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Reflections on Transparency
Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel
TPW is delighted to present a new commission by Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel.
Reflections on Transparency is an examination of the transparent barriers that have become ubiquitous in sites of retail in light of COVID-19. Born of an interest in hostile architecture, public space and landscapes that elicit particular behaviours, this investigation meditates on the intersections between the politics of hygiene and disaster capitalism.
Benjamin and Sophia’s project will be posted on TPW’s Instagram from October 8 – 10, 2020.
Biographies
Benjamin de Boer (b. 1995, Attawandaron, ON) is a writer, researcher, and bookseller living in Tkaronto. They received their Honours BA in Philosophy and Archaeology from the University of Toronto in 2018. Benjamin can be found studying the melancholy poetics of our earth lyric and exploring their openness to improvisation within a practice of group enunciation. Favouring sympedagogic situations, Benjamin currently co-directs Hearth, an arts space founded alongside Rowan Lynch, Sameen Mahboubi, and Philip Leonard Ocampo.
Sophia Oppel (b. 1995) is an arts practitioner and researcher born and based in Tkaronto. Oppel’s work examines interfaces and infrastructures as sites of power, and their influences on embodied experience. Oppel received her BFA from OCAD University and is currently a co-director of Bunker 2 Gallery, and a Master of Visual Studies candidate at the University of Toronto. Oppel has exhibited locally and internationally.
Reflections on Transparency is presented in the context of MOVEMENTS. As its title suggests, this online and site-specific program presents several projects by artists whose work references diverse definitions, experiences and enactments of movements. Bringing together a range of practices, MOVEMENTS reflects on both the intimate scale of the body as it shifts through time and space, within transient gestures and encounters, and organized actions that provoke vital, unsettling change.
MOVEMENTS is made possible with support from Partners in Art
Image Credit
Photographs from Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel
Reflections on Transparency
Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel
TPW is delighted to present a new commission by Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel.
Reflections on Transparency is an examination of the transparent barriers that have become ubiquitous in sites of retail in light of COVID-19. Born of an interest in hostile architecture, public space and landscapes that elicit particular behaviours, this investigation meditates on the intersections between the politics of hygiene and disaster capitalism.
Benjamin and Sophia’s project will be posted on TPW’s Instagram from October 8 – 10, 2020.
Biographies
Benjamin de Boer (b. 1995, Attawandaron, ON) is a writer, researcher, and bookseller living in Tkaronto. They received their Honours BA in Philosophy and Archaeology from the University of Toronto in 2018. Benjamin can be found studying the melancholy poetics of our earth lyric and exploring their openness to improvisation within a practice of group enunciation. Favouring sympedagogic situations, Benjamin currently co-directs Hearth, an arts space founded alongside Rowan Lynch, Sameen Mahboubi, and Philip Leonard Ocampo.
Sophia Oppel (b. 1995) is an arts practitioner and researcher born and based in Tkaronto. Oppel’s work examines interfaces and infrastructures as sites of power, and their influences on embodied experience. Oppel received her BFA from OCAD University and is currently a co-director of Bunker 2 Gallery, and a Master of Visual Studies candidate at the University of Toronto. Oppel has exhibited locally and internationally.
Reflections on Transparency is presented in the context of MOVEMENTS. As its title suggests, this online and site-specific program presents several projects by artists whose work references diverse definitions, experiences and enactments of movements. Bringing together a range of practices, MOVEMENTS reflects on both the intimate scale of the body as it shifts through time and space, within transient gestures and encounters, and organized actions that provoke vital, unsettling change.
MOVEMENTS is made possible with support from Partners in Art
Image Credit
Photographs from Benjamin de Boer and Sophia Oppel
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Dear Mayor Tory and Members of City Council,
As rents in Toronto continue to rise and wages stagnate or disappear altogether, many of our neighbours are being deprived of the dignity and stability of a permanent home. Gallery TPW strongly opposes the City of Toronto’s harsh response to dismantling encampments. This only further destabilizes the lives of people who have been forced into an untenable situation due our heightened housing crisis. For many people, living in an encampment is the only option.
While the right to shelter is critical for ensuring the safety of all citizens, municipal shelters have proven to be very difficult—and often dangerous— places to live. Many have lived in shelters or other institutional settings before, and their frustration borne of these often-discriminatory experiences, only reinforces doubt and distrust. Quarters are tight and accommodations are poor. COVID-19 exacerbates the situation, as the congregate design of shelters is not conducive to social distancing.
Gallery TPW stands in solidarity with the encamped residents, Encampment Support Network and advocates for greater support for all unhoused residents, including sustained investments in social services and public housing by:
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Repealing by-laws that make it illegal to “camp”
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Ensuring that individuals who are unsheltered have access to basic hygiene supplies—including masks, face coverings, and hand sanitizer—and facilities, as well as outdoor survival gear and safety equipment
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Providing increased crisis-intervention programs to help the unhoused
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Ending the practice of cluster-site shelters by replacing them with purpose-built facilities that would keep people closer to their support networks and communities
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Placing a moratorium on utility and rent payments
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Offering rent arrears grants and free legal services for tenants facing evictions
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Creating an affordable housing plan that involves moving individuals directly into subsidized housing and providing access to job and educational training
We must stop criminalizing actions that are necessary for many people. Housing is a basic human right and these laws make it impossible to live with dignity and respect. Everyone should feel welcome to utilize public space and to create community. Eradicating encampments is dehumanizing and only further serves to isolate communities who need support. This must stop immediately.
We look forward to hearing what concrete steps you will be taking to rectify this situation and how you will be addressing the above mentioned points directly.
Sincerely,
Elle Flanders
Alyssa Bistonath
Roberta Best
Rachel Boyle
Heather Keating
Dana Prieto
Magdalyn Asimakis
Solana Cain
Nedda Baba
Hiba Abdallah
Noa Bronstein
Annie Wong
Heather Rigg
Max Lester