Dave LeBlanc’s image on “Seeing Celcius” by LeuWebb Projects consists of twin infrared cameras that allow passersby to see how hot their bodies are and the heat in their surroundings.Samuel Engelking/Samuel Engelking
The intersection of Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue seems perpetually busy. Subway stops on two corners, a branch of the Toronto Public Library on another, honking horns and multiple mid-rise apartment buildings within spitting distance – it’s hard to command the attention of the passerby.
However, pulling a young mother to the northwest corner – the chubby hand of her four-year-old is the culprit – are seven giant helium-filled balloons trapped under the soffit fronting a supermarket.
“Mommy, look, one is dead,” says the preschooler, pointing to the balloon’s deflated mate resting on a little podium on the sidewalk.
“I see that,” she replies. “But don’t worry, they’re not real.”
As the two walk into the building, the little one looks back, confused. They sure look like balloons. But, at eight feet in diameter, they would’ve had to have belonged to a giant.
Over in Mississauga near Burhamthorpe and Dixie Roads, two enormous mushrooms have sprung from the ground in front of the Burnhamthorpe Community Centre on Gulleden Drive. One is so tall it provides treelike shade on hot days, and the other, lower one, offers to be a seat or table that even a wheelchair can slide under.
And while the mushroom field is deserted today, shoe scuffs on the small mushroom and an abandoned baby pacifier beside the tall one suggest they’ve got the same gravitational pull as the balloons.
The reason for that might just be because both installations come from the minds of architect-sculptors Christine Leu and her husband, Alan Webb – and architects are very good at placemaking.
“There are some [people] who are very much about public art being an expansion of the gallery system,” says Ms. Leu. “But for us it’s a totally different thing; we tried really hard to make them welcoming, physically accessible … and I was delighted to see the skid-marks on the [mushroom] – that means people are using it as opposed to just seeing it.”
‘Lighten Up’ is made up of seven enormous balloons trapped under the soffit in front of City Market at Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue in Toronto.Doublespace Photography
She’s right. There are plenty of static, do-not-touch sculptures in Toronto already – especially those plunked down in front of new builds as part of the city’s Percent for Public Art Program – so the work of LeuWebb Projects (and others such as The Water Guardians by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins at Front Street East and Tannery Road) signal the growing shift from ivory tower art to pavement plaything.
But, since some folks like to play rough, this type of art must be made from tough materials. LeuWebb’s mushrooms, officially known as Fungi of the Woods, are built upon a concrete foundation not unlike the kind that holds up a building. “And then that paint finish, well, if you’ve painted your car, you know it’s not a cheap endeavour,” says Ms. Leu. “And then, you know, steel and metal [fabrication] places are, well, it’s a crazy time.” (Fabrication of the balloons, known as Lighten Up, and the mushrooms, was by Punchclock Metalworks in the Stock Yards neighbourhood).
But for those who might balk at a price tag north of $100,000 for colourful mushrooms on a quiet Mississauga street, consider this: Where there was once a water-hogging lawn with brown patches, there is now a bright spot in someone’s day; the rubberized surface means mobility-challenged people are welcomed rather than shunned; and dreamers can stop to think about the “vast underground networks” that mushrooms use “to communicate with each other to warn of danger [or] alert to positive growing conditions,” which are quite similar to how humans use “body language and gestures” to communicate non-verbally.
The shorter mushroom of ‘Fungi of the Woods’ can be used as a table for wheelchair users, and scuff marks show that it’s popular with children as a plaything.Adam Pulicicchio Photography
And speaking of non-verbal, until Oct. 5 and as part of the Bentway’s Sun/Shade program – a group of installations by different artists that examine rising temperatures in cities – LeuWebb has installed twin FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) cameras to allow Bentway walkers, rollerbladers and cyclists to see how hot their bodies are, or, better yet, the embodied heat in sidewalks or parked cars. Again, the Seeing Celsius cameras are constructed of thick, batter-proof metal to discourage vandalism.
“They want to push a dialogue in the city,” says Ms. Leu about the Bentway, a linear park/multipurpose space which runs under the Gardiner Expressway from Strachan Avenue to just before Spadina. “They’re thinking a lot about equity, and how do we cool our cities? Who gets to be fortunate enough to have access to cool areas, and how do we treat the sun?”
Since forming in 2011, Mr. Webb and Ms. Leu have placed a great many interesting things under the hot GTA sun, such as the six-metre high, glossy-red chandelier at the Pickering Heritage Museum, A Light in the Woods, and the very Post Modern The Backyard at RMG (with landscape architect Brook McIlroy) at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ont., which creates a shady performance space. And, each time, they’ve created places for people to linger.
In 2022, The Creative School at TMU (with the Daniels Corp. and others) released a study titled A New Bottom Line: The Value and Impact of Placemaking. Findings revealed that people spent more time in urban spaces featuring public art, and perceived those locations as “safe, friendly, and supporting an improved quality of life.” And, best of all, there was a 77 per cent likelihood that individuals would “recommend the site to friends, family and acquaintances.”
How wonderful. Let’s make more places that feel good.