Panya Clark Espinal

At This Point, 1995, installation view

At This Point, 1995, installation view

At This Point, 1995, detail (top of lighthouse)

At This Point, 1995, detail (top of lighthouse)

At This Point, 1995, installation view

At This Point, 1995, installation view

At This Point, 1995, installation view

At This Point, 1995, installation view (peering into lighthouse)

At This Point, 1995, detail (view inside lighthouse window)

At This Point, 1995, detail (view inside lighthouse window)

At This Point, 1995

Commissioned by the Toronto Sculpture Garden

mixed media, lighthouse installation; 16 feet high

The waterfall on the site sparked my imagination. Its rapidly flowing waters are mysteriously supplied through the Garden’s east wall and conspicuously disappear into a grate at ground level. Could this be a cunning diversion of an ancient waterway long buried below the urban landscape? A map of 1827 reveals that a river did once flow past this lot. Panya Clark Espinal

Inspired by the Toronto Sculpture Garden’s waterfall and the discovery that a river once flowed through the site, At This Point revived history by inserting a buoy and a lighthouse on the Garden grounds. The lighthouse was based on the historic Gibraltar Point lighthouse on Toronto Island. Through the use of lighting effects and mirrors, visitors peering through the lighthouse’s small window could see a moving stream of water running below the ground. Both the lighthouse and the buoy were illuminated at night. In her catalogue essay, Carolyn Bell Farrell writes, “It is as if peering down into the depths of this edifice, we glimpse a manifestation of a remote, mysterious yet fundamental, life-supporting reservoire…”