Nuit Blanche 2024: Fragmented Devolutions

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TORONTO (Sept. 26, 2024) – A space in Toronto’s pre-eminent historic arts and culture hub will be transformed into a protest chamber featuring a massive swirling patchwork copper meteorite and a quilt mock-up embroidered with picket slogans.

Rocky Dobey and Julie Mollins, co-creators of the temporary art installation on show at 401 Richmond from sunset on Oct. 5 to sunrise on Oct. 6, 2024, offer viewers an opportunity to contemplate the consequences of homelessness.

Fragmented Devolutions alludes to the patchwork approach to addressing the homelessness crisis worldwide. Globally, the United Nations estimates 100 million people are homeless.

In Toronto, more than 10,500 people are experiencing homelessness, defined as lacking access to minimally adequate housing. The number of tents set up by unhoused people in encampments grew from 82 in 2023 to 202 in 2024, according to city data. Encampment locations grew to 72 from 24 over the same timeframe, yet residents remain at risk, vulnerable to eviction by the authorities. Currently, there are almost 90,000 people on the waiting list for social housing.

The Nuit Blanche installation aims to shine a spotlight on economic disparity and how the lack of affordable, publicly owned housing impedes our ability to build communities where everyone has a home offering safety, security and independence. 

Fragmented Devolutions at 401 Richmond St W is part of Toronto’s overnight art festival Nuit Blanche. The overall theme this year is “Bridging Distance,” featuring ideas on how we experience distance, and how art can “bring us closer to the thoughts, feelings and experiences of others outside of our immediate geographic, social and political realms.”

At 401 Richmond, the theme is Built for Art. The rambling building will feature a plethora of exhibitions, installations and performances by local talent and artists from international destinations. Creative exploration awaits Nuit revellers for an experience that highlights a diversity of cultural practice and showcases the iconic address that continues to transform Toronto’s cultural landscape.

This is the third Nuit Blanche collaboration for Dobey and Mollins. Last year they produced Sword to Plowshare, designed to highlight the consequences of war and food insecurity. In 2017, Casting Yarns: Forest-Street Disequilibrium drew attention to the harsher aspects of city life and the potential for rebirth amid urban decay.

With embroidery assistance by Emily Honderich and lighting design by David Hoekstra.

About the artists

Rocky Dobey’s artistic practice focuses on redefining the urban environment through a political lens. He typically articulates his vision in street art and political posters (ie: “Anti-globalization – Quebec 2000;” “Reclaim the Streets;” “Prison Justice;” “Anarchist Gathering – Toronto 1988”). He has been installing street art in Toronto and other Canadian cities for almost 40 years, since he began producing street posters and graffiti in the mid-1970s. In the mid-1980s, he installed painted billboards depicting political parodies on abandoned buildings. He has installed concrete sculptures, street-post mounted books and political historical plaques around Toronto streets. His most recent art is etched copper plaques bolted to street posts.

Julie Mollins is influenced by the irony in fairy tales. Through art, craft and the written word, she tells stories about people in difficult situations confronting economic hardships, environmental challenges, struggles against social injustices, or facing significant barriers. She produced art and craft as a theater prop builder and jeweler working at the Stratford Festival, National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Stage and other companies. Her pastel drawings were exhibited in Mexico, and her photographs appeared in a group art exhibition in Stratford, Ont. Although she is acting independently in this context and represents only herself, since 2020, she has worked as a communications consultant for several World Bank agriculture and environment projects. Previously, she was a journalist with Reuters news agency in Toronto and the UK, including the former Reuters humanitarian news website AlertNet.

David Hoekstra is an acquisitive props master and builder for hire whose work has been seen in almost every theatre throughout Toronto over the last 30 years. David has also been the props master for George Brown College Theatre School since 1997. Known for his extensive collection of antique electric toasters, David also restores vintage stage lights and has a fondness for ray guns.

Emily Honderich is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Toronto. She creates media artworks, paintings, and drawings. The media she works with include acrylic, oil, watercolour, digital illustrations, charcoal, knitting, crochet, rug hooking and weaving. Her art related education includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Integrated Media from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She has also worked for years as a freelance graphic designer for The Shoe Project and eRose Graphics.