In January 2023, Simon Pope was selected as the 2023 waterfront artist-in-residence by The Waterfront BIA and Waterfront Toronto.
Over 2023, Simon Pope used a range of mediums to explore the relationship between the waterfront, movement and memory.
"The ways in which Toronto's waterfront district is understood as a place – not in the sense of it being a unique geographical location, but as the result of the mobility of people, ideas, and things – in other words, through its relationships to elsewhere."
Simon Pope
Within Simon Pope’s theme of ‘place’ and inspiration by the people who work, live, and play on Toronto’s waterfront, Simon Pope hosted four temporary public art installations:
Pop-Up Performances
Altro Posto (Performance Corridor)
Granite Soundscapes
Walking To Work Newspaper
Pop-Up-Performances:
Stills from 'Wave of Memories' pop-up performances
Stills from 'Wave of Memories' pop-up performances
In September 2023, Simon Pope debuted a series of pop-up performances called The Wave of Memories.
The Wave of Memories performance series was inspired by conversations Simon Pope had with people who work, live, and play on Toronto’s waterfront.
"The result is that the venue is alive with spoken narratives and out-of-the-ordinary gestures; full of different voices, and of movement; and of descriptions of other places"
Simon Pope
A cast of five actors from the Soulpepper Theatre Company performed from the script of conversations.
The performances were featured at The Harbourfront Centre and George Brown College’s Eastern waterfront campus.
You can learn more about The Wave of Memories performance series here.
Altro Posto - Performance Corridor At George Brown College
Inspired by Bruce Nauman’s ‘Walk with Contrapposto’, Pope hosted a series of walks on George Brown’s campus, capturing participants walking down a corridor while talking about other places on film.
"Here, I play on this idea of a shift from one place to another, from here to there, with our body walking within the corridor, while our mind wanders elsewhere."
Simon Pope
You can watch the Altro Posto film here.
Granite Soundscapes Along Queens Quay
Since 2021, Torontonians have eagerly awaited the opening of Love Park, a dedicated space inviting visitors to rekindle their relationship with nature. And in June 2023, Love Park was officially open to the public.
During the construction of Love Park in 2023, Simon Pope explored how Toronto’s waterfront is shaped by materials from elsewhere. Simon Pope focused on the walkway granite and traced Love Park’s granite to its quarry in Quebec.
Simon Pope travelled to the quarries in Quebec, recording the sounds of processing granite “To experiment with how we might hear the sounds from elsewhere “beneath our feet” as we walk on the sidewalks along Queens Quay East & West.”
Visitors can listen to the soundscapes by scanning the QR codes installed along Queens Quay.
You can learn more about this project, Double Reflective, here.
Walking To Work Newspaper
To mark the conclusion of Simon Pope’s artist-in-residency, he produced a 16-page newspaper featuring quotes, documentation, and reflections on his year-long residency.
You can find the digital version of the newspaper here.
About The Waterfront BIA
Representing businesses along the Queens Quay corridor, the Waterfront Business Improvement Area (WBIA) is committed to supporting businesses, unifying the Waterfront and engaging the community. Activities of the WBIA include representing the area on key policy and advocacy issues, making targeted public realm improvements and highlighting the area’s vibrancy with activations and daily promotion online.
This article features content from Waterfront Toronto’s article, Looking Back at the 2023 Toronto Waterfront Artist Residency and images from Simon Pope’s Walking to Work website.