Rhonda Weppler / Trevor Mahovsky
Public works

The Commuters

2017
bronze
42 life-sized pieces, each ranging from 6 to 31 inches long
 
Installation: St Clair West Station, Toronto, ON
 
Commissioned by Toronto Transit Commission

Forty-two bronze snails, their shells taking the form of everyday objects, climb and descend the walls of the central staircase at St Clair West. All the objects are casts of things found or bought near the station, and appear as if items lost in transit: wallets, gloves, hats, an umbrella, purses, lunch kits, a busker’s violin case, etc. The staircase is reimagined as a surreal world, where the familiar and the strange, the animate and the inanimate, mingle. The work is partly inspired by Pierre Berton’s Secret World of OG, which tells of an underground world of creatures who create a culture out of things carelessly left out by human children.