24” X 19” X 25”

Bronze

This building captured my COVID attention because I got a lot of time to stare at it during lockdown. I fixated on the ghost sign, the unique shape, the mish mash of colour and became intrigued by its history. Every detail is a monument to the different lives and eras the building has lived, and to the years it has survived encroaching urban development. It was a family grocery store in the 1800’s, and morphed into restaurants, tea houses, rooming houses, and fast food joints. And of course, it was the site of one of Toronto’s most notorious murders. When the early signs of demolition started to appear, I couldn’t shake the idea of the building disappearing without a trace. The Buckingham Cigarettes ghost sign that outlasted both hand-painted advertisements and legal tobacco advertising turned into a pile of marked bricks.

Bending the rules of what is permanent and what disappears has always been one of my favourite things about working with bronze. So here's to another 100 years for old 306 Davenport.