Daniel Borins and Jennifer Marman are riding the crest of Toronto’s transformation. Like a giant breaker hitting a ship’s starboard side, their stainless steel sculpture Wave Side crashes against an art deco–inspired condo by Quadrangle Architects. Referencing its lakeside locale just south of Fort York, the five-metre-high piece hints at what’s to come: this spring, just ahead of the Pan Am & Parapan American Games, the artists will unveil several permanent public installations.
Borins and Marman are no purveyors of plot art. In their inventive studio, the longtime collaborators–whose work includes painting, sculpture, and electronic and public-art projects–often comment subtextually on surveillance society (see their viewer-tracking googly eyes) and modernism’s obsession with all things mechanical (as in Pavilion of the Blind with its motorized blinds). In short, the multi-disciplinary pair cares about the world we live in, a sentiment that translates into thoughtful place makers.
