When you think of public washrooms, you don’t often think of great art at the same time. The Forks is about to change that with the addition of a new washroom on the second floor of The Forks Market.
“Beautiful, accessible spaces is a key to the success of any gathering place, and nothing brings a space to life more than the work of artists,” says Sara Stasiuk, Chief Executive Officer, The Forks North Portage. “We needed more functional washrooms on the second floor of The Market and saw this as an opportunity to bring more public art to The Forks in a surprising way. It’s an honour to house the work of local talent in our new accessible art washrooms.”
The washrooms, located on the second floor of The Forks Market, feature artwork from five different local artists throughout:
- Erin Ahl’s work is featured as wallpaper in each of the stalls. The title of Ahl’s work Botanicals in Motion is a series of pieces inspired by observing wildflowers and prairie grasses as they’re manipulated by natural movements and changing seasons.
- Multidisciplinary artist Jazz Aline’s work is featured in the new family washroom. The piece titled L’eau a L’air is about coming into yourself, accepting your many different facets and flaws and welcoming others to do the same.
- Lyrics from two local musicians and songwriters, Andrina Turenne and Alpha Toshineza, are on the walls in the open public space of the washroom by the sinks. Turenne’s lyrics read “les rêves que nous rêvons” and translate to “the dreams we dream.” And Toshineza’s lyrics are “le ciel est rose, ma vie en prose” which translate to “the sky is pink, my life in prose.”
- Kiana Jade created a custom wallpaper for the space. The work is entitled Available Flash and is a collection of the tattoo artist’s hand drawn designs. The repetition of the different designs on the wall is representative of the wall of flash pieces (ready to tattoo as opposed to custom pieces) often found in tattoo parlours.
The public washrooms feature four enclosed universal stalls, a common sink area, and a family washroom.
All artworks were curated by Synonym Art Consultation.
