BenchMark: Persistence of Liberty Village and the Toronto Factory Carpet Building Paintings

BenchMark Blogs: the Art Benches of Liberty Village

If you have missed the previous posts explaining the Liberty Village Benchmark program and the art benches we have located in our village go here to fetch them all and read the earlier posts.  This is the 15th post in the series which features the art benches of Liberty Village.


The bench I am presenting today is located on the north side of Liberty Street between Mowat and Fraser on the south side of the Toronto Carpet Building complex. It is bench number 2 on the Benchmark Map which can be accessed here. Titled "Persistence of Liberty Village", it was created by Renata Mohamed and is sponsored by Allied Properties, who own a number of properties in the immediate vicinity. It is the last bench I will write about in the series until the LBVIA adds some more pieces to the inventory - I have now covered all the benches.

The bench itself looks fairly unremarkable from a distance, with 8 metal disks that are embedded in the horizontal boards of the bench being the only distinguishing feature. As I sat on the bench and carefully examined each side of the disks I noticed that they spun on an axis and were inscribed on each side. As I looked at each disk, I contemplated the meaning of the piece.

The top left disk has the inscription "Thaumatrope The name of this optical toy comes from the Greek word meaning wonder turning ". And on the other side was inscribed "Through persistence of vision, spin the disks to embrace the history of Liberty Village".

There is an interesting animation of a thaumatrope on wiki here. So one is supposed to derive some image, a combination of the images presented on each side during the persistence of vision experienced as the disk is spun.

I had quite the challenge trying to photograph the disks and finally gave up save for the one shown here. As I cannot show you a picture, let me describe each of the disks:




On the top board on the bench from left to right
Left: as described above
Middle: On one side an upside down stylized question mark and the other contains a triangle
Right: A street sign image (above) and the other side "Liberty Street"

On the middle board:
Left side: A simple partial sketch of a dove and on the other side a cross hatch pattern which might suggest jail bars
Right: A rough image of a maple leaf and on the other side the words "World Wars"

On the bottom board:
Left: A thimble of thread and on the other side a laptop
Middle: "www.lvbia.com" and on the other side "Learn about Liberty - Liberty Village Business Improvement Area"
Right: "for more info visit" and " copyright 2006" and "www.renatomohamed.com


Certainly most of these elements are very relevant to Liberty Village and if you have been reading my Liberty Village blogs you will know why but I am not sure about the question mark/triangle one though... Any ideas?

Make your Own Thaumatrope Anyone?

To learn how to make a thaumatrope go here.

More Liberty Village Public Art

I wrote about the Carpet Factory Building in this BenchMark Post some months ago. I did not do justice to the building but instead focused on the history of the building and the Bench sponsor who are the current owners. Today I would like to show you some of the art that is painted on and around the building.

The first two photos are of the most noteworthy painting on the side of (of course) the Toronto Carpet Factory Building.   The second photo shows the wonderful detail. 

The next two photos are on the side of the School Bakery and Cafe Building. I blogged about this building here.  It shows an aerial view of the Toronto Carpet Factory Complex.