Art Stroll: Ai WeiWei and Graeham Patterson

After work last week, the weather was nice so I thought I would catch up on some art installations in downtown Toronto.

At the moment, until August, the famous, controversial Ai Wei Wei has an installation of sculptures at Nathan Philips Square. Based on the Chinese Zodiac of Animals, known mainly to North Americans as a form of fortune telling found on place mats in Chinese restaurants. Dependent upon the year you were born, you possess the similar personality traits of a particular animal.

Each of the heads are placed on poles on the exterior of the Square's large fountain.

I am a horse so I tracked down this sculpture first.

Meh. Can't say I liked the horse. (Boring...)

Ah, the Dragon was much better as was the Rooster. But maybe they were a better subject to work from.

Most were cute to say the least. Rather family friendly.

Look at the cutey wooty Rabbity wabbity. As the sculpture's are by Ai Weiwei, they have an underlining political argument. Apparently they are based upon works originally created by Jesuit missionaries in China and were later taken (i.e. stolen) by the Europeans in the 17th century during the Opium Wars. Like most contemporary art, you don't really get that story by looking at the art, but by reading an essay about the work. Nice for the summer...

...I continued my walk to Brookfield Place to see Graeham Patterson's Stockpile, an interactive artwork made as part of the Luminato festival. While I have yet to participate or attend any Luminato event, it is good that more of the events are interactive and are free to the public this year. (Personally the ticket prices have put me off most Luminato events).

Stockpile is based on popular mechanical claw arcade games.

Children and their parents were lined up to play for $2. Using what looked like an Atari joystick, the children would move a strapped human within the cage. The human would then attempt to grab a toy from the 'stockpile' using two long sticks.

It seemed that most of the children were winners, although there were some walking around with official "Loser" certificates. To quote a man from the audience, "It seems like there are better odds with this game." It was a lot of fun cheering the claw on and the children were happy with their toys!

Taste Test: Q Kola

Up until a week ago, I haven't been much interested in blogging. I'll blame it on a spring funk. Now it is summer, things are looking a wee bit more exciting!

Welcome a new pop/soda taste test: this time it is Q Drink's Kola, purchase at that so-called "organic" store in my hood with a freaky amount of American products, and few Canadian.

Booooooo.

Let's ignore the fun factor that there is stuff I have never, ever, ever, seen.

Remind me next time to wipe the sugar
off the table before I take a picture.

Q Kola comes from Brooklyn, NYC and comes in a very pretty bottle. I chose this particular flavour because of it's Christmas spices (I am a sucker for cinnamon, ginger and clove).

The blurry white writing says stuff like extracts of cinnamon,
clove, coriander, kola nut, lemon, lime, orange and nutmeg.

Thought it would taste rather weird. SURPRISE! It's yummy and tastes, wait for it, like a non-super sweet Coca-Cola. It made me think, "hey, maybe these actually are the ingredients in Coke, they are just hidden by all the sugar!!!"

Not overly spicy. Not overly bubbly. Not overly sweet. Mmm. This is really good!

Q Drinks comes in seven flavours: lemon, grapefruit, tonic, kola, club, orange and ginger. Maybe I would try the lemon next or grapefruit. Their website has a short complete history on the creation of carbonated drinks and locations on where you can purchase them (sorry Canucks, there aren't that many places for us, but where I purchased mine wasn't on the list so there is hope you may stumble on it).

The company was created after the owner had one to many inferior gin and tonics and decided to make his own tonic. Well, woot woot to that! Maybe I will try the tonic to mix it up with some gin. It is summer after all.