Artifacts
Allied’s corporate head office is located in Toronto’s former garment manufacturing district at Richmond and Peter streets. The high-rise office-tower has been constructed directly on top of an old factory. The red brick artifact of industrialized labour is encapsulated by the ultramodern glass and steel cage, and aestheticized by its frame. According to Allied’s website, the new construction “intensifies an under-utilized site, rehabilitating the existing urban fabric and creating new, high-performance commercial spaces”*. The office reception on the 17th floor offers a panoramic view of the city skyline.
As part of my research, I reached out to Allied CEO Michael Emory, who put me in contact with the Allied representative recently made responsible for the Make Room for the Arts Program, Jo Flatt. The conversation with Flatt honed close to the company’s positive optics, according to which working with artists is a “win-win” for Allied. As a souvenir of this conversation, and as a contribution to this exhibition, I asked Flatt to take a simple smartphone
photo of the view from the Allied headquarters overlooking the skyline of Toronto and its former garment manufacturing district, a request that Flatt declined.
This curtain was repurposed after the exhibition’s close, to be used by galerie CLARK as a
privacy curtain during install and deinstall periods, applied to the glass doors between the gallery and the Allied-branded interior-facing corridors.
*https://www.sweenyandco.com/news/the-best-of-city-buildingin-toronto