Forever (Bird-Botanicals) Celebration

The Diane Wolfe Lecture

Celebrate the Community Arts Space presentation Forever (Bird-Botanicals) with lead artist David Constantino Salazar and participants from Workman Arts, who contributed to this collaborative community project. The installation features 500 individually hand-sculpted, wall-mounted pieces produced in red clay and created during Salazar’s month-long residency at the Gardiner.

Join us for a special performance by Adrian Gordon Cook, who will mirror the installation through a physical exploration of sound, including magnetic tape loops that go through a journey of deconstruction and decay as Cook manipulates them in real-time.

Adrian Gordon Cook is a Toronto-based composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist. Having studied composition, electronic media and music history, Cook’s work is largely inspired by early minimalist composers. Often contemplative and understated, his music shifts subtly between sonic texture and colour. adriangordoncook.com

David Constantino Salazar is a Toronto-based sculptor with a Master in Fine Arts degree from OCAD University. His research focuses on the double intended messages in traditional fable stories. The allegories in his work invite the viewer to reflect on the human experience through traditional animal-based narrative. Salazar’s studio practice is highly focused on the tradition of hand modeling clay and the fabrication process of casting in bronze, resin, or ceramic.

An Ecuadorian-Canadian artist, Salazar examines the confluence of his symbolic and ancestral roots as a South American and his daily life in Canada. A recipient of multiple residencies internationally and domestically, Salazar has represented Canada at the International Biennial of Asuncion (Paraguay) and completed the Studio Research Residency (Flora & Fauna) in Tiradentes, Brazil. In Canada, he was awarded the AKIN Studio Residence Program at MOCA Toronto and has been invited to the Creative Professionals-in-Residence Mentor Program at OCAD University.

His public commissions include Carnival, Rio de Janeiro (2012) and the Spadina Museum, Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2015). In 2015, he was commissioned by First Capital Realty Inc. for two permanent public art sculptures in Georgetown, Ontario. Salazar is currently working on Hogtown, a public art commission to be installed in Toronto’s west end neighborhood Parkdale.

Workman Arts is a multidisciplinary arts organization that promotes a greater understanding of mental health and addiction issues through creation and presentation. They support artists living with mental health and addiction issues through peer-to-peer arts education, public presentations, and partnerships with the broader arts community.

Workman Arts Participants: Althea Knight, Gladys Lou, Tk Workman, Amber Reid, Jean fode, Ysabel Tuason, Taryn Lee, Victoria Brecht, claro cosco, Stephanie Avery, Mei Chan-Long, Susana Meza , Gregory Fortnum, Natalie Boon, Lorette C. Luzajic, Kristine Maitland, V Vallières, Corrine Darvill, Colette Vanier, Claire Mercer, Anja Sagan, Bo Tran

Supporting Sponsors

Susan Crocker & John Hunkin