive, in a way that is not telling you what you should be thinking or feeling when you see it, but in a way that allows you to interpret the ring in a manner that is really intended for you to be connected to place, connected to the ground. 

Amanda: So how did we go from plaque to sculpture? Let's turn to Paul Roth, the Director of the Toronto Metropolitan University Image Arts Centre. 

Paul: Toronto Metropolitan University has had public art in an ongoing fashion for many, many years. And there are alumni of the University who will have a very different understanding of public art at Toronto Metropolitan University depending on whether they attended in the 50s, or the 70s, or the 90s, or now. But we are trying to get more organized in our administration of public art on campus. And we are trying to think about what public art means today.

Amanda: Paul not only oversees the Image Arts Centre — which is a photography research hub and museum…. but he’s also the chair of the school’s public art committee.

Paul: We're thinking all the time, about what Toronto Metropolitan University wants to achieve with public art on campus, what are the different aspects of the university's mission that can be served by public art, and how best do we express the identity of the communities that we serve — the students, the faculty — and also the communities that we are part of, that we are surrounded by, and that come through our campus on a daily basis. 

The pandemic has divorced all of our communities from the campus, which means that we have to think about these issues in an abstract way right now. Because there's, it's not entirely clear what audiences there are at present. And it is also an interesting time, because in everyone's absence from the campus, there's been a great deal of thought and interest and concern about how the university expresses its values and which values and for whom, and public art can be a big part of that.

Amanda: Paul says public art has so much duality to it. It can be both instructive and decorative. It can refer to the past or honour the present. And it begs the question: should it be temporary or permanent?

Paul: Is any work of public art meant to be forever? Or does public art exists in a kind of a shifting space, where people reinvent and rethink and recreate what Toronto Metropolitan University means or what any place or institution means to the people who have been in a past relationship with the university, the people who have a present and and daily relationship with the university, and the people yet to come.

Amanda: The question of the university’s relationship to its past was of particular importance for The Ring. Matthew and his team were very aware of how they wanted their creation to contrast with other, more colonial public art on campus— like the statue of Egerton Ryerson that was pulled down by protesters in June. 

Matthew: When you take a look, for example, the Toronto Metropolitan University statue lifted on a podium, you know, up into the sky, you couldn't be eye level with it. All these pieces that really prevent you from interacting with it in a way that feels equal. 

If we took all these statues and put them on the ground, so that they're, you know, your feet are at their feet, there'll be a completely different relationship that we innately feel with them.

Amanda: Matthew and the team that designed The Ring wanted this installation to create the opposite effect. First off there's no one PERSON it's representing. 

Matthew: It's really this abstract idea that has references to the natural world in it, that allow you to connect with it in a way that's not, you know, hierarchal. 

Amanda: Secondly — there's no podium. 

Matthew: It's really at eye level, you know, that you can touch it, you can feel it, you can interact with it. And it was really important for us to have all these features to ensure that this installation, this art piece, whatever you want to call it — this land acknowledgement — was really meant to connect with people to connect them to the ground and not be something that we feel as if it is other than us, we should feel like we're a part of it when we experience it. 

These conversations we've been having, or Toronto Metropolitan University has been having for a while, these are really good conversations to be had. And it's not about erasing history, per se. But it's about understanding where these statues where these monuments fit into our history, and to put them in a place and place them in a manner that allows us to interact with them in a way that doesn't hold them up in high regard above us today.

Amanda: And Paul was fully on board with that idea from the start. He says he always found it odd to be standing in front of a statue of a person from the past, as if it was some artifact.

Paul: We've all had that experience, you know, we stand in front of a statue and we wonder who is this person? And what did this person do? And am I hearing the entire story of this person? What am I not hearing about this person? How do I relate to this history? Why should I be interested in this history? Is this even my history? 

For me, although I will put in the time to do that in front of an artwork, I'm always acutely aware that's because I'm interested in the question and I'm interested in art more than many people are. And I always do wonder how the public sees or experiences or perhaps even just ignores, and is unaffected by such works of public art. For me, art is all really about engagement. And so I'm more drawn to work that I think engages people in the here and now. 

Amanda: So ya — this is far beyond — "let's just make a beautiful sculpture."  The Ring took months of planning. Matthew, Paul, and their respective teams took part in creativity sessions to figure out the best way to express what they wanted to say. 

So why put so much work into some statues? According to Paul, it’s partly about creating quiet, reflective spaces in the middle of the bustling downtown core. 

Paul: One of the great things about public art, when it's successful, is that it can stop people in their tracks and give them a moment of entertainment, of provocation of amusement, even just can give them a moment of rest. And it can take them out of their environment, and put them into a headspace, if you will, that is both inside the city and somehow psychically and spiritually apart from the noise, the chaos, the movement of the city. And for me, that is a very powerful potentiality. 

Amanda: Paul thinks this is a particularly interesting challenge for Toronto Metropolitan University because of its unique location. Eventually, students, staff, and faculty will all be allowed to return to campus—but we won’t be the only ones there. Many people pass through the school every day simply because they live or work in the area. These art installations are, in his eyes, a way to communicate the school’s values not only to its own community, but also to the community at large. 

Paul: The university, of course, is a community, a university is its people, much more, I think, than it is a campus or a set of buildings. A university is a community of students, faculty, staff, members, researchers.

It is also the commercial people, the tradespeople who serve the communities on campus. And while it is impossible to generalize about those people, as a university, we are always striving to express a kind of common self that the university represents, the identity of its community. The mission of the university as a teaching institution. And public art can help us do that. 

Amanda: That's why Paul's public art committee is currently working on ten different works of art to be realized before the end of 2022.

Paul: Public art is a way to very quickly and visually speak to the people who pass through campus. So when I think about the role of public art within a downtown core, that's what I think about. I, at the same time, try to balance that in thinking about public art at Toronto Metropolitan University with how I think the community of Toronto Metropolitan University students and faculty, and alumni consider the campus because I think for those people, it's not quite the same thing. It's more of a second home, an intellectual home, for sure, but also a kind of arena for the friendships that they forge and the connections that they maintain, with fellow students, with teachers, and with the broader Toronto Metropolitan University community. And for me, public art can serve a parallel, maybe similar, but in some very critical ways, a different set of roles for those people who are much more integral to our community. 

Amanda: I love it - I could not have said it better myself! I’m proud to be part of a community that is always improving and reflecting on how it can be better. And these public art installations are one of the many ways that the school is working to express how integral that is to its identity.

Before we go, here’s a final note from Paul about his role at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Paul: I've been at Toronto Metropolitan University now for over seven years, and can honestly say that it is the most incredible place that I've ever worked. It's the most interesting, thoughtful institution that I've ever been able to be part of. But what always amazes me is how enthusiastic I can be about what I do because I have been given a great deal of support. And people who I engage with are always very, very helpful and very thoughtful. I'm not an alum of the university. But if I ever do leave this place, I will feel like I am an alumnus of a certain history and spirit that I was blessed to be part of because I still, you know, figuratively pinch myself every day that I have a job that puts me into contact with so many amazing people and has made me, welcomed me if you will, into such a rich community.

Amanda: This podcast was created for alumni and friends by University Advancement, in partnership with City Building Toronto Metropolitan University. Special thanks to our guests on today’s episode, Matthew Hickey and Paul Roth. This podcast was created by me, Amanda Cupido, and Emily Morantz. Both of us are proud Toronto Metropolitan University grads! 

To learn more about the Toronto Metropolitan University Image Centre, and hear more episodes of this podcast and others, visit torontomu.ca/alumni/podcasts.