Toronto’s waterfront is Kara Hamilton’s backyard. The artist lives a five-minute bike ride away, and she’s explored the Port Lands east of the downtown core countless times — watching a wild new neighbourhood emerge from the site.
Until recently, the area was defined by the industrial sprawl left by factories, refineries, shipping facilities, etc. “When I first started doing site visits, it was a real disaster zone,” says Hamilton, who’s astonished by the change she’s witnessed in recent years.
An entire district is being ushered into existence, and it’s the result of a $1.4 billion flood protection project led by Waterfront Toronto, a partnered corporation funded by all three levels of government. The initiative broke ground in 2017, and as part of its efforts, the Don River has been given a new route to Lake Ontario.
Now, the waterway passes through a restored wetland before reaching Toronto’s inner harbour. An artificial island, Ookwemin Minising, has been constructed, and there are plans to develop as many as 12,000 residential units for the site. Last summer, a 20-hectare greenspace — Biidaasige Park — opened there. It now welcomes picnickers and paddlers, and Hamilton is a fan.
“It’s kind of incredible,” she says. “Within one season, it is already jammed with wildlife. It’s really alive.”
Lately, Hamilton has been returning to Biidaasige for professional reasons. She’s putting the finishing touches on a public sculpture which will double as a pollinator garden for bees and butterflies. It’s inspired by the area’s transformation and was commissioned for another attraction coming soon to the Port Lands: the Lassonde Art Trail (LAT).
Billed as a free destination for contemporary art, the LAT was made possible through a $25 million donation made by mining investor and philanthropist Pierre Lassonde in 2022. The trail is, on the surface, an outdoor sculpture gallery at Biidaasige Park: a string of 15 exhibition sites along a 4.2 km path. But according to LAT’s artistic director and chief curator November Paynter, there’s no other attraction in Canada quite like it.
“It’s the first holistically curated public-art program embedded in a very specific site,” she explains, “and the site itself is so unique.”
The official opening is set for June 4, but the public will get an early preview this weekend. Paynter and the LAT’s executive director Chloë Catán are leading a pair of sold-out tours May 23 and 24 for Doors Open Toronto. They’ll also host a talk on May 23 to discuss their vision and plans for the attraction.
In developing the trail’s inaugural season, Paynter says she sought commissions that would reflect the story of the land itself. Artists have responded to the area’s Indigenous history and also the complexity of the park’s ecosystem and flood protection plan. There’s a playful spirit to many of the works, she says. “I’m really thinking about ways of engaging the public assuming they’ve never encountered contemporary art before.”
By the end of the summer, the LAT will be home to 15 artworks by Canadian and international artists. They’ll be added to the trail as new sections of Biidaasige Park open to the public, and the programming will roll out over three phases before the year is over.
Following the launch in June, the second part of the LAT program will be revealed on the west side of Biidaasige Park in July. Featured artists will include American Virginia Overton and Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, a Toronto-based artist whose work is currently appearing at the Venice Biennale.
$10 million of the LAT’s founding donation was earmarked for the purchase of two permanent artworks, and in September, the first of those commissions will be revealed: a bronze sculpture by the renowned Cree artist Kent Monkman. According to Paynter, the piece will be installed on the west side of the park where the Don meets Lake Ontario. “We’re saying you can walk, bike or kayak the art trail. You’ll definitely be able to see his work from the water.”
When the LAT launches in June, however, all of the art will be found east of the Cherry Street Bridge. Several works are already in place, including Roman Standard by the Turner Prize-winning artist Tracey Emin (it’s appearing on loan from the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa). Orange Functional by Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea is a towering tree of basketball nets (bring your own ball; it’s outside Old Fire Hall 30 on the north side of the park).
Nadia Belerique and Tony Romano of Warkworth, Ont., will debut their first collaborative project when the trail opens in June. Hamilton’s sculpture will be finished in time for the launch day as well. Her work, Delicate Matter (for the birds), is composed of two figures. One is shaped a little like an ear. The other, says Hamilton, is like a “screaming head with a mouthful of trumpets.” The pairing is meant to suggest a conversation — like they’re talking “about what happened below them.”
Hamilton has installed the sculptures on plinths made of rammed earth, and the soil has been dyed to suggest layers of geological time. In creating the piece, which was realized with the help of students at York University, she was captivated by the rewilding efforts at Ookwemin Minising and the process of excavating the Port Lands. In the dirt, workers discovered layers of garbage and contaminated soil, but also archaeological artifacts and century-old seeds for native wetland plants. Says the artist: “I just felt like I wanted to respond to that in sculptural terms in some way. like what is nature? We are nature.”
Her piece won’t be on view forever. Most of the programming along the LAT will change over time, and Paynter says “two to three” works will be swapped out every year. The rotation will keep the offerings fresh for visitors, and a rotating program also gives the LAT opportunities to collaborate with more artists and presenting partners, such as the Public Art Fund in New York. (First Sun, a Monira Al Qadiri sculpture that’s currently installed at Central Park will travel to the LAT in September as part of that relationship.)
The LAT will also host public events in the park, including tours and artist-led walks. Hamilton’s sculpture is located in one of Biidaasige’s outdoor classrooms, and the artist is excited at the thought of more people discovering a place she’s already grown to love.
In Biidaasige, it’s possible to get a view of the city that contains the sight of connected waterways, a sparkling urban skyline — and soon, an abundance of contemporary art as well. “This park is phenomenal,” says Hamilton. “This is going to change the perception of Toronto.”
More information on the Lassonde Art Trail’s launch and programming can be found at www.latfoundation.org.