The 45m by 25m park landscape is defined on the south and east sides by Lake Ontario, on the north side by the Canada Malting Grain Silos and between these edges by six new oak trees, located immediately south of the silos.
figures have a different impact. Materially they appear almost to have staggered out of the wall. They have also been distorted and generalised in a manner that universalises the suffering of crop failure and starvation. The act of turning memory to stone is extremely difficult. Ireland Park has the power necessary to invoke that memory. An internet image search yields many photos by people who have passed through the park and have been moved by it. The park succeeds because it is accessible to those who respond to the evocative abstraction of the wall as well as for those who prefer memory to be packaged more melodramatically in sculpture. Both elements are mutually reinforcing and together create a moving and contemplative place on Toronto’s waterfront. /
Behind the wall and close to the silos is a cylindrical glass block tower. While reflecting the shape of the silos, it appears far too small and perfect. Intended as a representation of contemporary Ireland and its recent high-flying high-tech economy, the challenge is that the technology embedded in the cylinder will require constant upgrading to retain its technological ascendency. Straggling across the lawn are a series of sculptures by Rowan Gillespie. These gaunt attenuated ‘arrival’ figures are a companion to similar ‘departure’ figures on a quay in Dublin. At first glance the sculptures reminded me of the figurative sculptures placed near the Vietnam memorial in Washington – figures that create a false moment in the memorial. However the Ireland Park
location: Bathurst Quay, Toronto client: Ireland Park Foundation architects: Kearns Mancini Architects landscape architect: Quinn Design Associates sculptor: Rowan Gillespie contractor: Kenaidan Contracting stone mason: Trinity Custom Masonry
On Site review 24
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