Artifacts
In the winter of 2020, I visited Allied Properties’ Toronto headquarters. I asked the receptionist if he might speak with a company representative about Allied’s Make Room for the Arts
Program, since the press release gave so little information about the substance of the program. While waiting, I leafed through the displayed coffee-table publications about artists, urbanists, architects and “creative visionaries”.
At a moment when the receptionist was distracted, I stole the dust cover of the topmost
of the coffee-table books. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is written by
urbanist Jane Jacobs, who was one of the first geographers to advocate for the importance of arts and culture to the health and vitality of urban environments.
To situate the role of the city as an intermediary between Allied and the artists more visibly within this exhibition, I reached out to City of Montreal representative for Cultural Services
Michèle Picard, who had also represented the City during the negotiations between Allied and Pied Carré. I asked Picard to contribute to this exhibition through the act of hand drawing the book cover I had absconded with. Picard declined.
The book covers shown here replicate the stack of books in the reception area of Allied’s headquarters. The top book cover once sat in Allied’s Toronto offices.