By Lianna Shen
October 10, 2007
On a rainy day, Regent Park is quiet and grey. There is not much to see but the buildings themselves, and if a monument is a symbol or reminder of what a place stands for, then these buildings themselves could be monuments. The dirty, unwashed windows, tattered curtains and clotheslines hint at the low standards of living that the residents of Regent Park live with.
There really isn’t much to see here. Each street is indistinguishable from the next – you would probably get lost in the maze of buildings if you were not clear on where you’re going. But there are a couple of turns in the road that just might catch your eye.
A block east of Dundas and Parliament, on the south side of the street, there is a multicoloured wall mural depicting the multicultural neighbourhood that is Regent Park. It spans the width of four wall panels. There are religious symbols from Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. There are dark-skinned portraits of young people, some wearing the red yellow and green of the Caribbean. A globe takes up the entirety of one wall, surrounded by holding hands of different colours. What a monument it is.
Just up a couple blocks north by Jarvis Street, there is another mural. This one is for the children – smiling, happy children, painted with vibrant hues of turquoise, yellow and pink. This mural scales the side of a community center.
Looking at these works of art, it would be hard to say that it is the work of vandals. Calling it graffiti is proper, but it almost implies that the murals were executed in a rebellious nature, with negative intentions – but this is far from what seems to be true. The cultural connotations suggest that it is not segregating, unlike works of graffiti in the past that served as a way for gangs to mark their territory. The phrase “choose the right path” is emblazoned on one of the murals, and this is far from the illegible scrawls of tag names that are frequent in random pieces of street graffiti.
The City of Toronto introduced the Graffiti Abatement Program a few years ago. The multi-faceted program aimed at removing graffiti from city and private properties, and then youth and local graffiti artists are hired to reface the areas with “attractive” murals.
The murals in Regent Park are probably not spontaneous acts of graffiti. It is clear a lot of time and planning went into what would go on these walls, and what message the murals are supposed to get across.
Some of these murals are a breathtaking sight. The artistic technique, detail, and colour is astounding. Nonetheless, you would never find one of these in an affluent neighbourhood. Other areas of Toronto where you can find these refaced murals are Jane and Finch, West Scarborough, Ossington, and the Harbourfront Community Centre. These areas are among those that the city deems “troubled”, and thus, worthy of a colourful wall of art.
While I, personally would be thrilled to have the side of my own building enamored with a piece of vibrant art, I’m sure other residents in my building would feel otherwise. It seems that however well thought out a work of graffiti is, it still holds the stigma of inner-city problems and street culture, which is undesirable for middle to upper class neighbourhoods. This is why you will never find a painting of four Caribbean men on the side of a building in Rosedale.
Click here to see and read about more graffiti:
http://www.toronto.ca/graffiti/graffiti_transformation.htm
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