Flatiron Mural | Part 1

I’m Derek Michael Besant, Canadian artist who has produced this mural you’re standing under known as the Flatiron Mural. I spent some time in the area as I always do in terms of trying to see what would work as a public art piece. I try and integrate the site, the constituents, and look long term at how these things will live and thrive. And certainly in the heart of the theatre district I wanted something that had a reference to the theatre. But I also noticed there was wonderful facades architecturally along Front Street that really looked at the turn of the century when this building was built. And somehow I had to try to work that in as well. I went around and made sketches of the different façade details, the pediments, the architectural corners. I wondered if that could be integrated somehow into it. But I also looked at the budget and I realized if I covered the whole wall that would be one issue. If I somehow allowed the wall to exist and be acknowledged, there would be a reference back to what it was. But also the nature of the scale of the thing, I had these 5 real windows. So the piece kind of designed itself, essentially. And what I’ve done is a giant curtain that’s pinned on the wall that appears to have these architectural facades painted on it as it’s unraveling. If you notice that the screws that hold it onto the wall are the kind of dead giveaway that it’s an illusion. That’s the one clue. Size and scale are played with a little bit. But certainly, when it went in there weren’t any trees planted in the park yet. And now you can see by the nature of these trees you actually come upon the mural. It’s kind of a surprise in one sense. You can see it from a distance but as you walk it disappears and all of a sudden you’re under it.

Want to hear more? Check out Part 2.

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