It’s not just that Mayor John Tory spoke at her launch on Oct. 23, or the crew of TV cameras and well-wishers vying for Charlton’s attention. Her photo, which spans 3,000 square feet and rises 70 feet high, reigns over the downtown Financial District, veiling the façade of a Bay Street commercial tower under construction. “Untitled” is the largest installation to date selected for Toronto’s citywide Year of Public Art initiative, and it’s a traffic stopper.
Although the portrait photographer never anticipated that her image, shot in her Mississauga living room during COVID-19 restrictions, would ever been viewed on anything other than a phone, it has a larger-than-life presence, especially on a street mostly associated with suits and ties. A Black woman, dressed in swathes of tulle, stands with her hands on the shoulders of male twins, attired in similar shades of the airy fabric, with matching pearl chokers around their necks. All three look directly into the camera with a regal formality, demanding attention from passersby.
“It wasn’t a big production,” says Charlton, who couldn’t conceptualize how tall seven storeys actually was until she saw the building in person. “I thought it was just a little experiment at my house.”
Her photo was selected in a competition by Dream Unlimited, which owns 330 Bay St., along with seven other historical buildings in the Financial District as part of the development company’s strategic plan to revitalize the downtown corridor. At the unveiling, Tory spoke about how the photo represented a sense of “rebirth and renewal” for the “economic heartbeat” of the city. Maybe so, but for me, the event heralded a talent to watch.
Charlton, whose portraiture celebrates the nuanced experiences of the Caribbean-Canadian diaspora, describes herself as a shy person. “Photos are a way to express myself,” she says. “When I shoot with someone, it’s a collaboration that feels intimate.”
Often Charlton’s subjects are her friends, or people she’s met over Instagram. For “Untitled,” which was shot on medium-format film, she was approached by stylist Georgia Groom via social media. They put together a team, including the three models. Surprisingly, it was the twins’ first modelling gig (though I’m guessing not the last). Charlton created a general mood board, which helped guide the colour palette and composition, but “usually the way I work is experimental and super organic.”
Bay isn’t the only downtown street that’s received a much-needed artistic intervention with a commercial boost. Over at 175 Bloor St. E., “Maria,” a new four-storey mural by celebrated artist Daniel Mazzone — well known for his mosaic pop-culture portraits — is a striking reminder of the women whose faces are too often remain invisible.
Mazzone was approached by Klick Health to produce a piece to celebrate the marketing agency’s title sponsorship of the Shoebox Project for Women, a non-profit initiative that collects gifts for unhoused women.
His intricate mosaic of a woman’s face encompasses many stories. Growing up, Mazzone learned the art of stained glass from his artist mother, a skill which he applies to his own multimedia works. Although one might be forgiven for thinking his art is digitally produced, it is in fact hand-created using many materials, such as vintage magazines, newspapers and other ephemera he has picked up on his many travels.
Embedded within “Maria” are portraits of groundbreaking women such as Dr. Shirley Jackson, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — her scientific research is responsible for many of the modern communications we use today.
“I like to tell stories,” Mazzone says. “A lot of the characters that I use when I tell stories are people I find inspiring, because they also had rough upbringings and challenges to get where they were.”
The Shoebox Project carries significant personal meaning for Mazzone, as both he and his mother have spent periods in their lives without a house.
According to Glenn Zujew, Klick Health’s chief people officer, the company has been supporting the Shoebox Project internally for the past four years, and was looking for a monumental way to announce the company’s larger commitment to the cause. When he approached Mazzone to contribute an artwork, he was unaware of how personal the project would be for the artist.
“It’s important for me being in a position than I am now, to help give back or create awareness to great causes,” says Mazzone, who recalls early memories of his mother while she was staying in a shelter just a few blocks away from Klick’s tower. “I mentioned to her that I was doing this, and I didn’t even know she already donates to the project.”
Mazzone hopes that people will pause and spend time with “Maria,” in all her glorious and hidden details, and not be so quick to judge those living on the street.
He says, “I always used to think, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if the story of your life was told on your skin like a tattoo?’”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/entertainment/visualarts/2021/10/30/vast-fresh-faces-art-initiative-brings-new-visual-perspectives-on-a-scale-impossible-to-ignore/charlton_untitled.jpg)
