Authors: United Visual Artists Location: Toronto, Canada Commissioners: Cadillac Fairview, Lanterra Developments, Maple Leaf Sports Public Art Consultants: Public Art Management – Karen Mills and Justin Ridgeway Dimensions: 90 metres x 3 metres Project Year: 2010 Photographs: James Medcraft, United Visual Artists, 2010
Inspired by the experience of walking through the dappled light of a forest, Canopy employs mass production and precise fabrication to evoke and reflect nature. Thousands of identical modules, their form abstracted from the geometry of leaves, are distributed in a non-repeating growth pattern. During the day, apertures in the modules filter natural light to the street below. After dusk, particles of artificial light are born, navigate through the grid and die, their survival determined by regions of energy sweeping across the structure. The result simultaneously recalls the activity of cells within a leaf, leaves in a forest canopy, or a city seen from the air.
