You may think there is an abandoned cemetery, or the ruins of a long lost Toronto building as you ride along the Lower Don River in Toronto – but what you’ve found is an art installation called Monsters for Beauty, Permanence and Individuality by Indigenous artist Duane Linklater. The piece is made up of 14 cast concrete sculptures from buildings in downtown Toronto. Short link for sharing: wholemap.com/Monsters
About the sculptures
The exhibit opened on Sept 23rd, 2017 as part of the Don River Valley Park Art Program. The artist wanted to place pieces of art from colonial buildings, built with materials from the nearby Don Valley Brickworks, along the Don River, which has long served Indigenous peoples. In this way the location IS the art – exploring the colonial impact on the Don River, with industry and mineral extraction.
Gargoyles vs Grotesques
I’m using the term Gargoyle here, even though many of these sculptures are actually grotesques. The distinction? In architectural terms, a gargoyle is specifically designed as a waterspout to keep rainwater away from the building, while a grotesque serves no specific function beyond being decorative.
What does the name of the installation mean?
The name of the installation comes from a brick catalogue published by the Don Valley Brick Works sometime in the 1920s entitled Building for Beauty Permanance and Individuality available on the amazing Internet Archive here. While there are no images of gargoyles in the catalogue, many famous buildings across Toronto are mentioned like Casa Loma, Hart House and other U. of T. buildings, or Ardwold, as well as examples in Montreal, Winnipeg, etc..
Getting to the monsters and nearby parking
The only way to get to the installation is along the Lower Don Valley multi-use trail – hiking or biking. There is no road access or parking lot on-site. You can head south down the trail from Pottery Road (near Todmorden Mills) almost as far south as the Prince Edward Viaduct and find the clearing on your left, the west side of the trail.
You can park at the Don Valley Brickworks (550 Bayview Ave), explore the buildings, ponds and naturalized area, even walk up to the lookout on the east side of the site. You can also walk west to Mud Creek, then up the trail past the site of Chorley Park – Ontario’s last Government house and into Rosedale.
It is about a 2.5 km walk from the Brickworks entrance – cross Bayview at the light, and take the multi-use trail on the east side of Bayview Ave north to Pottery Road, you’ll see the south-west trailhead for the Crothers Woods mountain bike trails across Pottery Road. Keep following the trail across the railway tracks and over the river, then follow the path on your right, south, with the river to your right. The sculptures will be on your right after a bit of a walk.
Where are the original gargoyles from?
Various webpages state that the gargoyles are from “Old City Hall, Queen’s Park, the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto’s Hart House” but I couldn’t find specific details, so I did some original research:
Gargoyle from 299 Queen Street West
I believe this is one of the “men of learning” set of gargoyles around the top of the Ryerson Press Building – 299 Queen Street West – most recently famous as the City TV building and Speaker’s Corner on the south east corner of Queen Street West and John Street.
Gargoyle from the Queen’s Park entrance of the ROM
The wonderful 1930’s addition to the Royal Ontario Museum – The ROM (with the amazing gold leaf ceiling) has four hunched-over hooded characters looking down over people as they enter the museum. Each character is leaning over a different object and represent four different arts – metal work/armory, music, literature, and pottery. The character in Monsters for Beauty, Permanence and Individuality represents music.
Gargoyle from Jarvis Street Baptist Church
The wings make this one slightly easier to pick out – one of two dragons looking out over the corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Street East – and the infamous Harvey’s across the street.
The church, at 130 Gerrard Street East was originally built in 1875.
Other gargoyles I haven’t placed, yet
Reclining man
Amazing how much character the various faces have:
Other animals
About the artist
The Canadian artist, Duane Linklater was born in 1976 in Moose Factory, Ontario, and lives in North Bay. He has worked in many artistic modes, including film and related media, performance art, and of course sculpture.