Jameson Ave, 2011 (3:06)
The photographs for this animation document my experience observing two densely populated blocks of mid-20th-century modernist apartments on Jameson Avenue, a street in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale that I walk nearly every day. I wanted to make something generally considered to be banal and homely into something beautiful and strange. There is a widespread perception that the street is another 1960’s urban renewal failure, a hindrance to gentrification, and aesthetically incongruous with the rest of the neighbourhood. The street undoubtedly has problems, but it is also a successful neighbourhood in many respects. It offers stable housing to long-term residents and waves of new immigrants. There is heavy foot and car traffic, which enlivens the area and encourages more people to socialise outside. Most buildings also have lobbies that are often decorated like living rooms. People meet and talk in these lobbies—they act as an ancillary to the individual units and are somewhere in-between public and private space. On the whole, it is an example of people living together, mostly tolerating difference, and making the built environment work despite its flaws.
I’m interested in how people adapt architecture to meet their contemporary needs after the initial plan has become obsolete, and how stigmatised spaces and places can come to hold meaning and memory for the inhabitants. With this in mind, I’m intrigued by Jameson Avenue. On an evening stroll you encounter a corridor of lit-up windows that give the street a colourful beauty that it lacks during the day. This project focuses solely on the lit-up spaces, showcasing not the architecture and the street, but evidence of the lives of those who make this place their home. Ultimately, the purpose of the project is to encourage the viewer to see the street differently and to regard the mundane in a new light.
