John Notten, a Toronto-based artist and educator, reached out to EllisDon last year to see if we could provide some waste construction material for one of his projects. EllisDon gladly provided materials from a recent demolition from the Grenadier Square project site in Toronto. Six months later, John Notten has transformed the waste materials into Over Floe, a public art project in this year’s ArtWorxTO: Year of Public Art 2021-22.

ArtWorxTO celebrates Toronto’s exceptional public art collection and the artists behind it. This new initiative supports artists and new artwork that reflects Toronto's diversity and creates more opportunities for the public to engage with art in their everyday lives, across the whole city. ArtworxTO will deliver major public art projects and commissions from fall 2021 to fall 2022.Over Floe, located floating at Ontario Place is a piece that stands out. Icebergs in Toronto? Where did they come from? As the viewers will discover, these are more than just traditional icebergs.The puzzle of these strange geometric forms is revealed only when experienced from different perspectives. Approaching from one direction, they are simply icebergs. However, in walking around them to the other side, each of the five structures reveals a contrary façade. One is that of a suburban house, another a school, a bank, a factory, and a truck.

As a result of human-caused global warming, ice sheets are melting and oceans are expanding. Cities around the world, Toronto included, have historically been located near large bodies of water, drawing from them a multitude of benefits. With carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions raising temperatures around the globe, polar ice is melting at an alarming rate causing dramatic changes in weather and increased risks of flooding. Our way of life, characterized in the institutional structures of the school, factory, home, bank and truck is threatened by our actions. It is our behavior now and in the future that will dictate whether or not these institutions float away.

EllisDon is actively working to reduce our carbon emissions, reduce our impact on the environment and contribute to the fight against climate change. Educating our people and our industry on the importance of carbon reduction and resource efficiency is important to us at EllisDon and we are proud to have helped bring John's project to life. To learn more about John Notten’s Over Floe located at Ontario Place in downtown Toronto, click HERE. For more information on John Notten, click HERE.