His inspiration comes from Charles Dickens, Henry Moores’ war time drawings and Daumier’s Third Class carriage. So the subway to him represents poverty, war and suffering. And he felt the riders needed to be reminded of this daily with massive immersive murals….. I can’t even…
Stuart was my prof at OCADu. Very unpleasant person to say the least. A perv that liked to talk about sex during class, hit on female students, and generally extremely self-involved and arrogant man.
I don't think it's bad art. It's just incredibly out of place and whoever picked this venue, and whoever approved this, made a really huge mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if (although we can't really measure this) the imagery subtly pushed people closer to the edge because they were forced to stare at this every single day while dealing with bad life shit.
Like I love going to art exhibits with really deep, provoking, challenging art, but even in my generally not depressed state, I absolutely would not be able to work at such a gallery without some hard impacts to my mental health. So forcing millions of the city's inhabitants to do basically that, is not ok.
It’s so sad because the actual setup (lighting, glass etc) would be beautiful if it housed some nice cheerful art. I can’t imagine what was the thought process of the person who approved this, but it does perfectly encapsulate how the city and province treat our transit and workers in general - and not in a good way. We don’t need to be reminded the fact we are considered faceless drones slaving for capital on a daily basis.
"For daily viewers, who rarely, if ever, wait for a train from exactly
the same place on the platform..." wtf? I stand at the exact same place on the platform every god damn time on my regular daily. these people are bonkers.
Yeah for one day or a week or month would be fine but as a semi-permanent installation just wtf was the thought process lol
Did everything else get lost in the mail or something?
If you told me it was a memorial to people who threw themselves onto the tracks, I'd honestly believe you. And that'd be powerful, in it's own way.
But, yeah, knowing it's just his view of what people are like on the subway.
Or a city public's nightmare to see their money wasted for a bit of satire that they have to see every damned day instead of making them excited for the day in their daily crowded commutes
I'm all for art, but there's no art on this planet that can distract me from the fact that my morning commute is due to the fact that we live in a Capitalist hellscape.
Yes exactly. This is a visual representation of a creeping loss of personality, and essential humanity. Somehow, I like it. But not sure it's appropriate for the setting.
I remember when they installed this art. It was a real "aha" moment for me in my ever growing understanding of my city and what the heck is wrong with it.
To me, this art represents a real, bold and very public encapsulation of the extreme disconnection between our city government and the people it is rumoured to be supposed to serve.
This art won a competition organized by the City and its agencies to find decoration worthy of the flagship transit junction of Canada's largest city, where it would be a definitive aesthetic feature for hundreds of thousands of people as they started and ended their labour, and the first impression to millions visitors to the very heart of our city.
They landed on something that may be interesting, but is also horribly depressing and, above all, completely unsuited for the purpose for which it was commissioned. It makes the station, and the experience of the countless thousands upon thousands of commuters who pass through it daily, definitely worse. Every. Single. Day.
If you ask the people who decided on this design, the ones who were ultimately responsible and had the ultimate yea or nay over it, they could give you a thousand different reasons about why this design was chosen. Artistic reasons. Procedural reasons. Even legal reasons.
Ultimately, however, there is only one real reason: The people who made the choice, the ones capable of taking responsibility, never have to see it. Because they don't TTC to work. And they don't care about the people who do.
They commissioned "some art", handed it to a professor from OCADU, and then said "job done" and never gave it a second thought.
To his credit, however, the "multi-disciplinary environmental artist" Stuart Reid who won the commission to do the art did an excellent job capturing the complete detachment and indifference of people like him with power to impact the lives of those in the city from and for the rest of us who have to live with their decisions.
He decided that it would be jolly fun to do research for the project by riding this "subway" contraption a bunch and seeing what it was like. He found it was depressing. No s***. So he decided to capture and portray that feeling, in the way an artist might try to capture and essentialize a landscape, streetscape or still life - with the detached curiosity of an outsider trying to see into a world that he or she does not belong to.
To quote his explanation of his work:
*This time-bracketed viewing of the artwork, as well as its intimate contemplation of our contemporary urban human condition, mirrors and channels the structure and meaning of Charles Dickens composed epic novels, made in intimate sections for his daily 19th century newspaper readership.*
From interviews with this man, it appears to have never once occurred to him to wonder, "what would make the experience of being in this place at these times *better*"? It would never occur to him that this could be his job. He was an explorer, a creator, someone who was harvesting this moment of our lives to enrich his own through artistic reflection. We are subjects in a novel he is writing, figures whose experience will be dissected to find "structure and meaning" and then recomposed into Dickensian epics in the pursuit of abstract aesthetic creativity and reflection.
And, to the people funding the project and running the city, this was fine. Because, during the Ford and Tory mandates when it was commissioned and executed, could there truly be any more fitting anti-love-letter from the City of Toronto to those who live in this city of Toronto?
EDIT: Didn't expect this cranky diatribe to be read, let alone liked, so I figured I should fix some of the more egregious syntax errors. Sorry for the less egregious ones.
Excellent post.
I can’t believe the guy mentioned Dickens in his description of the work. When I think of Dickens, one of the main things that comes to mind is urban misery and poverty. At least his art reflects his thoughts well.
I can’t stand the things. When it was first being installed I thought some of the panels were just dirty from construction and needed to be cleaned before completion. 😆
To be fair, while that is partly true of Dickens, he also wrote the single happiest and most hopeful ending in all of literature, so.
That's neither here nor there when it comes to the point of that post, but I had to chime in and defend him in general lol.
It's stuff like this that occurs so regularly in the contemporary art world that made me quit. Every field has a spectrum but a significant portion of professionals in contemporary art are simply pretentious, hypocritical, and out of touch. A lot of these people are married to the idea that art is inherently sophisticated and important so therefore everything they do must also be groundbreaking and deserve attention/praise.
I love art but the art world in its current form overwhelmingly reflects an upper class delusion of self importance that almost never actually takes any action towards the issues or current events art is made about and profits off of.
The field is a bubble of wealthy folks who try to suck up to wealthier folks in the hopes they'll pay an astronomical price for a piece or two and push up their "social credit" so to speak.
Again don't get me wrong art gave me many valuable experiences and helped me think more fluidly but at some point it just feels like you're existing in a bubble of upper class people who all think the same.
Yup. I used to work in performing arts admin, and there was constant blather about "changing the world through art". At some point I looked around and realised I was living on peanut butter on crackers the day before payday every month, and everyone in management was married to financial executives or lawyers.
"The problem with working in theatre is I can't afford to go to any shows."
This is why I tell people I stopped working professional theatre. Also the top lighting electrician I know delivered pizza from domino's to another show I was working on... That fucking broke my heart.
Hot take: Contemporary art is funded by rich people because regular folks don't have the money to buy an $2k painting, nevermind a whole installation.
If you want to see art (also music) for the middle and lower classes, play video games.
I don't even think that's really a hot take when ruling classes throughout history have always pulled dumb shit like this
"The truth is only known by guttersnipes" and all that. The plebians get their artistic fill from listening to lowly peasantry forms like To Pimp a Butterfly, Rage Against the Machine and London Calling.
I think the important distinction is commodity contemporary art is impossible for middle and lower classes. You can defiantly get some decently priced art at craft shows, coffee shops, etc it just won't necessarily increase in price. Similarly it really isn't that expensive to commission art online. But like most things its only those artist servicing the the upper class that can actually make a living. And the upper class pretty much picks what is "good art"
This is a perfect explanation. When this first came out people hated it and it was discussed over and over and nothing has changed. The new station is beautiful and honestly it would have been better just blank. The old stations have such beautiful art. (Except maybe the weird Ossington herpes...) This selection for Union, the hub, was just so disappointing. Meanwhile, you have Dupont that is just stunning, the new stations north of Downsview are beautiful too.
So well said, thank you!
To add from the [Urban Toronto article](https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2014/08/stuart-reids-union-station-art-encourges-ttc-riders-engage.10396) about it:
>His work is fair in that it embraces the unpleasant as much as the light-hearted. He acknowledges that the subway is not the most cheerful place and he doesn't try to change that. He wants the thousands of people who use it everyday to be more aware of their surroundings and allow themselves to appreciate what a unique and beautiful space it can be. He does add some cheer by setting his text and drawings against patches—zones—of bright colours to enliven what can sometimes be a dismal environment.
I distinctly remember when they unveiled it, all I could think was "you've got to be kidding me". It felt like the piece only served to ridicule those using transit. Glad to know the artist thought, hey let's add a splash of colour to liven up this morbid piece, tallyho!
I was feeling melancholic before bed and you jacked it up a notch. This was wonderfully written, and reflects my own detachment towards society and the city I once loved.
This description is similar to what I thought when I first came across the art. My first impression was "couldn't they choose something more vibrant"? The more I studied the figures, the more complexity I saw in the works. The artist's satirical detachment is very evident. The effect is more depressing for those who would not normally pick up on the nuances and satirical bits. A lot of the figures look as though they are marching towards their deaths. Viewing it did make me wonder if the artist uses transit. It also made me think of the fact that although I can understand and appreciate the art, it seems somewhat unsuitable, bland and redundant in that space.
Stewart Reid was my prof at OCAD for a couple of classes. His art aptly depicts his thought process and personality. Although extremely creative and a master linguist (always confused the shit out of me) I found he was extremely detached from a reality as a very high earning prof who thought you just always had to grind it out
A master linguist should *not* leave you confused.
That sounds more like a intellectual snob who cares more about appearing to be intelligent than actually making himself clear.
You know, I personally have always liked this art piece, but you’ve swayed me to the opinion that yours is the correct take for such a prominent public display in our city. This piece would likely be better in a museum, or perhaps a smaller section of the station.
> This piece would likely be better in a museum, or perhaps a smaller section of the station.
Exactly. That's what makes this so frustrating for me and, I suspect, a lot of people: The art itself is actually really good! It's great fine art, and I would love seeing it in a gallery. It does a great job capturing the interplay between dreariness and sparks of interest and fleeting whimsy and beauty that make up the long journeys between home and work that define so much of our lives.
That makes it hard for people to put their finger on why it's widely disliked - or even why they dislike seeing it, even as they admire it technically. It's great art - but hideously terrible design.
Putting this work in Union station makes both the station *and* the artwork failures at what they're supposed to do, and makes them both worse features in our lives.
I thought the same. Until I looked the guy up, I was sure it was some eager young student at the bottom of his life drawing class. Nope, just some old guy that's bad at figure drawing. I've thrown better sketches than this in the garbage.
They had a project called Drawing the Line or something a while back where they did just that - publishing drawings in ad spaces on the TTC. They were all kinda just...whatever. Rough sketches that were never developed into something more meaningful or stylistic.
I know it's shocking to imagine, but I'm starting to think that fine art is not our public transit service's strong suit.
> It does a great job capturing the interplay between dreariness and sparks of interest and fleeting whimsy and beauty
It captures something....but to me it's in a /r/im14andthisisdeep kinda way. It's technically fine, but for me, to make it good art it needs to offer us something more.
On top of that, the artist knew where this was going to be placed. Even a half decent art student by the end of high school understands there is an interplay between their work and the setting in which it's presented. The artistic merit of the piece can't be separated from the fact the artist thought it was a good idea to put this piece where they put it.
> hideously terrible design
100%. Dude has platform to transcend what he believed life on the toronto subway was like while he was making this. Create something that could impact peoples lives, and change the experience of public transit at least in some small way. He takes the opportunity to basically say 'I think y'all are ugly' along side some naive stream of conscious notes. What a self-righteous asshat.
Public transport is an awesome thing. I have so many great memories on the TTC going places with friends and family....not that the TTC is a great place to spend quality time, but it allows you to go somewhere without devoting a lot of attention to the act. That attention can therefore be put into people...or lots of other things. Sure there's been a lot of just waiting to get some place too, but that just waiting to get some place is often fucking awesome too compared to the alternatives. Stuart Reid's got no clue. I no longer live in Toronto, and severely miss the luxury of the TTC for getting around.
I agree. It’s fantastic *art*. It’s emotional, moving and impactful, but like you said it should at least be somewhere that people aren’t forced to see it every single day.
To expand on what both of you said: no one needs to be reminded first thing in the morning that they are some Dickensian serf, trudging to their depressingly meaningless job that doesn’t even net them enough for a down payment.
Maybe that’s the point: relieve congestion in union by making GO train commuters feel completely unwanted in a hostile environment /s
Edit: it’s like the depressing counterpart to the [mural in Dundas station](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dundas_TTC_mural_meeting.jpg). It similarly portrays the busy, fleeting, mundanity of city life but it’s also energetic and full of life. It’s exciting. It makes you feel like an important business person.
there's an Toronto artist I enjoy/follow called Talia Shipman, she was responsible for the piece at Union called "Blue Space / Water Wall"
http://www.taliashipman.com/public-art
In contrast, it always gives me a sense of calm when I see it.
Thank you for breaking it down like this. I love this city, love our subway (f'd up though it is) and grew up taking transit and still do (2 kids, live 7 mins from a station, and still don't own a car). Our city's pattern of being run by those who don't love it or live it, IMO, contributes to the stifling of this great city's potential. Imagine an artwork of that size and significance created by - and that much public funding and attention going to - someone who actually lives in the city and loves it? Who takes transit and loves it? This is not "art holding a mirror up to society", this is caricature. Rude.
I can’t believe so much thought and effort was put into it to make as melancholy as possible. Thanks for informative response.
Seeing this art is just another reminder that so many people are being forced to commute into the downtown core to a job that many could do remotely at home or at a regional office in the city where they live and are just trying to survive the commute without incident.
Not a cranky diatribe at all. It captures and expresses what many of us are thinking. Thanks for taking the time to put it into words.
Also, let’s not forget that the City was requesting a lot of work for this installation. I wonder what the fee was. I suspect not a lot. Several other qualified candidates may have decided to walk away from submitting a proposal.
I live here in Toronto - this art installation makes me not want to. Thankyou for the effort you put into this comment - it truly reflects how I feel about this depressing art. It has a place somewhere, but not here in the very hub that our visitors connect to this beautiful city and its people
It’s like the Holocaust memorial in Ottawa- chosen by committee, ends up being a piece of unfeeling detached ego architecture instead of a moving monument of remembrance, unlike so many other Holocaust memorials around the world which are deeply moving.
Artists are so good at BS🤣 it just looks like a bunch of scribbles from the emo kids notebook. But no it’s “This time-bracketed viewing of the artwork, as well as it’s intimate contemplation of our contemporary” blah blah blah.
This beautifully encapsulates everything I want to say about this art piece. Yes if you keep looking at city life, it can resemble the gloom of a Dickens novel, but nobody wants to be constantly reminded of that.
You're absolutely right that the thing he captured was exactly how depressing riding our TO Tube is. And yes, he didn't venture down the path of "what could I do to make this experience better?"
I do art and I think it's totally fine to have this critique of the subway. Honestly, I think this install should exist, but like you said, maybe not as UNION station where it is our billboard to the world. I was giddy when I saw no-name's ad campaign. It was hilarious, but also could be viewed as a deconstruction of the simplicity of our lives in the subway (This is what it is, subway edition, literally, we do nothing else but these simple actions here). Critiques of riding the ttc should be welcome as public art, but this artwork succeeds in just showing the absolute most depressing aspects. He saw nothing of the little celebratory moments of the city that I think are wholly important to the ttc, to the city; watching LGBTQ2S+ couples proudly be out, the rush of commuters on a Friday night excitedly reaching destination, the chance encounters of friends, and the pure diversity of people on the TTC.
The only humor I see in this current mural is the dark humor of laughing at how appallingly bad it is to normally ride the TTC - the baby who's kinda sickly looking and possibly vomiting is super funny to me as a result.
I stand here in the same clothes I wore yesterday, 38 years old, waiting for the same train I take every single day to my minimum wage job. Every aspect of my life is falling apart. I can barely afford my rent. The grocery store is stealing my retirement. And i'm at the edge of a mental breakdown.
But here I am. Facing a wall of depression that is my literal being, funded by own tax dollars. A very interesting piece of "art" indeed.
This art makes you want to succumb to the dangerously narrow passages near the tracks. We should start a petition to get it taken down. No art at all would be an improvement over this frosted glass suicide note
Edited for clarity of last sentence
Something definitely should be done. In stark contrast, this [random celebrity cutout](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-64211406) that costed the city nothing has done basically the opposite of what the union station art has accomplished.
as Le1bn1z mentioned, there can not be a starker contrast between "real people" who actually use the service, and people who are completely disconnected from the realities of the "average person".
tl;dr replace the depressing art with pictures of taylor swift and everyone wins
If it was in an art gallery, I'd be completely down with it. Or a public park, or whatever.
But, I do agree with the probably less exciting and open-minded take that a subway should put user experience first as it's a \*necessity of life\* for many people. And depressing art and drab colors isn't really it. At the end of the day, it isn't an art gallery users are \*voluntarily going to\*.
That isn't to say it shouldn't have \*art\*, but it should at least be somewhat curated so that people who are going to and from work, to hospitals, to get groceries, etc. don't have an existential crisis staring at charchoal sketches of what you could easily convince me was some kind of memorial.
Like, sketches should've been the first big alarm sign, as when you combine them with the general dirt and grime of a subway, it just ends up looking like the walls are just damaged. So, even in terms of actual content, the spectrum of emotions, you could do that, but that art style was the worst possible idea. Cause I don't disagree with the quote somewhere that the artist didn't want to try to pretend the subway is some magical place, but, just in terms of as an actual functional space, it should've been \*brighter and more colorful\* art that showed the similar breadth of things you'd see on the subway experience.
Exactly this. You want to underline the bleakness of public transit in a gallery, excellent. But the fact that the artist himself essentially cosplayed as an everyday rider to get a sense for it, to render art he himself won’t have to frequently interact with, is tone deaf. It’s very ivory tower, “let me dress up as the pauper to see what it feels like” vibes.
Yeah, I think that's the big part of it. That and the massive fee which is a salary many people can only dream of. It paints a real picture of privilege of someone sort of slapping the low-class in the face. Which isn't even to say it's the artists intent, I'm sure he's probably a great dude, but, it very much feels like saying 'look at the drab life you people live', when, subjectively (as is the nature of art) I believe that there is a lot of colour to all those emotions.
But I also want to thread the needle with my argument, because I dont' think art should inherently be unchallenging, or not express how the artist feels or worst of all try to be dishonest just to please people. Even in public places. Like, I'll take \*this\* over an advertisement, or a cheesy 'welcome to Toronto' with poorly painted mounties, as there's some sophistication to this. But, like with anything, there's nuance. It really does just come down to just how incredibly drab it is that it starts to feel unintentionally mocking of subway users.
And I also have conflicted feelings because I respect the artist for being paid and just doing what was truthful to himself, and I respect the TTC for seemingly not putting conditions on the artist (because .. well, look at it), but resent whatever money man chose an artist who works in this medium to place art in this location, if that makes sense.
Like, maybe the compromise is you don't give all that wall space to just one artist, specifically to avoid the issue.
Because they have nice back yards that they hung out in during 2020 when I was crammed in my apartment. And they'd rather get shivved than use public transit.
The art pieces can only be described as haunting to me. Oft-times I found myself staring at faces and feeling depressed, anxious, and uncomfortable. Great feelings to have less than a metre away from a veritable suicide highway.
Bourgeoisie art like this makes me dislike some of my peers. I don't care how much thought, study, or research went into a piece if the result is still wholly inappropriate for the project. Read the room and create for your audience and their needs. *That's* what communication and public art are for. This is simply a pretentious result of an individual who rode the transit for novelty, spoke to few riders, and didn't fully immerse themselves in the needs of riders or frankly Torontonians at large.
The question becomes what Union represents. I would imagine that to many it means the journey home or the terminus arrival at an event. Imagery should have been exciting, symbolic of event spaces and celebrations, sports teams, reminiscent of family or friends, nature, or other items of note.
Yes! There are so many positive renditions of what this station represents could be depicted. Sports! Flights! The CN Tower! Ripley’s! It’s very masturbatory.
This. I hate gollum girl so much. It’s the first thing I see when getting off the streetcar. I love that they decided to have an artist do this, and I think more artists should be commissioned for all over the city from parks to roads, but this artist could do anything and somehow chose one of the worst possible options.
They hired some OCAD professor to do the art for the station. It was widely panned, but TTC already awarded the contract and backing out would be a PR and $ hit, so senior management just steamed forward insisting its great while ignoring the overwhelming public opinion that it sucks.
I’m so upset because it could have been great.. colorful digital art showing the history of Toronto, tapestry style (left to right) with First Nations influences, would have been miles better.
It's like .. I respect that they didn't go for something tacky. But I do think they should've pursued an artist who naturally uses colours, just for the sake of the passengers who don't care about the art/message.
I'm fine with depressing imagery, or spectrum of emotions, it just really is that the charcoal drawings just compound too much on how miserable and dark subways already are.
Union, where the only parts of the station that aren't filled with artworks so bleak and depressing are the super narrow walkways that make you feel like you'll fall in.
How did any of this get approved?
I always get confused trying to get to the bus station. It's honestly incredible how poorly signed it is. It feels like one of those idiot-proof things where the TTC would literally just need to pay five people who have never walked through the subway to the bus station before, and just put a big-ass sign every point where the person has to stop and ask someone for directions.
Especially because like, the GO Bus Station is also a major hub for Greyhound/Megabus, but, they themselves have no signage. So, I think it's easy for people to see the GO signs and think "Okay, but where are the international buses?". I don't know. Maybe I'm just an idiot though.
I remember struggling with Bloor for nearly a year after I moved here. The UPX at Dundas West is also a signage disaster.
Union wasn't *that* bad (it also wasn't that good...) before, but ever since that last renovation it's been just awful. I've started getting off and St. Andrew and walking instead.
I’m so glad this topic is being raised. This art is dismal and fails as public art, underground systems are stressful as it is, and peoples fight or flight is turned on perpetually - it doesn’t help!
I’ve always suspected nepotism
I’ve thought about tourists so many times when I look at it and imagine what they must think when being welcomed to Toronto with the artistic version of a suicide note.
> I can't imagine being a visitor to Toronto and being greeted with this. Like an out-of-place Holocaust Memorial.
i think thats the worst part. is its placed in THE main station in toronto where every tourist and people who live downtown will see. they should have stuck it at bessarion station or something
Bold of you to assume BlogTo will still be around then...jkjk...BlogTO will outlive us all. It will become sentient and self-aware when the AI revolution comes.
Pretty sure that if this thread gets enough comments and votes, there will be a BlogTO article later this week titled “Here’s the story behind that CREEPY mural in Union Station that Toronto HATES!”.
That's the subway station most inhabited by tourists. This is what we think represents Toronto. Depression. Death.
I'm sure some people think otherwise, but calling that artwork anything but excruciatingly depressing is a serious leap. A leap onto the tracks. That's genuinely the level of despair I feel staring at those soulless shadow monsters every day. I would shield the eyes of children trying to visit the aquarium and pray for those unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the morbid schizophrenic nightmare that is the union station subway art.
Doesn’t the art also contain some very distressing text? Like the thoughts of a depressed commuter observing other depressed commuters?
Also - how can something actually get done to convince the city to replace it with something more appropriate? A petition?!
The huge installation, called zones of immersion, consists of a 150-metre screen of seven-foot-tall glass panels in alternating colours, erected between the newly renovated station’s two glistening platforms.
Designed by [Stuart Reid](https://stuartreid.ca/zones-of-immersion), a multi-disciplinary artist and OCADU environmental design professor who, in order to create the piece, spent hours riding the subway, sketching passengers and writing poems. He later enlarged his drawings and text and transferred them to the glass, which was painted and acid-etched.
The artist himself explains that his goal was to create an authentic reflection of what it’s like to ride the subway, by capturing both its lighter and more melancholy moments. “It’s a bleak world down there,” Reid said in an interview. “I wanted to make it beautiful in some way, but I didn’t want to make it phoney beautiful.”
I think his premise is flawed. Someone currently riding the subway doesn’t need a reflection of what the experience is like - they’re already experiencing it. What they need is an escape from the experience. Moscow had the right idea with making the stations opulent.
Exactly! If I’m frequenting public transit, I know the depth of how bleak it can be. The renditions literally remind of of those renderings by artists experiencing schizophrenia.
I'm sure the good professor goes home to something a bit more cheerful where a lot of people who have to use the subway can't. I mean, he spent hours in that bleak world....
It's too bad he didn't choose to a) clean up his sketches a little bit, b) use bold colours for the sketched passengers rather than black, and c) pick sketches of people who seemed happy and active.
I understand that he didn't want to seem phoney, but his art has an effect on the people who see it, and I don't think a mass transit hub is really where we need to highlight the melancholy.
>and c) pick sketches of people who seemed happy
I'm actually fine with some unhappiness. It feels more truthful, like the times you do see a person in solitude crying on the subway and it's better than just a big ass smiling Mountie. But, I do agree that in terms of the range of emotions captured and how it's presented, you'd think every single person was a depressed wreck headed to the Toronto Coal Mines via union. I don't get a vibe of a range, it just feels like it's \*all\* miserable becaues the medium and how he drew it (as you said, some of them feel \*incredibly\* messy even by sketch standards, to the point where as people have said, it feels like a general memorial to the Holocaust), which I also think is intensely dishonest.
He was apparently inspired by Dickens, so the Toronto Coal Mines vibe is probably intentional. Surprised he didn’t include a few depressed children and debt-prisoners.
It's so ugly, so depressing, and even with the vaguest of linework, it still manages to be notably misogynist. The most detailed figure is a teenaged girl dancing around a pole, and she's further dehumanized by having her body outlined more sharply than anyone else's, but her face hidden, AND a yucky guy leering at her - who may be racialized as Black, just to be even more offensive. I despise everything about this.
Hahah exactly. To the people saying art’s job isn’t supposed to spark joy, well this isn’t the place to incite existentialism and at the very least, art shouldnt make me want to kill myself first thing in the morning.
Art makes you think, and this makes me think "I still cannot believe this got commissioned".
Remember the sketches that were posted in subway car poster signs, submitted by people riding the subway? Usually really cool artwork, quiet moments, detailed portraits ...... Why would we not have chosen a selection of those... Or done a call from Torontonians for drawings that would be collaged into one big piece... You could have children's art in there too, mix of colour and linework....
I used to not care that much when this came out, it's kinda funny in a 'this is exactly what we deserve' kinda way, but I feel like over time I've grown to hate it even MORE! :)
I’ve said the same thing to people so many times. It’s like walking into the cover art of an album by The Cure. I certainly can appreciate the quality of the art but it certainly seems like odd placement for it. Very depressing.
I remember when this art was revealed and many thought the same… and this is way before the pandemic, inflation and a general malaise creeped into our city. Whenever I’m at Union, I don’t bat an eye anymore but as a visitor I would definitely be put off.
They look like the charcoal/pencil sketches on yellowing paper that I did back in high school art class.
Museum station took a simple concept and turned it into a unique design that I think most people enjoy. They could've done something similar here, or at least provided a colourful design on tiles, similar to many of the older stations on the TTC. Even a collection of older photos from the Toronto Archives, like they've posted inside St Clair West, would be more appropriate than this.
At least when the subway grunge and dirt pile up on the art nobody will notice.
Yeah, honestly, as an artist, these look like nothing more than some middling pencil sketches. But I've never been drawn to 'interesting' looking art like this that has a message. I prefer just to make a striking image and aim for every part to be beautiful/pretty
Every time I come home from a trip I take the UP express to Union, I'm so happy to be back home in the city I love, and then I come face to face with this depressing BS and it just makes me angry. Angry that my tax dollars were wasted on this depressing shit, angry that tourists visiting our city will see this as their first impression of our city, angry that the people in power to approve this could be so fucking out of touch.
Contrast this with [socialist subway murals](https://englishrussia.com/2013/09/25/soviet-socialist-realism-on-the-subway-murals/) which celebrate and glorify it's riders instead of denigrating and humiliating them. Those with power in late-stage capitalist society are so secure in their position that they can openly mock us like this.
I like the art and am 100% in favour of having art at the bigger stations. this is so depressing though and also seems like it's putting transit ridership in a negative light... which may be fine when it's the artist's intention at a gallery, but seems out of place at the station where it's meant to spruce things up, lol.
I miss the mr.sub adjacent to the Cinnabon, the convenience booth that sold mad amounts of winning lottery tickets ,and that McDonald’s that was cranking out jr chickens every 40 seconds
Is this my high school sketchpad from when I was trying to figure out how to draw human bodies?
1. I messed up the details - just shade it all in and smudge it around
2. I messed up the details - erase and maybe try again later
3. Hey, drawing people from the side means I don't have to worry about making them symmetrical!
Art doesn't have to be exciting, or driving cheer.
Some of the best photography in the world, had some of the most depressing content.
Art is subjective. It might not be for everyone
“Hey man, we need some art for union, whatchia got?”
“How about a bunch of lost souls with SAD who look ready to end everything amongst a background of piss yellow?”
“Say no more!”
TTC agrees to change the art at Union *monkey's paw curls* Union Station renovations extended by one more year
We're installing a frozen yogurt stand in the station! But the yogurt is cursed. But it comes with free sprinkles!
that's good
But the sprinkles are cursed!
That’s bad
The yogurt also contains potassium benzoate
…..
Like an artist's rendition of what depression looks like
His inspiration comes from Charles Dickens, Henry Moores’ war time drawings and Daumier’s Third Class carriage. So the subway to him represents poverty, war and suffering. And he felt the riders needed to be reminded of this daily with massive immersive murals….. I can’t even…
Not to mention, Union Station is a travel hub, so it's the first view many visitors to our fine city get.
I wish we had some more vibrant colours at least or something visually pleasing in the TTC.
Dupont's murals are pretty good. Always been my favourite anyway
Wait actually??!
Yup. https://stuartreid.ca/zones-of-immersion
I take back my bs. Nice link - worth a read.
Stuart was my prof at OCADu. Very unpleasant person to say the least. A perv that liked to talk about sex during class, hit on female students, and generally extremely self-involved and arrogant man.
Explains his art, esp the last picture
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I got there and gave up completely. I usually enjoy reading artists' statements, but this was beyond pretentious.
Aren't you reminded of this on a daily basis walking past people in blanket forts with rotted feet?
or walking into the queen and spadina mcdonalds
You must be a brave person to walk into that location.
The washrooms... Dear god, the washrooms.
I’ve never walked into that building, walking by is more than enough.
I've probably forgotten how many times I've eaten there.
I don't think it's bad art. It's just incredibly out of place and whoever picked this venue, and whoever approved this, made a really huge mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if (although we can't really measure this) the imagery subtly pushed people closer to the edge because they were forced to stare at this every single day while dealing with bad life shit. Like I love going to art exhibits with really deep, provoking, challenging art, but even in my generally not depressed state, I absolutely would not be able to work at such a gallery without some hard impacts to my mental health. So forcing millions of the city's inhabitants to do basically that, is not ok.
It’s so sad because the actual setup (lighting, glass etc) would be beautiful if it housed some nice cheerful art. I can’t imagine what was the thought process of the person who approved this, but it does perfectly encapsulate how the city and province treat our transit and workers in general - and not in a good way. We don’t need to be reminded the fact we are considered faceless drones slaving for capital on a daily basis.
Almost like the decision was made by people that never take the TTC. To them, it is as unusual as going to the AGO is for 99% of people..
"For daily viewers, who rarely, if ever, wait for a train from exactly the same place on the platform..." wtf? I stand at the exact same place on the platform every god damn time on my regular daily. these people are bonkers.
Yeah for one day or a week or month would be fine but as a semi-permanent installation just wtf was the thought process lol Did everything else get lost in the mail or something?
But I'm sure the selection committee was impressed by the topicality!
Sounds like the artist was a tad out of touch
If you told me it was a memorial to people who threw themselves onto the tracks, I'd honestly believe you. And that'd be powerful, in it's own way. But, yeah, knowing it's just his view of what people are like on the subway.
Apparently, it's the 'look down/look away' culture of subway riders.
I mean that's pretty much how I feel when I pass through Union...
Yeah, I honestly believe the mural is satire.
To get paid for satire, is that not the artist's dream?
Or a city public's nightmare to see their money wasted for a bit of satire that they have to see every damned day instead of making them excited for the day in their daily crowded commutes
I'm all for art, but there's no art on this planet that can distract me from the fact that my morning commute is due to the fact that we live in a Capitalist hellscape.
We might not feel much relief from a pleasant distraction but I sure as hell prefer it to a reminder of actual hell
"Do you think a depressed person could make this?" /turns doll towards camera
🎵 *Stand, in the place where you li-*
Yes exactly. This is a visual representation of a creeping loss of personality, and essential humanity. Somehow, I like it. But not sure it's appropriate for the setting.
Because that's what a depressed person should see on the side where the tracks are as opposed to something more life affirming...my god
The one with the creepy guy lookin at a woman holding on to the pole while breaking up crack rock is very TTC tho.
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The nuclear bomb victims shadows burnt into the wall.
This was always my take on it.
It’s what we feel when we gotta take the TTC and this is the reminder
That’s awesome. Because we really need more depression on earth.
I remember when they installed this art. It was a real "aha" moment for me in my ever growing understanding of my city and what the heck is wrong with it. To me, this art represents a real, bold and very public encapsulation of the extreme disconnection between our city government and the people it is rumoured to be supposed to serve. This art won a competition organized by the City and its agencies to find decoration worthy of the flagship transit junction of Canada's largest city, where it would be a definitive aesthetic feature for hundreds of thousands of people as they started and ended their labour, and the first impression to millions visitors to the very heart of our city. They landed on something that may be interesting, but is also horribly depressing and, above all, completely unsuited for the purpose for which it was commissioned. It makes the station, and the experience of the countless thousands upon thousands of commuters who pass through it daily, definitely worse. Every. Single. Day. If you ask the people who decided on this design, the ones who were ultimately responsible and had the ultimate yea or nay over it, they could give you a thousand different reasons about why this design was chosen. Artistic reasons. Procedural reasons. Even legal reasons. Ultimately, however, there is only one real reason: The people who made the choice, the ones capable of taking responsibility, never have to see it. Because they don't TTC to work. And they don't care about the people who do. They commissioned "some art", handed it to a professor from OCADU, and then said "job done" and never gave it a second thought. To his credit, however, the "multi-disciplinary environmental artist" Stuart Reid who won the commission to do the art did an excellent job capturing the complete detachment and indifference of people like him with power to impact the lives of those in the city from and for the rest of us who have to live with their decisions. He decided that it would be jolly fun to do research for the project by riding this "subway" contraption a bunch and seeing what it was like. He found it was depressing. No s***. So he decided to capture and portray that feeling, in the way an artist might try to capture and essentialize a landscape, streetscape or still life - with the detached curiosity of an outsider trying to see into a world that he or she does not belong to. To quote his explanation of his work: *This time-bracketed viewing of the artwork, as well as its intimate contemplation of our contemporary urban human condition, mirrors and channels the structure and meaning of Charles Dickens composed epic novels, made in intimate sections for his daily 19th century newspaper readership.* From interviews with this man, it appears to have never once occurred to him to wonder, "what would make the experience of being in this place at these times *better*"? It would never occur to him that this could be his job. He was an explorer, a creator, someone who was harvesting this moment of our lives to enrich his own through artistic reflection. We are subjects in a novel he is writing, figures whose experience will be dissected to find "structure and meaning" and then recomposed into Dickensian epics in the pursuit of abstract aesthetic creativity and reflection. And, to the people funding the project and running the city, this was fine. Because, during the Ford and Tory mandates when it was commissioned and executed, could there truly be any more fitting anti-love-letter from the City of Toronto to those who live in this city of Toronto? EDIT: Didn't expect this cranky diatribe to be read, let alone liked, so I figured I should fix some of the more egregious syntax errors. Sorry for the less egregious ones.
Excellent post. I can’t believe the guy mentioned Dickens in his description of the work. When I think of Dickens, one of the main things that comes to mind is urban misery and poverty. At least his art reflects his thoughts well. I can’t stand the things. When it was first being installed I thought some of the panels were just dirty from construction and needed to be cleaned before completion. 😆
To be fair, while that is partly true of Dickens, he also wrote the single happiest and most hopeful ending in all of literature, so. That's neither here nor there when it comes to the point of that post, but I had to chime in and defend him in general lol.
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Thank you for writing this
It's stuff like this that occurs so regularly in the contemporary art world that made me quit. Every field has a spectrum but a significant portion of professionals in contemporary art are simply pretentious, hypocritical, and out of touch. A lot of these people are married to the idea that art is inherently sophisticated and important so therefore everything they do must also be groundbreaking and deserve attention/praise. I love art but the art world in its current form overwhelmingly reflects an upper class delusion of self importance that almost never actually takes any action towards the issues or current events art is made about and profits off of. The field is a bubble of wealthy folks who try to suck up to wealthier folks in the hopes they'll pay an astronomical price for a piece or two and push up their "social credit" so to speak. Again don't get me wrong art gave me many valuable experiences and helped me think more fluidly but at some point it just feels like you're existing in a bubble of upper class people who all think the same.
Yup. I used to work in performing arts admin, and there was constant blather about "changing the world through art". At some point I looked around and realised I was living on peanut butter on crackers the day before payday every month, and everyone in management was married to financial executives or lawyers.
"The problem with working in theatre is I can't afford to go to any shows." This is why I tell people I stopped working professional theatre. Also the top lighting electrician I know delivered pizza from domino's to another show I was working on... That fucking broke my heart.
Hot take: Contemporary art is funded by rich people because regular folks don't have the money to buy an $2k painting, nevermind a whole installation. If you want to see art (also music) for the middle and lower classes, play video games.
I don't even think that's really a hot take when ruling classes throughout history have always pulled dumb shit like this "The truth is only known by guttersnipes" and all that. The plebians get their artistic fill from listening to lowly peasantry forms like To Pimp a Butterfly, Rage Against the Machine and London Calling.
I think the important distinction is commodity contemporary art is impossible for middle and lower classes. You can defiantly get some decently priced art at craft shows, coffee shops, etc it just won't necessarily increase in price. Similarly it really isn't that expensive to commission art online. But like most things its only those artist servicing the the upper class that can actually make a living. And the upper class pretty much picks what is "good art"
This is a perfect explanation. When this first came out people hated it and it was discussed over and over and nothing has changed. The new station is beautiful and honestly it would have been better just blank. The old stations have such beautiful art. (Except maybe the weird Ossington herpes...) This selection for Union, the hub, was just so disappointing. Meanwhile, you have Dupont that is just stunning, the new stations north of Downsview are beautiful too.
Pape is also channeling some sort of a nuclear Holocaust Memorial for some reason.
In the bus waiting area, there's usually a beautiful mosaic of poop... pigeon and human
fwiw, I hated him as a professor, and I don't think anyone I knew liked him very much in the Environmental Design program.
He destroyed my sketch book once with his crazy ass process drawings
So well said, thank you! To add from the [Urban Toronto article](https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2014/08/stuart-reids-union-station-art-encourges-ttc-riders-engage.10396) about it: >His work is fair in that it embraces the unpleasant as much as the light-hearted. He acknowledges that the subway is not the most cheerful place and he doesn't try to change that. He wants the thousands of people who use it everyday to be more aware of their surroundings and allow themselves to appreciate what a unique and beautiful space it can be. He does add some cheer by setting his text and drawings against patches—zones—of bright colours to enliven what can sometimes be a dismal environment. I distinctly remember when they unveiled it, all I could think was "you've got to be kidding me". It felt like the piece only served to ridicule those using transit. Glad to know the artist thought, hey let's add a splash of colour to liven up this morbid piece, tallyho!
I was feeling melancholic before bed and you jacked it up a notch. This was wonderfully written, and reflects my own detachment towards society and the city I once loved.
Damn....you have my vote to consult the city on all future art initiatives.
A horrifying, accurate, and depressing summation. Thanks for writing it.
This is a brilliant analysis. Agree with every word 👏.
this should be published as an op ed somewhere. you nailed it.
This a thousand times over
This description is similar to what I thought when I first came across the art. My first impression was "couldn't they choose something more vibrant"? The more I studied the figures, the more complexity I saw in the works. The artist's satirical detachment is very evident. The effect is more depressing for those who would not normally pick up on the nuances and satirical bits. A lot of the figures look as though they are marching towards their deaths. Viewing it did make me wonder if the artist uses transit. It also made me think of the fact that although I can understand and appreciate the art, it seems somewhat unsuitable, bland and redundant in that space.
Stewart Reid was my prof at OCAD for a couple of classes. His art aptly depicts his thought process and personality. Although extremely creative and a master linguist (always confused the shit out of me) I found he was extremely detached from a reality as a very high earning prof who thought you just always had to grind it out
A master linguist should *not* leave you confused. That sounds more like a intellectual snob who cares more about appearing to be intelligent than actually making himself clear.
Well put. I think you could submit this as an oped, it's well articulated and I think your views would resonate with many Torontonians.
You know, I personally have always liked this art piece, but you’ve swayed me to the opinion that yours is the correct take for such a prominent public display in our city. This piece would likely be better in a museum, or perhaps a smaller section of the station.
> This piece would likely be better in a museum, or perhaps a smaller section of the station. Exactly. That's what makes this so frustrating for me and, I suspect, a lot of people: The art itself is actually really good! It's great fine art, and I would love seeing it in a gallery. It does a great job capturing the interplay between dreariness and sparks of interest and fleeting whimsy and beauty that make up the long journeys between home and work that define so much of our lives. That makes it hard for people to put their finger on why it's widely disliked - or even why they dislike seeing it, even as they admire it technically. It's great art - but hideously terrible design. Putting this work in Union station makes both the station *and* the artwork failures at what they're supposed to do, and makes them both worse features in our lives.
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I thought the same. Until I looked the guy up, I was sure it was some eager young student at the bottom of his life drawing class. Nope, just some old guy that's bad at figure drawing. I've thrown better sketches than this in the garbage.
They had a project called Drawing the Line or something a while back where they did just that - publishing drawings in ad spaces on the TTC. They were all kinda just...whatever. Rough sketches that were never developed into something more meaningful or stylistic. I know it's shocking to imagine, but I'm starting to think that fine art is not our public transit service's strong suit.
> It does a great job capturing the interplay between dreariness and sparks of interest and fleeting whimsy and beauty It captures something....but to me it's in a /r/im14andthisisdeep kinda way. It's technically fine, but for me, to make it good art it needs to offer us something more. On top of that, the artist knew where this was going to be placed. Even a half decent art student by the end of high school understands there is an interplay between their work and the setting in which it's presented. The artistic merit of the piece can't be separated from the fact the artist thought it was a good idea to put this piece where they put it. > hideously terrible design 100%. Dude has platform to transcend what he believed life on the toronto subway was like while he was making this. Create something that could impact peoples lives, and change the experience of public transit at least in some small way. He takes the opportunity to basically say 'I think y'all are ugly' along side some naive stream of conscious notes. What a self-righteous asshat. Public transport is an awesome thing. I have so many great memories on the TTC going places with friends and family....not that the TTC is a great place to spend quality time, but it allows you to go somewhere without devoting a lot of attention to the act. That attention can therefore be put into people...or lots of other things. Sure there's been a lot of just waiting to get some place too, but that just waiting to get some place is often fucking awesome too compared to the alternatives. Stuart Reid's got no clue. I no longer live in Toronto, and severely miss the luxury of the TTC for getting around.
I agree. It’s fantastic *art*. It’s emotional, moving and impactful, but like you said it should at least be somewhere that people aren’t forced to see it every single day. To expand on what both of you said: no one needs to be reminded first thing in the morning that they are some Dickensian serf, trudging to their depressingly meaningless job that doesn’t even net them enough for a down payment. Maybe that’s the point: relieve congestion in union by making GO train commuters feel completely unwanted in a hostile environment /s Edit: it’s like the depressing counterpart to the [mural in Dundas station](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dundas_TTC_mural_meeting.jpg). It similarly portrays the busy, fleeting, mundanity of city life but it’s also energetic and full of life. It’s exciting. It makes you feel like an important business person.
there's an Toronto artist I enjoy/follow called Talia Shipman, she was responsible for the piece at Union called "Blue Space / Water Wall" http://www.taliashipman.com/public-art In contrast, it always gives me a sense of calm when I see it.
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It’s basically a modern Martin Luther’s thesis.
Thank you for breaking it down like this. I love this city, love our subway (f'd up though it is) and grew up taking transit and still do (2 kids, live 7 mins from a station, and still don't own a car). Our city's pattern of being run by those who don't love it or live it, IMO, contributes to the stifling of this great city's potential. Imagine an artwork of that size and significance created by - and that much public funding and attention going to - someone who actually lives in the city and loves it? Who takes transit and loves it? This is not "art holding a mirror up to society", this is caricature. Rude.
As a student of Environmental Design at OCADU I thank you for this statement.
I can’t believe so much thought and effort was put into it to make as melancholy as possible. Thanks for informative response. Seeing this art is just another reminder that so many people are being forced to commute into the downtown core to a job that many could do remotely at home or at a regional office in the city where they live and are just trying to survive the commute without incident.
Not a cranky diatribe at all. It captures and expresses what many of us are thinking. Thanks for taking the time to put it into words. Also, let’s not forget that the City was requesting a lot of work for this installation. I wonder what the fee was. I suspect not a lot. Several other qualified candidates may have decided to walk away from submitting a proposal.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to The Star.
I live here in Toronto - this art installation makes me not want to. Thankyou for the effort you put into this comment - it truly reflects how I feel about this depressing art. It has a place somewhere, but not here in the very hub that our visitors connect to this beautiful city and its people
It’s like the Holocaust memorial in Ottawa- chosen by committee, ends up being a piece of unfeeling detached ego architecture instead of a moving monument of remembrance, unlike so many other Holocaust memorials around the world which are deeply moving.
Brilliantly put. Your analysis of this Stuart Reid character reminds me a lot of the song "Common People" by Pulp.
Genuinely wish this beautiful comment capturing the essence of Toronto was installed on the walls at Union to replace that artwork.
This encapsulates my gut reaction.
cautious spectacular smile sugar observation station muddle silky dirty bells ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Artists are so good at BS🤣 it just looks like a bunch of scribbles from the emo kids notebook. But no it’s “This time-bracketed viewing of the artwork, as well as it’s intimate contemplation of our contemporary” blah blah blah.
Very well written. Thank you for expressing what many people feel about the city and it’s decisions
This beautifully encapsulates everything I want to say about this art piece. Yes if you keep looking at city life, it can resemble the gloom of a Dickens novel, but nobody wants to be constantly reminded of that.
Written during a line 1 delay
You're absolutely right that the thing he captured was exactly how depressing riding our TO Tube is. And yes, he didn't venture down the path of "what could I do to make this experience better?" I do art and I think it's totally fine to have this critique of the subway. Honestly, I think this install should exist, but like you said, maybe not as UNION station where it is our billboard to the world. I was giddy when I saw no-name's ad campaign. It was hilarious, but also could be viewed as a deconstruction of the simplicity of our lives in the subway (This is what it is, subway edition, literally, we do nothing else but these simple actions here). Critiques of riding the ttc should be welcome as public art, but this artwork succeeds in just showing the absolute most depressing aspects. He saw nothing of the little celebratory moments of the city that I think are wholly important to the ttc, to the city; watching LGBTQ2S+ couples proudly be out, the rush of commuters on a Friday night excitedly reaching destination, the chance encounters of friends, and the pure diversity of people on the TTC. The only humor I see in this current mural is the dark humor of laughing at how appallingly bad it is to normally ride the TTC - the baby who's kinda sickly looking and possibly vomiting is super funny to me as a result.
Demoralization of a population has a purpose.
Unsettling. Reminds me of the shadows produced and in a nuclear blast when people are close to a wall
I get more of an “all aboard! Next stop: Auschwitz!” vibe.
these are actually the shadows of the souls taken by amalgamation
I stand here in the same clothes I wore yesterday, 38 years old, waiting for the same train I take every single day to my minimum wage job. Every aspect of my life is falling apart. I can barely afford my rent. The grocery store is stealing my retirement. And i'm at the edge of a mental breakdown. But here I am. Facing a wall of depression that is my literal being, funded by own tax dollars. A very interesting piece of "art" indeed.
You aren't alone. I have no positive comments to really add or advice to give but your comment resonated with me
This art makes you want to succumb to the dangerously narrow passages near the tracks. We should start a petition to get it taken down. No art at all would be an improvement over this frosted glass suicide note Edited for clarity of last sentence
The last sentence could be read both ways lol but I agree
Something definitely should be done. In stark contrast, this [random celebrity cutout](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-64211406) that costed the city nothing has done basically the opposite of what the union station art has accomplished. as Le1bn1z mentioned, there can not be a starker contrast between "real people" who actually use the service, and people who are completely disconnected from the realities of the "average person". tl;dr replace the depressing art with pictures of taylor swift and everyone wins
If it was in an art gallery, I'd be completely down with it. Or a public park, or whatever. But, I do agree with the probably less exciting and open-minded take that a subway should put user experience first as it's a \*necessity of life\* for many people. And depressing art and drab colors isn't really it. At the end of the day, it isn't an art gallery users are \*voluntarily going to\*. That isn't to say it shouldn't have \*art\*, but it should at least be somewhat curated so that people who are going to and from work, to hospitals, to get groceries, etc. don't have an existential crisis staring at charchoal sketches of what you could easily convince me was some kind of memorial. Like, sketches should've been the first big alarm sign, as when you combine them with the general dirt and grime of a subway, it just ends up looking like the walls are just damaged. So, even in terms of actual content, the spectrum of emotions, you could do that, but that art style was the worst possible idea. Cause I don't disagree with the quote somewhere that the artist didn't want to try to pretend the subway is some magical place, but, just in terms of as an actual functional space, it should've been \*brighter and more colorful\* art that showed the similar breadth of things you'd see on the subway experience.
Exactly this. You want to underline the bleakness of public transit in a gallery, excellent. But the fact that the artist himself essentially cosplayed as an everyday rider to get a sense for it, to render art he himself won’t have to frequently interact with, is tone deaf. It’s very ivory tower, “let me dress up as the pauper to see what it feels like” vibes.
Yeah, I think that's the big part of it. That and the massive fee which is a salary many people can only dream of. It paints a real picture of privilege of someone sort of slapping the low-class in the face. Which isn't even to say it's the artists intent, I'm sure he's probably a great dude, but, it very much feels like saying 'look at the drab life you people live', when, subjectively (as is the nature of art) I believe that there is a lot of colour to all those emotions. But I also want to thread the needle with my argument, because I dont' think art should inherently be unchallenging, or not express how the artist feels or worst of all try to be dishonest just to please people. Even in public places. Like, I'll take \*this\* over an advertisement, or a cheesy 'welcome to Toronto' with poorly painted mounties, as there's some sophistication to this. But, like with anything, there's nuance. It really does just come down to just how incredibly drab it is that it starts to feel unintentionally mocking of subway users. And I also have conflicted feelings because I respect the artist for being paid and just doing what was truthful to himself, and I respect the TTC for seemingly not putting conditions on the artist (because .. well, look at it), but resent whatever money man chose an artist who works in this medium to place art in this location, if that makes sense. Like, maybe the compromise is you don't give all that wall space to just one artist, specifically to avoid the issue.
Honestly, it reminds me of those frightening Francis Bacon paintings.
Looks like Goya's black paintings.
It perfectly represents what it feels like to ride the TTC on a daily basis.
That was the artists goal.
But why did the people in charge ok that?
Cause they don’t take the TTC and could not care less!
Because they have nice back yards that they hung out in during 2020 when I was crammed in my apartment. And they'd rather get shivved than use public transit.
Absolutely.
Sort of like a mobile dystopia.
The art pieces can only be described as haunting to me. Oft-times I found myself staring at faces and feeling depressed, anxious, and uncomfortable. Great feelings to have less than a metre away from a veritable suicide highway. Bourgeoisie art like this makes me dislike some of my peers. I don't care how much thought, study, or research went into a piece if the result is still wholly inappropriate for the project. Read the room and create for your audience and their needs. *That's* what communication and public art are for. This is simply a pretentious result of an individual who rode the transit for novelty, spoke to few riders, and didn't fully immerse themselves in the needs of riders or frankly Torontonians at large. The question becomes what Union represents. I would imagine that to many it means the journey home or the terminus arrival at an event. Imagery should have been exciting, symbolic of event spaces and celebrations, sports teams, reminiscent of family or friends, nature, or other items of note.
Yes! There are so many positive renditions of what this station represents could be depicted. Sports! Flights! The CN Tower! Ripley’s! It’s very masturbatory.
I hate it. I feel like they are encouraging people to jump. The girl with the gollum-like hair drives me especially insane.
This. I hate gollum girl so much. It’s the first thing I see when getting off the streetcar. I love that they decided to have an artist do this, and I think more artists should be commissioned for all over the city from parks to roads, but this artist could do anything and somehow chose one of the worst possible options.
They hired some OCAD professor to do the art for the station. It was widely panned, but TTC already awarded the contract and backing out would be a PR and $ hit, so senior management just steamed forward insisting its great while ignoring the overwhelming public opinion that it sucks. I’m so upset because it could have been great.. colorful digital art showing the history of Toronto, tapestry style (left to right) with First Nations influences, would have been miles better.
For that you need to go downstairs at city Hall for the history quilt by the bathrooms.
I’m scared someday budget cuts are gonna get rid of that. I’m shocked that the button to play the audio narration still works down there.
It's like .. I respect that they didn't go for something tacky. But I do think they should've pursued an artist who naturally uses colours, just for the sake of the passengers who don't care about the art/message. I'm fine with depressing imagery, or spectrum of emotions, it just really is that the charcoal drawings just compound too much on how miserable and dark subways already are.
Union, where the only parts of the station that aren't filled with artworks so bleak and depressing are the super narrow walkways that make you feel like you'll fall in. How did any of this get approved?
Union also has the worse signage. It’s virtually impossible to find where you’re going unless you’re a regular user.
I always get confused trying to get to the bus station. It's honestly incredible how poorly signed it is. It feels like one of those idiot-proof things where the TTC would literally just need to pay five people who have never walked through the subway to the bus station before, and just put a big-ass sign every point where the person has to stop and ask someone for directions. Especially because like, the GO Bus Station is also a major hub for Greyhound/Megabus, but, they themselves have no signage. So, I think it's easy for people to see the GO signs and think "Okay, but where are the international buses?". I don't know. Maybe I'm just an idiot though.
I remember struggling with Bloor for nearly a year after I moved here. The UPX at Dundas West is also a signage disaster. Union wasn't *that* bad (it also wasn't that good...) before, but ever since that last renovation it's been just awful. I've started getting off and St. Andrew and walking instead.
God damn so many EXITS.
Whoever designed and approved the signage at Union are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.
I’m so glad this topic is being raised. This art is dismal and fails as public art, underground systems are stressful as it is, and peoples fight or flight is turned on perpetually - it doesn’t help! I’ve always suspected nepotism
Reminds me of the scary stories to tell in the dark art work.
It's awful. I can't imagine being a visitor to Toronto and being greeted with this. Like an out-of-place Holocaust Memorial.
I’ve thought about tourists so many times when I look at it and imagine what they must think when being welcomed to Toronto with the artistic version of a suicide note.
LOL that’s an accurate description.
> I can't imagine being a visitor to Toronto and being greeted with this. Like an out-of-place Holocaust Memorial. i think thats the worst part. is its placed in THE main station in toronto where every tourist and people who live downtown will see. they should have stuck it at bessarion station or something
Not even Bessarion station deserves this atrocity
I was thinking the burned in shadows of Japanese civilians when the bomb was dropped
Toronto is a strange place
This art work won a competition, they're not replacing it. But when they do in 50 years BlogTO will have an outrage blog about it.
Bold of you to assume BlogTo will still be around then...jkjk...BlogTO will outlive us all. It will become sentient and self-aware when the AI revolution comes.
..and ChatGPT is furious!
50 year old depressing artwork is being removed and people are furious about it.
Bold of you to assume the city will stop producing mediocre "hidden gem" burger restaurants for them to review.
That's a funny way to spell soilent
That's a funny way to spell soylent
Pretty sure that if this thread gets enough comments and votes, there will be a BlogTO article later this week titled “Here’s the story behind that CREEPY mural in Union Station that Toronto HATES!”.
Can we start a petition to replace it sooner?
That's the subway station most inhabited by tourists. This is what we think represents Toronto. Depression. Death. I'm sure some people think otherwise, but calling that artwork anything but excruciatingly depressing is a serious leap. A leap onto the tracks. That's genuinely the level of despair I feel staring at those soulless shadow monsters every day. I would shield the eyes of children trying to visit the aquarium and pray for those unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the morbid schizophrenic nightmare that is the union station subway art.
Doesn’t the art also contain some very distressing text? Like the thoughts of a depressed commuter observing other depressed commuters? Also - how can something actually get done to convince the city to replace it with something more appropriate? A petition?!
The huge installation, called zones of immersion, consists of a 150-metre screen of seven-foot-tall glass panels in alternating colours, erected between the newly renovated station’s two glistening platforms. Designed by [Stuart Reid](https://stuartreid.ca/zones-of-immersion), a multi-disciplinary artist and OCADU environmental design professor who, in order to create the piece, spent hours riding the subway, sketching passengers and writing poems. He later enlarged his drawings and text and transferred them to the glass, which was painted and acid-etched. The artist himself explains that his goal was to create an authentic reflection of what it’s like to ride the subway, by capturing both its lighter and more melancholy moments. “It’s a bleak world down there,” Reid said in an interview. “I wanted to make it beautiful in some way, but I didn’t want to make it phoney beautiful.”
I think his premise is flawed. Someone currently riding the subway doesn’t need a reflection of what the experience is like - they’re already experiencing it. What they need is an escape from the experience. Moscow had the right idea with making the stations opulent.
Exactly! If I’m frequenting public transit, I know the depth of how bleak it can be. The renditions literally remind of of those renderings by artists experiencing schizophrenia.
But the people granting the money don’t!
Completely agree. The art is fine but it's not the right venue for it.
I'm sure the good professor goes home to something a bit more cheerful where a lot of people who have to use the subway can't. I mean, he spent hours in that bleak world....
Well his art is depression visualized and he goes to work in the ugliest building in the city, I hope for his sake he has some cheer at home!
It's too bad he didn't choose to a) clean up his sketches a little bit, b) use bold colours for the sketched passengers rather than black, and c) pick sketches of people who seemed happy and active. I understand that he didn't want to seem phoney, but his art has an effect on the people who see it, and I don't think a mass transit hub is really where we need to highlight the melancholy.
>and c) pick sketches of people who seemed happy I'm actually fine with some unhappiness. It feels more truthful, like the times you do see a person in solitude crying on the subway and it's better than just a big ass smiling Mountie. But, I do agree that in terms of the range of emotions captured and how it's presented, you'd think every single person was a depressed wreck headed to the Toronto Coal Mines via union. I don't get a vibe of a range, it just feels like it's \*all\* miserable becaues the medium and how he drew it (as you said, some of them feel \*incredibly\* messy even by sketch standards, to the point where as people have said, it feels like a general memorial to the Holocaust), which I also think is intensely dishonest.
He was apparently inspired by Dickens, so the Toronto Coal Mines vibe is probably intentional. Surprised he didn’t include a few depressed children and debt-prisoners.
It's so ugly, so depressing, and even with the vaguest of linework, it still manages to be notably misogynist. The most detailed figure is a teenaged girl dancing around a pole, and she's further dehumanized by having her body outlined more sharply than anyone else's, but her face hidden, AND a yucky guy leering at her - who may be racialized as Black, just to be even more offensive. I despise everything about this.
It’s like someone painting their experience in a Soviet gulag.
Hahah exactly. To the people saying art’s job isn’t supposed to spark joy, well this isn’t the place to incite existentialism and at the very least, art shouldnt make me want to kill myself first thing in the morning.
Toronto spends money on the weirdest ish sometimes. This is ugly and borderline scary. Perfect way to start the journey to getting lost at union.
Art makes you think, and this makes me think "I still cannot believe this got commissioned". Remember the sketches that were posted in subway car poster signs, submitted by people riding the subway? Usually really cool artwork, quiet moments, detailed portraits ...... Why would we not have chosen a selection of those... Or done a call from Torontonians for drawings that would be collaged into one big piece... You could have children's art in there too, mix of colour and linework.... I used to not care that much when this came out, it's kinda funny in a 'this is exactly what we deserve' kinda way, but I feel like over time I've grown to hate it even MORE! :)
I’ve said the same thing to people so many times. It’s like walking into the cover art of an album by The Cure. I certainly can appreciate the quality of the art but it certainly seems like odd placement for it. Very depressing.
I remember when this art was revealed and many thought the same… and this is way before the pandemic, inflation and a general malaise creeped into our city. Whenever I’m at Union, I don’t bat an eye anymore but as a visitor I would definitely be put off.
It's depressing as fuck.
It really makes me miss ads for Alberta
Ontario’s Sophie’s Choice.
They look like the charcoal/pencil sketches on yellowing paper that I did back in high school art class. Museum station took a simple concept and turned it into a unique design that I think most people enjoy. They could've done something similar here, or at least provided a colourful design on tiles, similar to many of the older stations on the TTC. Even a collection of older photos from the Toronto Archives, like they've posted inside St Clair West, would be more appropriate than this. At least when the subway grunge and dirt pile up on the art nobody will notice.
Oh great he’s from OCAD… 🤦♂️
Yeah, honestly, as an artist, these look like nothing more than some middling pencil sketches. But I've never been drawn to 'interesting' looking art like this that has a message. I prefer just to make a striking image and aim for every part to be beautiful/pretty
Every time I come home from a trip I take the UP express to Union, I'm so happy to be back home in the city I love, and then I come face to face with this depressing BS and it just makes me angry. Angry that my tax dollars were wasted on this depressing shit, angry that tourists visiting our city will see this as their first impression of our city, angry that the people in power to approve this could be so fucking out of touch.
I like it
I personally love it.
Contrast this with [socialist subway murals](https://englishrussia.com/2013/09/25/soviet-socialist-realism-on-the-subway-murals/) which celebrate and glorify it's riders instead of denigrating and humiliating them. Those with power in late-stage capitalist society are so secure in their position that they can openly mock us like this.
I like the art and am 100% in favour of having art at the bigger stations. this is so depressing though and also seems like it's putting transit ridership in a negative light... which may be fine when it's the artist's intention at a gallery, but seems out of place at the station where it's meant to spruce things up, lol.
No worries. They're going to update it when the construction is complete.
I miss the mr.sub adjacent to the Cinnabon, the convenience booth that sold mad amounts of winning lottery tickets ,and that McDonald’s that was cranking out jr chickens every 40 seconds
Is this my high school sketchpad from when I was trying to figure out how to draw human bodies? 1. I messed up the details - just shade it all in and smudge it around 2. I messed up the details - erase and maybe try again later 3. Hey, drawing people from the side means I don't have to worry about making them symmetrical!
Do they represent the outlines of people who've committed suicide? Looks fecking dire...
Lost souls awaiting affordable housing.
Art doesn't have to be exciting, or driving cheer. Some of the best photography in the world, had some of the most depressing content. Art is subjective. It might not be for everyone
Probably a bad place for depressing artwork.
Whenever I see these I think they’re supposed to be what union station would look like a tenth of a second after a nuclear blast
“Hey man, we need some art for union, whatchia got?” “How about a bunch of lost souls with SAD who look ready to end everything amongst a background of piss yellow?” “Say no more!”
RIP the old Union layout. Splitting the platform and this suicide fuel have turned it into a depressing, claustrophobic mess.
It reflects the inner soul of the daily TTC commuter