Reclaimed by Adrian Dazu

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RECLAIMED: 2011

Every day, cities expand and grow. Their demographics change, their economies change, their architecture changes and their cultures change. Whenever these changes happen for better or worse, people and spaces are left behind in the sprawl as they become no longer relevant to the popular culture. As space are abandoned and their original purpose is lost the people who reclaim it breathe new life into them. The articles in this zine cover different instances of this reclamation of space in Toronto and the far corners of the globe.

THERE WERE PEOPLE LIVING IN THE SEWERS. THEIR WHOLE LIVES SPENT IN FILTH AND ISOLATION. -Zezão

Zezão (38 years old) is one of the leaders of

Brazilian abstract graffiti. He grew up and works in Sao Paulo. This intuitive artist first painted with pixadores (1985), in the same crew as Boleta, another Street artist. The goal was to climb up the highest building of Sao Paulo to write his name. During a very dark depression (1993), the artist started bombing (term commonly used to describe the action of graffiti) undergrounds, in the sewer system and subterranean water ducts. He went alone and did not want anyone to find him.

THE BLUE STYLE is calm and peaceful. It’s the calligraphy he uses in the underground. The blue sign is his signature and his name: VICIO and blue colour is used as a symbol of peace.

His art saved him, as he says, and he met some incredibly poor people during this time of his life. He decided to help them by “making their life a little more colourful” and using the media (interviews) to point out a reality of those forgotten places where no one ever goes. The purpose of the socio-political engagement of his work is to reveal the existence of this misery.

THE BLACK STYLE is monochrome, influenced by digital futurist shapes of the microchips. THE COLOR MURALS is the style he uses when he paints “in crews”, with his friends. Together, they meet and paint on large walls some very colourful abstract works.

His specific calligraphy, with which he always signs his name, is an abstract representation of a water source. Driving around the city, one can also see many of his different colorful styles of graffiti, painted alone or with his friends. When he paints, he has three very different styles:

Zezao became recognized for his work in 2002, when he started to live out of his art. Photographed for many graffiti books, he is one of today’s most interviewed Brazilian street artists. He was presented to the international scene through exhibitions conducted around the world such as Ruas de Sao Paulo: A survey of Brazilian Street Art at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York or thanks to the movie Bomb it (2006). In Brazil Zezao is represented 4

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TO BE ILLIGEAL, TRANSGRESSIVE, AND TO OBTAIN THE ‘SURPRISE EFFECT ‘ OF AN ART THAT SUDDENLY APPEARS. -Zezão

by Choque Cultural Gallery. When he is abroad, he tries to meet up with the local street artists in order to learn new techniques and to paint together.

minutes max to finish you work. It is very different from the work that you create for galleries (needs 3 days to complete a canvas), in the street, you work fast, no mistake possible”.

When he was younger, he was a Pixacao, listening to hard rock and punk music and following their lifestyle (tattoos, illegal bombing, territory fight). His first influences came from New York magazines from which he would copy techniques of painting letters with latex spray.

He has a special relationship with Sao Paulo and his art is closely linked to the image of his city, its movements, density, paradox: “I love my city, I want to make this art for someone that will understand it. Sometimes I just go back to look at my works and take pictures.”

“Graffiti is like a through-up, it’s about bombing the city, it’s an attitude. You can’t just paint well, it is not enough, you have to want to transform the city.”

His attachment to helping homeless people is also very strong. When he goes to the streets where they live, he dresses up as they do and uses their language and vocabulary to communicate with them, otherwise they can become aggressive; “It’s a way of respecting them, to have a similar style.”

The “dark road” started in 1993 when his father passed away and his mother was sick. He fell into a deep depression: “I had a sick mind”. He started to go underground, under the streets of Sao Paulo, in silence and darkness. He needed to reflect in that atmosphere, alone, all alone. The underground became his medicine. He started painting those blue, round, flexible, watery forms in the emptiness of the subterranean water ducts. The places he would go to were dangerous, with dead animals and a terrible smell. The day in which he felt cured, he decided that he was ready for the light again and so, he started painting outdoors, in the light, again. He then described his experience of painting on the streets, with no sketches or notes: “The experience of the street is great; you only have 20

He creates a context for them to live in, a “house” on the wall with these blue forms: “Since they are forgotten, it is necessity to help them. They live in the worst places you could possibly imagine and no one goes to visit them.” He gave the example of a group of homeless people from the Amazonia forest that came to look for work in Sao Paulo without luck. Today, they live in the canals of the water ducts, forgotten by society. Thanks to an interview of Zezao about the family’s situation, they were taken care of and removed from that terrible place. But Zezão, Why graffiti? “To be Illegal, Transgressive, and to obtain the “Surprise effect” of an art that suddenly appears.” by Stephanie Serra

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ITS LIKE A STATEMENT. THAT YOU CAN SET UP A HOME RIGHT IN THE FACE OF THE STATE. -Adams

ALL STILLS FROM INSIDE OUTSIDE

In 2003 Adams & Itso found an unused space under the Central Station in Copenhagen near track 12 and made it into a home using only material that they found on construction sites. They created a fully liveable room with framed pictures on the walls as well as a kitchen and beds. The room was a secret for four years.

Within any large city there lies an urban sub territory that all our lives depend upon, but which we rarely pay attention to. The city is based on an extensive underground system of pipes, cables and hidden areas, which gives the city its structure, supplies and order. Since it is all located under the ground it is not often explored by ordinary people. In spite of this, the underground contains numerous hidden rooms, which easily can be used as we have seen with the work of Adams & Itso. They reclaim the urban space by finding and using these hidden spaces in their everyday life.

On February 2nd 2007 the Central Station was renovated. During this renovation the construction workers found the hidden room. They were of course surprised when they found the room, which is actually a work of art.

The use of urban sub territory can be seen in other cities. For example, in New York City homeless people live in the abandoned train tunnels beneath the streets. Jennifer Toth’s The mole people: life in the tunnels beneath New York City from 1993 discusses this very matter. In 2000 Marc Singer investigates this phenomenon in his documentary, Dark Days. The movie focuses on the area under NYC’s Penn Station, wherein lies an entire society of homeless people. However, there is a vast difference from Adams & Itso’s approach to

A couple of weeks later on February 20th 2007, the talk show, Den 11. timei , had the hidden room as the evening’s topic. The DSBii ‘s chief inspector Per Buur was the guest on the show and he spoke about this mysterious secret room that found under the Central Station. This is how the work of Adams & Itso was first communicated to the world.

the sub territory; the homeless people live in the sub territory out of distress whereas Adams & Itso do so by choice. Market economy is the engine of gentrification. Gentrification is when poor working- class neighbourhoods are turned into fashionable and restored areas. Then rents increase thereby ousting the original occupants due to the higher prices. Gentrification excludes certain groups of people. Adams & Itso criticized urban gentrification by placing their work in the most central location of the city, without paying rent. When an area is gentrified there is an increasing regulation of what is permitted at street level. This fact it also stated by the artists: “The city is shrinking – it is almost becoming claustrophobic”. By living without the use of money Adams & Itso criticize the economic-related development. “I see it as a political statement not to consume” as Adams expresses it. Adams & Itso’s anti consumer ideology and use of Free-culture is made clear in their hidden room: The work is organic, so to speak: it is created by using the city’s remains. It remains a mystery as to when it will be discovered, cleaned and made to waste again. This is also a critical comment on our affluent society where good materials are just thrown away.

ABOVE: Adams and Itso share a dinner in their new home above Copehagen Central Station LEFT: Adams shows off the view of his house the his improvised window.

The thought behind Free-culture is that the culture that we all create should not be owned or privatized by corporations: “No idea comes from solitary confinement, but builds on long traditions of free exchange, cultural production, everyday life and lived experience. The instrumentalisation of art and culture for economic gain is an invasion of our life worlds that needs to be addressed and countered.” Adams & Itso are artists who not only work in the underground, but also make a virtue out of being unknown. Interestingly, these artists have opted not to use social media such as facebook, my space or even a website. In this sense it is actually quite difficult to get in contact with the artists. When researching for this paper, three girls were very helpful in informing about their way of communicating and working with Adams & Itso in different ways:

INSTEAD, YOU WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE AND WHAT YOU CAN FIND. -Adams

Anna Thaulow was introduced to Adams & Itso by one of her friends who knew them both. She met with the artists and did a radio commentary on them. The second girl, Line Kjær, came in contact with Adams by leaving him a letter in “Hælebaren” in the Central Station. Afterwards Adams contacted her by email and they met and Adams & Itso agreed to do the show in the window of “the Office for Underground Affairs” on Christianshavn, but on the condition that the work/slide series were only available at night and that they wanted no further dissemination of their project and that they did not want to talk to the press or journalists.

Carina Liesk from the DSB-magazin Byens Puls tried many different ways to get in contact with the artists, but with no result. Then one evening a couple of weeks after all her efforts, Carina opens her bedroom window in her ground floor apartment in Nørrebro, Copenhagen and suddenly hears something at her windowsill. And there on her windowsill was an envelope with her name written on it. With the letter inside was also enclosed a picture of Adams & Itso’s new secret home.

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INSTEAD, YOU WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE AND WHAT YOU CAN FIND. -Adams

Adams & Itso’s choice to communicate is both their weakness and their strength. If the construction workers at the Central Station had not found the room then we, the public, would not have heard about it. Their concept would not have been shared. Maybe the hidden room would have appeared in a book as Adams has done before. The earlier work of Adams is passed on in his book Holes, Huts and Hidings (2007) , a book that for a limited period of time could be bought in “Hælebaren” in the Central Station. The secret aura surrounding Adams & Itso is also their force. This is a way to reduce the risk of being recuperated. Guy Debord and the Situationists first proposed recuperating in the sociological sense in the 1960’s. Recuperating is the process where “radical” ideas and images are co modified and incorporated within mainstream society.

Right now in our time we have a mecca of identity creating platforms such as facebook, twitter, myspace, blogs etc. In this time it is rare not to be found on the Internet and not to communicate. If we use the word avant-garde in the sense of just something new, I think this idea of being “unknown” is something that will be avant-garde in the future. Perhaps the reason Adams & Itso continue to be so alluring and unique is the very fact that they do not have the accessibility that otherwise characterizes our contemporary time. Adams & Itso’s world inspires people to pause and think twice about consumerism and capitalist society. In that sense it does work! With their hidden room they have produced a small glimpse of how the world could also be. This is the force of art. In it’s ambition to change society it creates these glimpses of a different world. By Julie Thaning Mikines

ABOVE: The hidden entrance way to the secret home in Central Station.

PHOTO BY ADRIAN DÀVILA-ZUNIGA 15

THERE WAS LITERALLY FIGHTS AND FUCKING DURRING THEIR SET. IT WAS THE MOST PUNK-FUCKING ROCK THING I EVER DID IN MY LIFE. - Some sweaty punk kid

First, a brief history of the Don Branch. In 1888, the CPR was granted permission to build a branch line from Leaside Junction to Bay Street. Prior to this route being laid, the CPR had no direct route into downtown Toronto. Before the Don Branch, trains from Montreal and other eastern points were required to enter the city core by following a circuitous and perilous route. Locomotives had to transverse the northern reaches of the city entirely, stopping at Leaside Junction, then moving on to West Toronto Junction, then reversing five miles into Toronto’s original Union Station.

level crossings at the time, reversing a train into a city centre was dangerous. The construction of the Don Branch was an obvious and successful solution. Freight traffic opened on the Don Branch in 1892. The following year, the railway corridor was opened to CPR passenger trains. The corridor remained in use for over a century. The final official train to travel the branch wasCP’s holiday train. That was in December of 2007. With the cessation of CP’s passenger train service and a decline of industry within the city’s core, the trains have stopped running, but the track is still in place. Getting to it by foot is possible at several locations. Considering the track bed has been out of use for years, weed growth has began to reclaim the track bed. Walking the track feels sim-

Reversing? This was because there were no curved lines leading from the westbound line to a southbound track. Considering the numerous

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ilar to viewing an episode of Life After People. It is not uncommon to observe a fox trotting beside you; on one occasion, a handsome white-tailed buck was spied grazing on sumac leaves. After about thirty minutes walking time from the Leaside Yard, the track leads to the half-mile bridge. Up to this point, on account of its secluded nature, hiking down the track, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to forget that one is actually hiking into the heart of a metropolitan city centre. The bridge provides a reminder. Gazing south and to the right of the bridge (which spans the Bayview Extension, the Don River, as well as on and off ramps to the Don Valley Parkway) is the historic (and recently refurbished) Don Valley Brickworks. PHOTO BY VICTORIA CZERNIAWASKA

This vantage point also affords a fantastic view of the downtown skyline. The track then runs beneath a series of bridges. First, there’s the Riverdale pedestrian bridge, then Gerrard Street East, and, lastly, Dundas Street East. When the local venue “the Big Bop” shut down more and more DIY venues for all ages punk shows began appearing all over Toronto. Underneath the Riverdale bridge, and next to the Don River, a section of the railway has now become one of these improvised venues for local punk and hardcore bands. During the summer, bands haul their equipment, a generator, and several cases of beer down the valley and set up a haphazard venue on the beach next to the railway. As they

begin to yell drunkly into to their mics, the crowd of punks, skinheads, high school kids with nothing to do and regular show goers begin to slam into each other to beat of the drum; grabbing and throwing each other around. They inevitably knock over lead the lead singer as they drag them into the pit, the show becoming more and more about the energy of the pit and the community rather than the quality of the music itself. As this venue began being used more and more, it became aptly nick-named “the bridge over troubled water” as it became a place where youth would gather to expel their frustrations with the world through their angry music.

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PHOTOS BY JACKMAN CHIU Traditional cave dwellings are found all over the provinces and autonomous regions of the upper and middle valleys of the Yellow River, which cover 600,000 square kilometers and have a population of 40,000,000. Three types of cave dwellings are found in Northern Shaanxi province of China. Cave dwelling is a residence that is attached with the earth and is fully in tune with nature conservation. It does not have the typical form or outline found in ordinary buildings. It exhibits an artistic aura-the natural yellow of the earth, its rough texture and its creation of living space in the cave’s interior. It is rough, unsophisticated and rich in local flavor. There are three main categories of cave dwellings: those built in the cliff, in the earth, and with stone. Cave dwellings that are built in the cliff were created out of a horizontal cave. They are set at the foot of a hill and along a ditch and undulated in height. Given the thickness of the cave walls, a hole can also be dug above the existing cave to create a “sky cave”, which allows sunlight into the cave. The cave can be connected to the

surface with a slope, brick steps, or an indoor staircase. Outside the cave dwelling is usually a small courtyard enclosed within a mud wall. It could also be joined with a stone cave dwelling to form a big courtyard house. Courtyard cave dwelling is created by digging deep into the groundforming a sunken courtyard in the ground. Then in the four walls, caves are dug to create rooms. The courtyard cave is linked to the surface by way of a long staircase, which could be placed either within the courtyard or built through the earth. The staircase comes in all kinds of design, adding a delightful touch to the cluster of courtyard cave dwellings. Stone cave dwellings are constructed using bricks and stones. The most common design of stone cave dwelling is the three-cavity cave dwelling, which also formed the basic unit of a courtyard compound. It can also be connected with a wooden house, with the stone cave dwelling functioning as the best room because it is warm in winter and cool in summer.It is said that after withstanding 1,300 years of severe weather, the cave dwelling of famous General Xue Rengui

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IN CHINA’S VAST INTERIOR, AN ESTIMATED 40 MILLION PEOPLE STILL LIVE IN CAVES. AS THE MODERNIZATION OF CHINA CONTINUES, THIS WAY OF LIFE IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING. (a native of Hejin County on the bank of the Yellow River) of the early Tang Dynasty is still in good condition. However, after long years of use, the facades of the caves can become damaged. This happens most often during the rainy season, and the villagers have developed ways of meeting this problem. Some simply cut off the facades and dig the caves farther into the cliffs. Prosperous families build eaves covered with tiles along the edge of the roof, which effectively prevents rain from running over the facade, the door, and the windows. Cave dwellings that have thick solid roofs are never cold in winter or hot in summer, their natural insulation protecting them against such highs and lows. And since they can easily be built of materials with in easy reach, they don’t occupy farmland. With all these advantages, they have attracted the attention of architects throughout the world, not to mention environmentalists who are impressed at their ecological soundness. Although the architectural style of cave dwellings are far from the conventional residential houses, in terms of the combination of space it still retains the traditional layout of a Chinese household. The northern portion

of the cave dwelling still functions as the family dayroom, and also exclusively is used as the bedroom of the most senior members of the family. The side rooms in the eastern and western ends of the house are still used as bedrooms, kitchen and storeroom of the house. The southern side is where the entrance to the house is located and also where one finds the toilet and the livestock pen. The main gate to the courtyard is constructed at the south eastern corner of the house. Hence, there are many resemblances in layout to a typical courtyard house. Outsiders often find it difficult to understand the intensity of cave dwellers’ passion for their homes, their readiness to declare that they wouldn’t trade their cave for any apartment or “spacious” modern home anywhere, including Biejing. MaJinxi, our escort, stated his unwavering loyalty to the cave frankly, “I’d rather stay home in my cave than in these modern buildings in Beijing!”It must be said, though, that not all these caves are ideal dwelling places. In fact, some of the old noes are not only lowceilinged and narrow but dark and dreary because of too small doors and windows. Meanwhile, however, living

standards of the peasants are clearly rising_and as this happens, they are building more beautiful and more comfortable caves. Doors are getting larger, windows wider and higher, walls taller and thinner. Old caves were built with roofs that arched too much so that furniture had to be placed away from the walls. Since today arches donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t start until a considerably higher wall is built, large pieces of furniture like wardrobes can be put against the wall, with much more usable space being the result. In addition, modern builders fix fanlights above the windows, which means fresher air indoors. Sadly, as China continues to industrialize and modernize more and more youth leave these communities to continue life in the city. As this trend continues, cave communities become increasingly rare, and those that are still populated are only populated by the older generations.

PHOTO BY JACKMAN CHIU

PHOTOS BY ADRIAN DÀVILA-ZUNIGA 23

THE LIFE AND DEATH AND AFTER-LIFE OF BUILDING NO.9

Forty years of economic boom and bust have shattered the industrial foundation of WestonMount Dennis. For decades, these neighbouring communities northwest of downtown Toronto flourished, with their Victorian and post-war homes, small shops and a major rail line that fed one of the most industrious parts of the city. But what was once the manufacturing backbone of Toronto – a thriving working-class hub where everything from bricks and bicycles to stoves and steel was built in local factories – is now an industrial wasteland. Companies that produced iconic Canadian products like CCM skates, Moffat stoves and Dominion Bridge steel closed or moved off-shore while subdivisions, shopping centres and fast-

food outlets moved in. Locals figure up to 20,000 jobs have been sucked out of the area over the years. Today, the landscape is one of abandoned factories, derelict storefronts and high unemployment. Youth crime is on the rise. A rash of shooting deaths and a chronic lack of municipal services have put it on the list of the city’s 13 “priority neighbourhoods” in need of attention. The 2005 demise of Kodak Canada’s photographic film and paper factory – a victim of the digital age – was the final blow. In the plant’s heyday, during the mid 1970s, it employed up to 3,000 people, most of whom lived a short stroll, streetcar or car-pool ride away. About 800 jobs were lost when the plant closed in 2006. With the discontinuation of Kodachrome, the factory was no longer sustainable for kodak.

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The whole factory was demolished with the exception of the employee centre called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Building No.9â&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Fast forward to 2011, the Kodak factory is now a decaying shell of what it once was. Over years of neglect the basement offices are now a scene out of a horror movie, with no light, mouldy floors and the stench of decay filling your nostrils. The first floor mess hall is completely flooded and the nearly all the windows throughout the entire building have been smashed out . About 100 meters away from the main building explorers will also find the burnt out remains of the security office.. This is not the end of the road for the factory however. Now it is a haven for urban explorers, photographers and graffiti

artists. Recently in 2009 an event called Extermination Music Night hosted its 11th instalment at the abandoned factory. 600 people filled the auditorium in the abandoned factory including musicians and artist. Throughout the entire night live bands played music while artists filled the whole building with their work, including some performance artists who dressed as employees of kodak began to enact their daily routine within the ruined offices. This night marked the end of the Extermination music nights as police shut

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down the party, and the organization was forced to go underground. Since then the factory as attracted a slew of local graffiti artists and illustrators , making the first, second and third floors of the building into their own personal canvases. For urban explorers, Building 9 offers plenty of thrills as well. Over the years, many of the maintenance shafts and doors have been forced open, allowing one to crawl into elevator shafts or the scaffolding above the auditorium were one false step will result in a fatal fall. In its dilapidated state today Building 9 stands as a testament to the illusion of the stability of an industrial economy.

Occupy Toronto is a protest and demonstration that began on October 15, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, near Bay Street in Downtown Toronto’s Financial District and moved to St. James Park. It is part of the international Occupy movement, which protests against economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporations and lobbyists on government.

Almost two weeks after the protest began, occupiers still maintained their presence in St. James Park with no threat of removal by the municipal government and scheduled a march on Bay Street for 1 pm on October 27. During that occupation, after the protesters had caused the backup of 10 westbound King streetcars and six streetcars eastbound, bicycle police cleared hundreds of postal workers and other protesters from the intersection of King and Bay streets.

Demonstrators gathered at the intersection of King St. and Bay St. at around 10 am on the 15 October, 2011 Global Day of Action and then moved to St. James Park while stressing the importance of a peaceful demonstration and the need to be heard as a single voice.Early numbers put the visible turnout fluctuating at between 2000-3000 participants, including NDP MP Peggy Nash, Joel Duff of theOntario Federation of Labour, and CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.After the first few hours, as the sunset progressed the numbers dropped into the hundreds.

In preparation for an indeterminable length of occupation, a solar panel was installed to provide electricity in the media tent and the “Winter’s Coming Committee” is drawing up plans to “freeze-proof” the camp. In the hours after another protest on November 2, the media reported developments of the current municipal reaction: “They’re still residing in that park against the law,” said Patrick McMurray who owns a restaurant across the street from the park. -He says he’s losing business because customers are afraid to come downtown. In response to his concerns, McMurray received an email this week from [Rob] Ford saying, “When it is determined that we no longer have a peaceful protest, but rather an occupation of the park, we will consider options to remove the individuals who are camping in the park.”

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers marched over to the intersection after lunch and met up with the protesters. After a large crowd gathered at the Bay Street entrance to the Toronto-Dominion Bank, five people entered the bank and security detained them before removing them from the branch. 32

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EARLY NUMBERS PUT THE VISIBLE TURNOUT FLUCTUATING AT BETWEEN 2000-3000 PARTICIPANTS INCLUDING NDP MP PEGGY NASH, JOEL DUFF OF THE ONTARIO FEDERATION OF LABOUR, AND CUPE ONTARIO PRESIDENT FRED HAHN.

On November 9, Mayor Ford was quoted as saying that it was time for the Occupy protestors to “move on”, citing the need to repair the estimated $25,000 damage to the grass and what could become a $40,000 repair to the sprinkler system pipes if they are not drained before winter. Premier Dalton McGuinty was reported as saying that the protest was a municipal issue and that his office would not be making decisions in relation to its presence. On November 11, Robyn Doolittle of The Toronto Star reported various comments from inside the camp, including answers to the questions of local public outrage and the prospect of being removed, to which occupiers answered: “I think the public outrage has been magnificently exaggerated. Teachers are bringing schoolchildren here all day to come and talk with us and learn why we’re here.” -and, “We’ll just come back. Our legal people are looking into this.” On November 12, CBC News reported that protesters had started setting up an occupation in Queen’s Park, which the majority of occupiers remaining in St. James Park. During the morning of November 15, Toronto Police and bylaw officers began distributing eviction notices to campers. The Yurt Library in St James Park was eventually dismantled by the police. On November 21, Bylaw officers and police, following a Superior Court judge ruling, handed out tresspass notices to those camped on church property. No clear definition as to what part of 33

the park is city owned and which part is church owned has been offered and occupiers have already made many changes to the camp to fortify it against a forced dismantling by authorities. On November 22, it was reported that the camp was smaller, but that the yurt housing the library was barricaded and had men chained to it and that the nativetent was also barricaded and the sacred fire inside continued to smoke. On the morning of November 23, Toronto Police began enforcing the eviction notice by dismantling most of the tents that still remained. The area surrounding St. James Park was barricaded to traffic. The Yurt Library was also dismantled, but protesters negotiated with police to have the books preserved, and some protesters vowed to regroup elsewhere. As of Sunday December 11th, the sidewalk at the popular hangout corner has also been home to the last straggling remnant of Occupy Toronto: a small trailer, not even tall enough for a person to stand in. A cord leads to some Christmas lights on a tiny adjacent tree, and writing on the side of the trailer reads: “Occupy Toronto Movement” and “Ask me how to make one.” Built by 36-year-old self-described “traveler and wanderer” Michael Vessery out of Conservative election signs, a reclaimed futon frame, bicycle wheels and $40 worth of screws, it was one of the makeshift shelters at St. James Park during Occupy Toronto’s encampment there. It’s now used as a “mobile homeless shelter,” lived in by artist Gregory Alan Elliot. The wheels collapsed after Occupy’s eviction.

PHOTO BY JACKMAN CHIU