Arts
Tanja Saric
Posted on November 10, 2020
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toronto labyrinth

Someone just created a huge labyrinth in a Toronto park

Arts
Tanja Saric
Posted on November 10, 2020
Report Inaccuracy
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If you're in the city and looking for an excuse to get out and do something different, look no further because someone just created a massive labyrinth in Toronto. 

Located at Budapest Park on Lake Shore Boulevard, the eight-sided, octagon-shaped labyrinth is enormous in size and contains 22 lanes, according to its creator, HïMY SYeD. 

"At 22 lanes, and being an even number of lanes, labyrinth hackers will grasp how hard it was to design. It was brainaching," SYeD told blogTO, adding that the labyrinth is in a wading pool. 

SYeD, who was a mayoral candidate in the 2014 Toronto election, began creating the labyrinth back in September of 2019. While he wanted to begin earlier, there was already a painting in the wading pool.

"Finally, the summer of 2017 came and enough of that had faded that unless you knew what it was, you could not recognize it," SYeD said. Since he was living in Vancouver at that time, he couldn't begin work until a couple years later.

Besides the lanes, Syed also included what he calls "canvas spaces" that are spread throughout the labyrinth. 

Two canvas spaces, for instance, are filled with a painting of a blue climbable dinosaur and a green climbable dinosaur that's in the park and located near the labyrinth. 

"Before I placemake any labyrinth, I must understand it's context. I might identify an ideal labyrinth location, yet I must be mindful of its neighbours," SYeD said.

"The labyrinth artwork extends the labyrinth from within its visual boundary to the world immediately beyond the boundary."

Another is filled with a lovely painting of the Humber Bay Arch Bridge which is not too far from Budapest Park and can be seen through the leaves and branches if you are standing inside the labyrinth, SYeD explained. 

Syed also painted the Taijitu/Ying Yang symbol to acknowledge the presence of Toronto's Tibetan community in the Parkdale neighbourhood.

"Parkdale is currently home to the Buddhist Tibetan community of Toronto so the Taijitu/Ying Yang symbol ties into that," SYed said.

If you decide to test your luck at the labyrinth, you'll also find a painting of a medicine wheel. 

And a representation of the inukshuk from Inukshuk Park near Ontario Place.

SYeD explained that he painted "Budapest Park" in white lettering to acknowledge the park the labyrinth is in and "Sunnyside" to acknowledge Sunnyside Beach that's nearby.

He also included the words "High Park" which is in a canvas space closest to High Park, "Parkdale" which is in a canvas space facing the Parkdale neighbourhood, and an entire green space to acknowledge the greenery surrounding the labyrinth.

SYeD estimates that the entire project took at least 110 hours to complete, including the time to measure the space in chalk before actually laying down the paint.

This is the latest work in in SYeD's "Toronto City of Labyrinths Project" which has a goal of placemaking "a labyrinth within walking distance of every Torontonian."

Lead photo by

HïMY SYeD
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