Blue Gwen MacGregor WADE 2004
WADE wade , curated by Sandra Rechico and Christie Pearson in conjunction with YYZ Artists’ Outlet, started in 2004 and now happens every other year. For one weekend, Toronto’s 100 wading pools are turned over to artists. As they build projects in, with and around each pool, an innate sense of meaning and importance of place develops for each site. Parallels between the city, the pool, and the public, raise awareness of pools as public domain. Wading pools relate to both a neighbourhood scale and a city-wide network, and com- bine recreative potential, the childhood experience of wading, and the cultural implications of the park. The projects empower communities by asking them to engage in a manner often a-typical to a wading pool site. People wade through pools filled with rose petals or clear plastic bags of water, stamp wet wool into felt; in one pool, sound compositions are generated by waves created by the waders. As the original intent of each work becomes modified through public participation, the audience is added as author. wade con- siders art as a social process in which we can all participate, contributing to the life of the park and the city as a cultural construct. Pools turn into places of wildlife, community and congregation. Toronto’s identity as a collection of communities is emphasized and its diversity celebrated.
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