Since Thursday i had the whole day pretty much to wander, i decided to take advantage of being blocks away from AGO. The Art Gallery of Ontario. The Ontario College of Art & Design also happened to be on the way. Quite the arty area. On the way, i spotted this mural on the side of a building facing a parking lot. Kind of look like the car is going to get washed. If you look real close, you can see the brick facade of the building.
When i got to the AGO, i went in the completely wrong way... but no one stopped me. Basically i went through a side door where i ended up in the basement cafeteria. I followed an old couple back up to the main floor. Once there i was greeted by one of the volunteers who handed me a map of the gallery. She then introduced me to a gentleman who explained the picture(s) above and below.
Frank Ghery had taken on the job of making some enhancements to the AGO building. The above picture gives you a slight taste of how he incorporated his work into the existing building's structure.
If you haven't guessed already, what you are looking at is a free floating, spiral staircase. Frank laminated wood together and used several other techniques to manipulate the wood not only into a functional use, but is also sculpture in of itself. Perhaps i have true artists and architects screaming that this is simply an architectural wonder. Fine, but you have to admit, it also has a sculptural feel to it. As if this organic shape was simply escaping it's gallery-walled cocoon. Maybe you don't see it in these photos, but the next ones you might see more of what i'm thinking.
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