Client: Toronto Transit Commission
Architect: IBI Group
Photo credits: Craig White
Technique: Silver-stained, enameled, acid-etched and laminated glass.
DESCRIPTION: "Zones of Immersion" is an epic, translucent/ transparent mural. Using imagery and text, the artwork captures the blurred, throbbing rhythms of a city in transit. The design responded to an international competition for Toronto’s Union Station revitalization, and sought to evoke the commuters’ lived experience. Possibly the largest permanent public art project in Toronto’s history, it runs the length of Union Station’s redesigned subway platform (7' x 500'). Glowing colors and monochrome portraits of commuters are either reflective or transparent, making the entire artwork both ribbon and veil.
This project’s challenging theme and imagery demanded a complex range of innovative techniques, from luminous acid etching, to laminating graphite drawings and photo positives. Working with Peters Studios was a privilege and a pleasure and it was their tireless professionalism and technical prowess that helped me make this work everything I thought it could become.
– Stuart Reid, Artist