Overflowing garbage bins. Crumbling roads and broken water fountains, scattered throughout Toronto. A chaotic downtown core, where cyclists battle with cars for use of the road.
For some, the disarray might signal urban decay and rudderless leadership. But to the pranksters behind the recently unveiled AusterityTO project it’s the work of a “bold, world-class artist” who is using Canada’s largest city as his canvas to create a sprawling public art project.
Ahead of Toronto’s municipal election in late October, plaques like those normally found in an art museum have sprung up across the city, in an exercise in guerrilla criticism that laments a city in decline – and skewers its mayor, John Tory, for what it describes as the policies of austerity and complacency.
One plaque, posted on a vandalized water fountain, transforms the broken fitting into a sculpture entitled Urinal which – according to the gallery-style commentary – “asks the viewer to imagine what it could be, and to ponder why it isn’t”.
A garbage can covered in a thick black tarp prompts comparisons to the work of Bulgarian artist Christo.
The project also captures a collection of common grievances among residents, including poor zoning decisions, urban sprawl and hazardous bike lanes.
All of the plaques list Tory, Toronto’s two-term mayor, as the artist.
“Looking around the city, this is his work of art. This is the thing that he has created in his time of office,” said James McLeod, a communications manager and former journalist who helped create the project. “The long-term austerity has led to these increasingly absurd situations in our city that are really striking when you have the eyes to see them.”
Tory is currently running for his third term as mayor, putting him on pace to become the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.
“It’s not surprising to see something like this in the middle of the municipal election campaign,” campaign spokesperson Jenessa Crognali said in a statement sent to the Guardian. “Mayor Tory is absolutely committed to making sure the city government is focused on nuts and bolts services as part of this economic recovery and he will be working to make sure the work started to modernize and update services earlier this year goes full speed ahead so that we continue to do better as a city for our residents.”
Writer Shawn Micallef, co-founder of the urbanist magazine Spacing, said AusterityTO was a cheeky way to connect the mayor’s decisions and ideology to real-world consequences.
“The city is on the decline, it’s visible when you look, but it’s also easy to miss if you’re comfortable, if you have your own backyard or vacation place, as many of our leaders and establishment have,” he said.
Tom Ruhig, a design student who paired up with McLeod, said months of mounting frustration over an “absurd” level of disrepair led to the project’s creation.
“We were trying to take what is obviously a lack of vision for the city – and reinterpret it as though it were a clear, deliberate vision,” he said.
Ruhig and McLeod argue that Toronto’s below-average property tax rates – championed by the mayor – concentrate wealth and prevent the city from improving its finances.
For Ruhig, the project is meant to highlight the failings of the city – but also to spur residents into demanding more from political leaders.
“I love this city. I have two generations of city workers in my family – my father and grandfather. They took pride in civic service. They’ve passed away, but I don’t know if they would feel the same pride about the city in its current state,” he said.
The pair reserved their sharpest criticism for Tory’s controversial relationship with Rogers, one of the largest media empires in the country. Tory sits on the company’s corporate board and receives C$100,000 in compensation per year.
In a tribute to the mayor’s dual jobs, AusterityTO mounted a plaque entitled Side Hustle outside the Rogers headquarters.
“Many Toronto residents need more than one job to make ends meet in an increasingly unaffordable city, but through his performance, the artist elevates this idea to absurdity and farce,” they write. Tory, they add, “cleverly plays with ideas of corporate control, affordability and power”.
The project has been a surprise success, with hundreds of thousands of hits to its website. Residents have started using #AusterityTO on social media, posting images that capture the dysfunction plaguing the country’s economic and cultural powerhouse.
In one case, a resident complained that a public pool, unveiled with fanfare a decade ago, lacks warm water and has a broken diving board and a waterslide that doesn’t work.
“A lot of people feel like Toronto is crumbling. It’s in disrepair. And it’s frustrating,” said McLeod. “But if there’s a lesson that we’ve learned from the internet over the last decade, it’s that being funny – and incisive – is worth a lot more than just being angry.”
