The Vessel | Part 1

My name's Ilan Sandler. I'm the artist who created the vessel that you're looking at in Taddle Creek Park. The Vessel's made up of 4 kilometers of stainless steel rod. The reference to 4 kilometers was the length that Taddle Creek River ran from the park down to Lake Ontario.

When you look up to the top you can see a large pipe that's running around the rim of the piece. It's perforated with about 180 holes through which the water is flowing in the summer. As the water cascades down over the object it hits the piece, which creates a certain amount of resonance and then drains into a catchment basin for later irrigation of the park.

Taddle Creek, from what I gather, ran for millennia. It ran through what is now Toronto from Wychwood Park southeasterly through Taddle Creek Park along Philosopher's Walk and then eventually meandered down to Queen and Parliament and then down into Lake Ontario. It was dammed up in the late 19th century primarily due to pollution, but prior to European settlement it had been of great importance to the Anishnabe people, an Ojibwe speaking nation. And there's evidence of a long history of using it for sustenance. So I wanted to make an object that could somehow transcend particular groups or nations and become emblematic of human civilization as a whole.

The intention was to make an object that was both there and not there at the same time, something that you could see but also see through. And in looking through it you were able to relate the park itself to this lost river.

Want to hear more? Check out Part 2.

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