1. Call to Artists for Expression of Interest
PUBLIC ART COMPETITION - TADDLE CREEK PARK

The City of Toronto is holding a public art competition for a new permanent artwork at Taddle Creek Park.

The Taddle Creek Revitalization design team and the City of Toronto are seeking to commission an artwork that celebrates and commemorates the original Taddle Creek. Located at the corner of Bedford Street and Lowther Avenue, Taddle Creek Park is a small, well-used community park in the Annex, named in honour of the now buried stream that at one time ran through the core of the city.

The art production budget including all fees, materials, technologies, fabrication and applicable taxes for this project is $125,000.

For more information including submission requirements, please contact:
Andrew Davies
@ Centre for Social Innovation
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 414
Toronto, ON M5T 2C7
E-mail: adavies@andrewdaviesdesign.com
Telephone: 647- 284- 4581

Submissions must be received by October 1, 2007, 4 pm.

Ettore Sottsass, “Carlton” room divider, 1981. Image: metmuseum.org

2. ETTORE SOTTSASS

He’s not Canadian, but he is one of VoCA’s favorites. 90-year-old Italian architect Ettore Sottsass, founder of the 80’s design movement Memphis (in our opinion vastly underrated by the general public) is showing:

*NEW WORK*

September 19 - 27 October.

Created over the last three years, this body of work has never been shown publicly in its entirety. It marks the culmination of a series of limited edition furniture and glass works that Sottsass has spent the last fifteen years designing which have rarely been shown outside of museums.

The glassworks, Sottsass’ first in five years, combine various shapes and colors into his most intricate and dynamic exploration of the material. Sottsass first began working with glass in the early 1970s on the Venetian island of Murano. Fascinated by its pre-formed fluid nature, glass became his most artistic vehicle for experimentation with color and form, and remains so today. Contradicting prevailing modernist conventions, he began using wire and glue to assemble pieces together in the mid-1980s. This now iconic method is employed in many of the works in the new collection.

Ettore Sottsass, Cabinet No. 54, 2003. Image: businessweek.com

One of the most significant counter-forces to modernism in the history of design, Ettore Sottsass has made monumental artistic contributions to every decade since his life in design began in Italy in 1945. His remarkable career has produced a provocative body of work, including architecture, furniture, industrial design, glass, ceramics, painting, photography and a wealth of writings. With this work he has consistently intellectually and aesthetically challenged the conventional wisdom of forms and proportions for over 65 years.

For more information on Sottsass Associati, click HERE or, if that’s not available, read about the Memphis Group HERE, or visit Friedman Benda Gallery HERE.

‘Super lamp’ created by Martine Bedine for Memphis Group. Image: design-technology.org