Barrie’s first commissioned Public Art sculpture, titled “Dividers Made into a Juncture,” is installed at the Downtown branch of the Barrie Public Library, at 60 Worsley Street on the west side of the parking lot. The sculpture-bike rack was selected through a juried national competition and was created by the artist team of Jon Sasaki and Jennifer Davis.
Consisting of six different metal fence dividers artistically reconfigured, it secures up to eight or more bikes in a public space. Using traditional domestic fencing typically associated with division and separateness, “Dividers Made Into a Juncture” transforms them into a meeting point for gathering and interaction while bolstering cycling in Barrie.
Fences often serve to delineate private property and are inherently antisocial; in both concrete and psychological ways they fragment neighbourhoods and compartmentalize people from one another. The Sasaki/Davis vision is to create a meeting point, a place where people can gather and interact. This installation will carry forward a legacy of conviviality, telling the story of removing barriers between people.
About the Artists
About Jennifer Davis
Jennifer Davis practices architecture, independent curating and art in Toronto. She graduated with a Master of Architecture (2011) from the University of Toronto and participated in the 2012 curatorial intensive program "Curating Beyond Exhibition Making" at Independent Curators International, NYC. Davis' exhibition-making experience includes architectural consultation for "TBD", the Fall 2014 exhibition at the Museum for Contemporary Canadian Art.
Her artistic portfolio includes artworks presented at Migrating Landscapes, 2012 and Toronto's 2010 Nuit Blanche. In the field of architecture, Davis has received numerous awards including the 2010 Power Corporation of Canada Award from the Canadian Centre for Architecture and an Honourable Mention in the 2015 Lost Spaces Calgary Competition. She has worked at design offices in New York, Madrid and Toronto.
Jon Sasaki
Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist Jon Sasaki's work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at galleries including the Ottawa Art Gallery, (Ottawa, ON); the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, (Lethbridge, AB); and the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as a recent performance project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
In the fall of 2014 he completed an outdoor public installation at Sheridan College, (Oakville, ON) as part of their Temporary Contemporary commissioning program. Selected group exhibitions include Platform Art Spaces (Melbourne Australia); Nihonbashi Institute of Contemporary Art, (Tokyo, Japan); and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto, ON). He is the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize (Dufftown, Scotland.) Sasaki holds a BFA from Mount Allison University (Sackville, NB) and is represented by Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto.