She Rules with Iron Stix

A little research into the girl with the Stop Harper sign revealed the following - a contemporary political performance artist.

Willie Cole: making stuff look like other stuff

The Thinker, by Willie Cole

Some similar sculptures as these are in the AGO:

Speedster, by Willie Cole

Shine, by Willie Cole

two shoes

Theoretically wearable, but stupid-looking:

Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs

Not at all wearable, but awesome:

Guo Pei Winter 2010 collection

If you couldn't see the Asian influence, take a look at this:

omg four arms (what is she doing with her fingers?!)

Pictures from Fashletic

another architectural shoe

It took me a good 3 minutes to figure out how to fit one's foot into this shoe. Upon realizing where the heel goes, I can't imagine this would be comfortable or even stay on one's foot. Why can't people design comfortable shoes? 

John Hakes' Mojito shoe

a model wearing a more wearable but less sleek version of the shoe

kinetic sculpture

where will they not put advertising?

I was somewhat intrigued when I bought a coffee this morning and found that there was advertising on the sleeve. Although I can appreciate the clever marketing scheme (my attention was indeed drawn to the radio station ad enveloping my delicious coffee), if ads were regularly on coffee sleeves (or worse, the cups themselves!) then I would probably pay little attention.

And anyways, stop putting sleeves on coffee cups. They're completely useless and even counterproductive in the winter when half the lure of coffee is the warmth of the cup /rant

Giuseppe Penone

I'm rather disappointed to have heard that the Giuseppe Penone sculptures in the AGO's Galleria Italia are being replaced with a new exhibition this month (possibly already), although I wouldn't be surprised if Penone wanted his trees back. I would too if I were him. I made sure to take photos of the space before it changed.

Penone sculptures on left wall

View of Dundas Street from inside Galleria Italia

Penone is awesome because he actually carves into tree trunks and creates inner mini trees. He also snatched up this fallen tree from the Palace of Versailles after a storm and took it all the way to Canada. It won't be easy for the AGO to beat this in the next exhibition.

Guiseppe Penone at work

Come up to my room @ the Gladstone

Shrine Dedicated to the Memory of Demolished Barns and Fallen Trees by Lubo Brezina and Scott Eunson

By Groundwork

The following was probably my favourite thing - a warped facade of a room, made of thread. I overheard the artist talking about this work and she said that although the room appears generic, it was based on her actual room. She also said that her training was in drawing, not textiles, and she was essentially trying to draw with thread. 

By Amanda McCavour

Sorry if that's you...

Moose made of stickers! Awesome.

A peace sign made of many tiny toy soldiers

This is also pretty neat. The following is from her statement: 


This work is hand painted silk mounted on plastic discs. The two layers of portraits are created from photos of Chinese-Canadian women including myself. On one side, images depict the time these women were in China. On the other side, the images depict the time these women were in Canada. The layered images create the feeling of the two identities merging together.

By Xiaojing Yan