cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  

This story began two years ago during the period of Covid19 social and physical distancing. After months of isolation, the only safe places where my wife and I could meet our 4 year old granddaughter was outside in open places like the Cherry Beach Park, or park around Brickworks in Toronto.

On one of those walks she found a piece of dry bark and asked me:
– “Grandpa, could you make something out of this?”
– “Yes.” I answered. “What would you like me to make for you?” – “A reindeer.”

And so a reindeer was born. Or should I say, re-born. As coincidence would have it, when my daughter was young I invented a bedtime story for her starring a reindeer, and not an ordinary reindeer, a green-haired one. Here is an excerpt from that story:

“In a country far away (or very close just around the corner) there was a reindeer living in a place where nobody liked him. People chased him away, nobody wanted his company. He wandered, pondering why until one day walking by a lake he noticed his reflection. The reindeer had green hair, hair like nobody else.
. . .
Under the surface of the lake, the reindeer noticed a beautiful underwater town. He dove down to get a better look. The people of the town looked just like him, but also nothing like him. Many had green hair and others hair of various colours. They greeted him with smiles and he felt happy and free.
. . .
Now ahead of them lay a task, to transfer that sense of mutual acceptance to others, above the lake’s surface. To explain to them that the right to be different is a basic human right.”

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Proposal for DesignTO Project - PDF document
Proposal for Brick Works Project - PDF document
Proposal Therapeutic Art Installations - PDF document

We are considering our stories part of our art activities. Here they are, for now they are available on Serbian, original language they were written, but very soon you will find them translated on English.
Originalna verzija price Zelenokosi Jelen - Srpski - PDF document
Jos jedna prica - Covek Koji je Pravio Zmajeve - Srpski, PDF document
Prica o crvenim vratima - Stiska Br. 15
O rodjendanu - sa Tasmajdana

This is how this project was started. Through the use of natural, recycled materials, I am creating minimal or no waste in the production of this artworks and honour the potential found in organic materials all around us. Several dozen of these pieces were produced so far an I am planning to continue making them in the future.

Toys vary in sizes between 20x15x10cm [~8x6x4in] for the largest to 8x6x5cm [~6x3x2in] for the smallest. Each is carrying singular perspective, equal, reciprocal and interconnected.

I would like to see them displayed on the transparent polyester shelves. One singular shelf is approximately 70x20cm [27 1/2 x 8 in] wide consisting of maximum of 6 in one set, attached among themselves and to the ceiling with decorative strings.

As Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous person, distinguished professor of Environmental Botany, Director of the Center for Native People and the Environment, said: “It was trough the action of reciprocity, give and take with the land, that the original immigrant become indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to the place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”

Primary interest for my previous work was analysis [psychogeography] of public urban built environment, the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to cities and beyond to contemporary urban ambiance, that I am calling “postmetropolis”.

Ambiance significantly changed in past 2 years to include adaptation to the changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and we are more and more relying on our personal inner space. We hope to find better practices and more sustainable ways of living life and fulfilling our needs.

I am thinking along the positive side stories of so-called eco-modernists more then ever needed in this challenging time.

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CONCLUSION: Social and physical distancing, Covid19, Equity in public space, Sustainability, Reciprocity, Resilience, Climate Change, Social Equality, Environmental protection, Participation, Nature, Right to be different, Placemaking, Public Urban Art, Psychogeoography, Observation, Perception, Omen Urbis, Genius Loci, Urban Forest, Better Future, Anti-monumental Public Art, Creativity in all of us. . .

       
    cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
green hair reindeer #01 green hair reindeer #02  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair dog #01 yellow hair cheetah #01  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair giraffe green hair bull ferdinand  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
green hair bear no hair dog jara  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair unicorn green hair lama  
    cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
pink hair girl in a puddle and the chair green hair fiery  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
stick man with green head band monument  
     
multi coloured bird green hair tukan  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
green hair dragon, 2 wheels, 11 legs, 2 wings 1 granddaughter + green hair dragon, 2 wheels, 11 legs, 2 wings  
     
  girl with multicolour hair girl with multicolour hair  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
gruffalo's child with stickman gruffalo's child visiting girl with the pink hair  
    cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair bear reaching for the fossil up on a tree green hair salamander  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  multi colour dragon/ship/machine with participant with his computer deda self portrait  
     
  green hair unicorn dragon/ship/machine - observing area of "first 10 blocks in Toronto"  
     
  well decorated green hair elephant well decorated green hair elephant carrying scarred observer  
     
  ohhh ohhh participant is down  
     
  I am fine, don't worry plexiglass shelf with all the toys as of may, 2021  
     
  well decorated green hair elephant on the educational trip observer ignoring his dragon/ship/machine exploring typography  
     
  green hair elephant, green hair raindeer, dragon/ship/machine & observer green hair elephant, green hair raindeer, both confused  
  socrates, red hair octopus   socrates, red hair octopus  
  socrates, red hair octopus socrates, red hair octopus  
     
  person/house. get in if you want person/house. get in if you want or go up on the roof terrace  
     
  new character in our collection, fox with trace of green hair fox with trace of green hair + sketch by grandaughter lumen  
   
       
  cayo coco, native plants, so far green   cayo coco, native plants, so far green  
  cayo coco, native plants, so far green – bird cayo coco, native plants, so far green – lizard  
  cayo coco, native plants, so far green   cayo coco, native plants, so far green  
  cayo coco, native plants, so far green – turtle cayo coco, native plants, so far green – lizard & turtle  
     
  green hair raindeer visiting a la place de terreaux in lyon   green hair fiery visting charlottenburg courtyard in berlin  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
       
  .......myPsychogeography-book by urbansquares.com...  
urban squares initiative is licensed under a creative commons attribution-share alike 2.5 canada license.  
   
  Last time updated on March 13, 2023