What: Soft Spin, an installation by Heather Nicol

When: Every day through June 20, 2014

Presenter: Commissioned by Arts Brookfield and Brookfield Place | Produced by PVW

Cost: FREE

With a mission to enliven public spaces with provocative cultural experiences, Arts Brookfield, together with Brookfield Place, announce the latest commission for the spectacular Allen Lambert Galleria — Soft Spin, an installation by the interdisciplinary Canadian artist Heather Nicol. Presented until June 20, Soft Spin promises to invigorates and enlivens this landmark space while inviting tenants and visitors to engage and explore.

Sometimes referred to as Toronto’s “Crystal Cathedral of Commerce,” the Allen Lambert Galleria bustles with office workers and urbanites moving between meeting rooms and water coolers where deals are spun. It is a vast cavern of possibility, both exposed to, and also sheltered from, the sky above.

Soft Spin offers a fresh view of the hard-surfaced symmetry of the space with the playful interruption of five enormous fabric forms, gently twirling overhead. Colour, texture, movement, and decidedly flirtatious forms invite visitors to look up and embrace the unexpected, highlighting the ever-present potential for encounters with unforeseen pleasure and drama in the day-to-day. From the possibility of feeling miniaturized by the enormity of the installation’s curvaceous hemlines to the play of sunlight through the bursts of spring-time colour, Soft Spin steps away from ledgers, straight lines, and the black and white. Nicol infuses the clean, engineered certainty of corporate grandeur with an immersive dose of the whimsical, the feminine, and the celebratory.

About Heather Nicol

Heather Nicol has a strong exhibition history and extensive curatorial experience. Her site-specific installations have included locations such as an abandoned rail terminus (Buffalo, NY), a historic chateaux (France), The Brooklyn Academy of Music, a three-story carriage house (Hudson, NY), a decommissioned school and vacant sweatshop (both in Toronto). She was featured in Nuit Blanche 2009 with a signature installation in Union Station’s Great Hall. She curated exhibitions in the public gallery spaces for the inauguration of Artscape’s Youngplace, recently opened on Shaw Street in Toronto. Her curatorial projects have often explored site-specific conditions as found in decommissioned, underutilized, repurposed and educational locations, and have fostered opportunities for large groups of artists working across a wide range of disciplines.