By: Karen Doradea & Melysa Mezzapelle
Winter Stations at Kew Beach in Toronto has been available to the public for a week and already hit a bit of a rough patch.
This is the fourth annual Winter Stations at the beaches, with seven curated pieces that the public can interact with. This year’s theme is “Riot”, in regards to the current societal climate across the world.
Pussy Hut, Revolution, Rising Up and Make Some Noise!!! are just a few of the pieces that can be found, while other structures are currently in a state of disrepair.
Obstacle and the Wind Station structures are under reconstruction after experiencing damage.
The Wind Station was broken into pieces and scattered across the beach.
“As it was a ‘see-through’ sculpture the wind shear was minimal, and its incredible weight and its proximity to the lifeguard stand made it a very highly unlikely structure to topple over,” said Jim Collins, Winter Stations’ administrator.
“We did find pieces were missing and discovered their charred remains in the fire pit – which is very close to this piece,” Collins noted.
“A passerby today, while we were taking away pieces, said she saw some teenagers ‘whaling’ away on them late Saturday,” Collins added.
However, Collins said that they are unable to definitively say whether or not it was an act of vandalism. It is possible that it was a “combination of wind and less than desirable human interaction.”
Kien Pham, the mind behind Obstacle explains the inspiration behind the piece stemmed from this year’s theme.
“It led me to think not only of the bursts of emotional and physical reaction such as we see more frequent and powerful recently but also of our response to everyday life’s struggles – which sometimes is as big a battle as anything,” said Pham.
When asked about the reconstruction, Pham said, “The team let me know about the reconstruction this morning actually. Both me and them can only guess what was the actual cause. But whatever the reason, it’s quite positive that they are remaking it – quite fitting to this year’s theme.”
Construction workers could be seen fixing structures early Monday morning.
According to Collins, reconstruction will take a week at most before the pieces are back up and ready for the public.
Winter Stations runs until April 1, 2018.
To see the exhibits click here.
