Sisters (2024)

There was a fleeting time during the Vietnam War Draft when creative people migrated north from the United States to Canada. Many of them settled in Toronto, which they enriched in ways that are still conspicuous half a century later.

At virtually all other moments in the lives of these two sibling nations, brain drain has surged notably in the opposite direction: Toronto’s artists, thinkers, and visionaries have moved and continue to move to America.

Ominous and emancipatory in equal measure, The Border has played as large a role as anything in shaping the scenes, ambitions, and psychology of Toronto’s art and culture. This relativity mindset, in which two very similar cultures are infinitely compared, can exert a stronger influence on local artists than financial investment, public demand, or exhibition space.

Commissioned by ERA Architects for the ‘Toronto the Good’ event

Saturday June 1, 2024