Peeping Tom Thomson

At 8 stories high, the proposed artwork was to be situated where a private residential development connects to a public lakefront in Toronto, Canada. A study in thresholds, the monumental keyhole was to frame this liminal and charged situation, allowing for viewing and passage from one side to the other.

As a mythic and ambiguous fantasy portal, the keyhole is an invitation to take a look and see what you can glimpse of other lives and territories. This ambiguity would elucidate where the spaces of privacy and projected desire entwine with public encounter. However, unlike the keyhole in a solid door, this one was to be open and shared by both sides…presenting the physical, social and temporal thresholds that affect the experience of the evolving 21^st century city.

At night, the side facing the lake was to be illuminated in shifting pulses and cascades of glowing lights, projected outwards to the harbour. However, the lights were to be almost unseen land-side…a dual persona being a subtle nightlight for the residents, and a beacon to the lake.

Originally titled ‘The Otherside’, the title was recently changed to ‘Peeping Tom Thomson’. Those of you who are aficionados of Canadian art history and the Group of Seven might enjoy the reference to one of our most celebrated painters in the en plein air tradition, where the frame of the canvas delineated an idealized view of mythic space.