Sony Centre fog-and-light art competition offers $1.4 million to international artists

By Ken Smith –

A shortlist of 15 well-known international artists has been selected to compete for a $1.4 million chunk of Old Town real estate.

The artists are being considered to develop a proposal for a fog-and-light art installation in the new plaza at Yonge and Front streets adjacent to the Sony Centre L tower.

The top three artists will be provided with a stipend for the design, and the winner will be selected no later than Feb. 1. The installation of the winning piece is slated to occur in 2013. The Sony Centre has contractually agreed to maintain the fog-and-light fine art ensemble once it is installed.

The installation art will be centred in the west side plaza that will connect Peter Dickinson’s historic O’Keefe Centre with the planned iconic L Tower by Daniel Libeskind.

“The ultimate goal of the public art installation would be to use, in a unique and creative way, all elements of the history, landscape, color, movement and poetic symbolism of the historic location,” says an explanatory proposal document.

The plan proposal also appears to call for a distinguished and elaborate decorative herringbone-patterned pavement on the sidewalks and terraces and the Sony Centre’s west side plaza, encompassing much of the entire Yonge, Front and Scott St. elevations.

The pavement treatments shown in the plan are reminiscent of the renowned beachside promenades of Rio de Janiero. The proposal also conceptualizes the replacement of the west side Modernist arcade that was torn down.

In addition, trees will be replaced around the block, with five new trees on the Yonge St. side, six on Front, ten on Scott and nine on The Esplanade.

The proposal calls for an installation that will have a 24/7 presence while incorporating light and fog. Artists are asked to avoid distracting from the existing architecture while creating an impact, among other criteria.

Michele C. Quinn of MCQ Fine Art Advisory of Las Vegas has been retained to develop the fine art program for the site.

The artists’ shortlist includes Canadians Angela Bulloch, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham and Kevin Schmidt, Americans Doug Aitken, Spencer Finch, Jenny Holzer, Jennifer Steinkamp, Leo Villareal, and Lawrence Weiner, Olafur Eliasson of Denmark, Brits Cerith Wyn Evans and Liam Gillack, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who hails from both Mexico and Canada, and Pipilotti Rist of Switzerland.

The proposal concludes, “The artists will be selected based on their international recognition, ability to meet demands of the space and their complete understanding of the project, its budget and timeline sensitivities.”