Brain Wave - Distillery District

Summer 2016 - Toronto ON

I'm continuing my Brain Project.

A Brainy Idea - City Hall - 19 to date

DISTILLERY DISTRICT - 7 to date

Click here to see more photos of the Distillery District.

In Joseph Drapell’s eyes, the brain is our treasured Tree of Life, generating our astounding understanding of science, art, security and sense of human rights. Yet the demands of work often reduce our opportunity to enjoy the splendours of life, making us seem technocratic, even robotic – yet we all are born human. The poetic life is intruded upon by a cold rationality. Only the child, the ladder and the milk bottle are shown as unaffected. We harm our planet with waste. Our access to the realm of art is not easy, the ladder is too short. The snake belongs to our narrative. Excessive concern for material things can often lead us astray and diminish our individuality.

Agreement is an exploration of how the brain and the world process one-another. The ratchet of evolution has shaped the brain to parse the universe, so the structure of the universe is in some ways physically encoded in the workings of the brain. The hemispheres deal with input differently, and their interplay shapes conscious experience. A pattern stretches across the surface of the model brain, finding a dominant angular or curved expression in the left and right hemispheres respectively. The pattern is continuous in some ways, but not symmetrical. There is agreement between the two sides, but not sameness.

Ron Wild is a western-Canadian Digital Artist currently working in downtown Toronto. Wild is known for his extreme mapping montage technique which he uses to explore the divide between art and science. A healthy human brain is able to plan for the future and strategize ways to get there. Playing games is known to exercise our ability to make decisions and solve problems. We learn best when we are having fun, improving our skills at calculating odds and taking risks. A competitive gaming environment can make it exciting to exercise our brains and improve its functioning. This colourful brain design, entitled Gaming, celebrates the value of gaming in our lives. It visualizes the range of mental functions that are exercised when we play games. Gaming can build a stronger, healthier brain.

New York-based Canadian contemporary artist Bradley Hart has applied his passion for paint to Wrapping the Purple Brain, employing an arresting combination of silver nitrate, paint and resin to the brain sculpture.

Inspired by introspection, empathy and the psychological and physical properties of reflection, this piece explores the creation of dimensionality and perspective in reflective surfaces. It situates a person in relation to others so as to reflect human closeness and separation. Onlookers are integrated – their unique perspectives, schemas and fragments of experience creating malleable and ever-changing reflections. The encompassing environment propels consideration of what is seen and the implications of an apparent closeness to others. This design aims to convey awareness of oneness, otherness, humanness and both the fragmentation and unity of the self.

Emanuel Pavao was inspired by a personal family experience. His grandmother suffered from memory loss and he saw firsthand the devastation that it had on her life and everyone who cared about her. He realized that our lives are made up of our memories. Pavao depicts the power of memories through the symbol of Polaroid pictures. He shows that some are colourful and vivid while others have disappeared like an undeveloped image. When a brain is affected, a life is affected.

The inspiration and subject matter for The Conscious Traveler derives from the exotic travels of one of Kleinburg, Ontario’s most avid world-wanderers, Joseph Gottdenker. From the jungles of central Africa, where leopards lurk on slinky branches, to the sun drenched plains of Giza and the Thai Temple Gods who protect the Royal Palace of Bangkok, the sculpture pulsates with the insatiable wanderlust of its muse. It’s a testament to a man always on the move in a world that’s rich with visual stimulation.