A mural that represents the past, present and future of Toronto's St. Clair West neighbourhood through a mix of historical realism, graphic symbolism and dynamic typography.
The piece references Eric Trussler's 1961 photograph of St. Clair station. The artists make one addition, the Flexity Outlook streetcar which was introduced to the St. Clair route in 2017.
Framing the scene is a tile pattern that references vintage tiles from the neighbourhood, updating them with bold geometry and colour. The words "here we are" flow across the station's facade in letters that bring to mind the low-waisted style of 20th-Century Italian sign painters.
In collaboration with Akin Collective for Canderel Residential's St. Clair Village project. MRL™ is Leone McComas, Liang Wang and Nuff.
Concept
We have researched the neighbourhoods around the site, the people, cultures and histories of the area. We are specifically interested in looking to the past to think about what St-Clair might become in the future. The themes we settled on were family, style, food and fun. To us, those words represent the Spirit of St-Clair.
Our proposal is a tapestry of our different styles and approaches—Liang’s passion for capturing moments in public space, Leone’s penchant for distortion, symbolism and abstraction, Nuff’s graphic approach and clean linework.
We have included a few variations as we would work collaboratively with the client to finalise the design.
