What is that?: Colourful roller-coaster depicts Toronto’s boozy history

What is that?: Toronto sculptures explained is a new series looking at a different sculpture in the city every week. Have you seen a piece of public art in your daily commute and wondered what it was about? Me too … so I’ve decided that I’d learn a little bit more about my own city and share it with you.


Still Dancing | Distillery Lane and Trinity Street, Distillery District

A swirling spiral of roller coaster tracks leading down to a multi-coloured egg beater is what greets you when you first walk into Toronto’s Distillery District.

At least that’s what I see when I look at “Still Dancing,” a sculpture designed by American sculptor Dennis Oppenheim (1938-2011).

The piece, launched in 2010, sits at the corner of Distillery Lane and Trinity Street.

The thick lines that form an arc in the bottom egg beater portion of the sculpture are bright, translucent pieces of pink, green, and blue.

According to Oppenheim’s website, the lines represent “a liquid formation from a distillery.”

Peeking through those plastic tubular lines now, you can see the markers of the historical district in the background – brick buildings and cobblestone roads. The district is, obviously, is the site of a former distillery, Gooderham and Worts, which was in operation from 1837 until 1990.

The main portion of the sculpture is a “38-foot chimney-like structure,” the artist’s site describes. The top of the chimney leads to the arc of colours, which leads down to the ground, where tables and chairs sit.

Some of the plastic tubes from the arc sit loose on the ground, perhaps an indication that children have walked through it, knocking the pieces down.

Oppenheim, who died the year following the sculpture’s launch, said the piece is “a combination of sculpture, architecture and theater. By combining these art forms into one work, which derives content from an association with early distillery images and their alchemical apparatus, one encompasses a work which incorporates the extraordinary transformative drama inherent in the distillery process.”

His other public works and sculptures follow a similar format with spiralling and curvy lines.

Some examples can be seen here:

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