We went back for the last day of Art of the Danforth, especially looking to revisit Wing-Yee Tong’s YARN GOODS: Trading Post. We had something to trade, and as it turned out, so did Wing-Yee.
During our previous visit, swapping yarns, of course, Wing-Yee and Danica discovered that both of them had original first names that they had abandoned for a while in favour of “Canadianized” names. When we returned today, we discovered that Wing-Yee had added a little tag to her installation (top left).
Below the names on the tag, you see a drawing of a doily. The two women had been discussing the traditional arts of crocheting, embroidering, tatting and so on, so that became the art theme for the tag. Very appropriate, because Danica was returning with some family doily work to hand on to Wing-Yee. We know she will do something creative with it.
So we came home with the tag and Wing-Yee accepted our gift in return. She also told us about an art game across the street, where we could try to throw styrofoam balls for prize photos. I flubbed out, but Danica came away a winner, holding her prize photograph, nicely mounted and inscribed on the back.
The Midway Collection © 2014 Amelia Jiménez Ron Edding
The photo Danica received may be a reminder of this winter’s ice storm, because a large dead limb is cradled between the branches of a surviving tree. The two photographers made prizes of photographs shot in the neighbourhood (formerly known as Midway) and created a fun way to distribute them back to the locale from which they came. We thank them and will soon frame Danica’s prize photograph.
The “midway” pun wasn’t lost on me. Photogs Jimenéz and Edding were obviously inspired to create their ball-tossing game by carnival midway stalls like those at the CNE. The neighbourhood they used
for their images was once called Midway, as Wikipedia explains:
Midway was a name given to the open land north of Dundas Street and Kingston Road (an approximation as there were no distinct boundaries in place) between Toronto’s city limits of Greenwood Avenue and the Town of East Toronto. As its name suggests, it was the midway point between these two townships. The area consisted primarily of farming land, much of which was vacant.