On a Sunnyside Mourning

Part of the Queen West Art Crawl, On a Sunnyside Mourning encompasses seven performers dressed in 1920′s attire reenacting a beach scene for Parkdale’s glory days. Slowly, four of the partiers, including Mendes, will be buried in gravel turning the performance into tableau.

Mendes isn’t sure how long they’ll remain entombed in rock, but says they are all intense performers. She just hopes it won’t rain.

“We’ll still do it. It’ll just be really messy, really dirty. Gravel in the rain, ugh. I really, really hope it doesn’t rain. And if it does we’ll make it work. I think it will be quite beautiful regardless.”

Although the piece is meant to recall a forgotten time and be an homage to Parkdale, it’s also about the consequences of development. It’s a pertinent topic for Mendes and Labspace Studio, given its location in Leslieville.

She looks at today’s Parkdale with its tight knit community working to build up what they had lost as inspiration to preserve Leslieville. With her neighbourhood rapidly gentrifying and developers at the bit for big box development, Mendes hopes people in her community can learn from Parkdale without having to face the same loss.

“We all know development is happening all around us, but in order to counter that you do need a strong sense of community. That’s what makes Parkdale so strong—that sense of community.”

On a Sunnyside Mourning will be enacted on Sat September 13 and 14 starting at around noon at Cowan Street Playground and Wading Pool behind Toronto’s Gallery 1313.

Pages: 1 2