Spotlight: Studio F Minus on sequins, art, and #DesignTO19

The DesignTO Festival (formerly the Toronto Design Offsite Festival) returns to #YongeStClair from January 18 – 27th, 2019. The event features 10 days of art and festival programming anchored by immersive installations designed by local artists, architects, and design firms.

Studio F Minus, the visionaries behind the celebrated Tunnel of Glam at Yonge + St. Clair, are returning to the neighbourhood with a brand new sequin-inspired installation for #DesignTO19 entitled ‘Sparkle Squish Plush Pond‘. We sat down with Brad Hindson and Mitchell Chan, principals of the studio, for their thoughts on the community, design, and what it takes to see vision come to life.

Can you describe your firm and why you wanted to get involved with DesignTO at Yonge + St. Clair?

Studio F Minus makes public conversations through art. Our work is often tactile and/or interactive and/or kinetic. We are always excited to insert artworks into spaces that don’t typically have them. We find it reaches a broader audience and are often discovered unexpectedly.

Why is this installation important in the context of Yonge + St. Clair? What do you hope visitors take away from the experience?

We hope that visitors who work in these spaces get to see their place of work differently. Further, we hope that residences of the surrounding area come out and explore buildings that typically thought of as closed off to the public.

Can you describe what the construction process looks like? How did the idea come about, and what will it take to see it come to life?

Reverse sequin fabric is mesmerizing and very underutilized as a material. We first explored it as a medium when we built the 80′ long ‘Tunnel of Glam‘. Here we are studying how it works in a sculpture that undulates and swirls while still allowing it to be touched by the viewer.

Sparkle Squish Plush Pond runs from January 18 to 27th, 2019 at 95 St. Clair W in the lobby. An opening reception will be held on January 18 from 7 – 10pm.