Legendary feminist artist, Judy Chicago is bringing pyrotechnics to Lake Ontario as part of the Toronto Biennial of Arts (TBA).
Entitled, A Tribute to Toronto, the display will celebrate the conclusion of the visual arts event now in its second year, and will see Chicago create her first smoke sculpture in Canada.
Taking place at Sugar Beach on June 4, the prolific artist is set to release a series of environmentally safe, non-toxic coloured pigments from a structure on a barge. In the air, the pigments – in shades of white, yellow, green, blue, and purple, mix with the air and sunset to create a myriad of changing colourful effects, resulting in an immersive effect for viewers.
In an effort to feminize the male-dominated California art scene of the late 1960s, Chicago executed a series of increasingly complex firework pieces that involved site-specific performances around L.A. Over the next fifty years, Chicago would go on to create dozens of these pieces, guided by the principle that colour is a metaphor for emotive states.
“Colour is the through-line in my work, whether ephemeral or explored in more tangible forms such as paintings or sculpture,” she said. “Colour is a doorway to many aspects of the human condition.”
According to Judy Chicago’s website, A Tribute to Toronto works against the tradition of male land art artists whose work imposed itself on the earth. Instead, Chicago’s performance offers an alternative and impermanent approach that merges colour with landscape to increase awareness of the beauty of our natural environment.
“Judy has been a long-time fan of our city having first exhibited her iconic The Dinner Party installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the 1980s,” said Patrizia Libralato, Executive Director of the TBA. “Her return to Toronto with this work [A Tribute to Toronto], provides an exciting opportunity for our community and the art world to experience art history in the making.”
The free event will take place on June 4 from 8:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
