Places in a Book | Wilcox | Part 1

My name is Stephen Cruise and I'm the artist that did the commission entitled "Places in a Book: Six Chapters", 1997. It consists of six bronze elements at three crossroads along Spadina. You find them at Sussex, Harbord and now at Wilcox, where we are right now.

The first one you might be looking at is a striped pole, black and white. And what sits atop that is a sundial. The pole itself is striped to represent an archaeological device which you find in photographs to measure scale. And why a sun dial? It goes back to the history of Spadina which turns out to have been Mr. Baldwin's driveway. And Baldwin had the house that sits up by Casa Loma to the north. And as you came down his driveway, which is now Spadina, you came to a circular surround and within that was a garden. And his idea was that for all of time it would remain as such.  But somewhere along the line a great, great, great granddaughter sold it. And it later became Knox Presbyterian Church and then became Knox College and taken over by the University of Toronto.

I wanted to pay homage to what was originally there which was this somewhat enchanted garden. So the base for this piece is a set of leaves and what sits atop that is a sundial that has a cutout of a hare and atop its topmost point is a cardinal.

Want to hear more? Check out Part 2.

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