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On my way back from Harbourfront on Sunday, I happened to cross the corner of Bathurst and Lakeshore at the new Condo Building which has goine up there. It has been a new trend with the condos being built in the downtown core of Toronto to house outdoor sculpture exhibits and I was happy to see a public art installation by Artist Douglas Coupland of his "Monument to the War of 1812". The building is quite close to Fort York and it is very appropriate to have it at this corner, which will get more visibility by passers by than having it up nearer Old Fort York a street to the north.
I loved it! It reminded me of a larger than life replica of those little green plastic soldiers that my son Eric used to play arm with so many years ago. One is standing up - in gold coloured metal and the other in silver coloured metal is lying down. I guess the British is the yellow figure, since as the artist said at the opening - he did the sculpture to remind everyone who won the war.
Eric has always had a fascination with toy soldiers. To this day he spends his spare time creating and painting army stuff for his Warhammer game collection, which is an adult equivalent of his childhood passion with Toy Soldiers. The installation at Fort York is especially nostalgic for me as Eric used to also do war re-enactment of 1812 battles and has practiced at Fort York on occasion.
Eric blogs about his army creations at his blog site The Manufactorum - A blog documenting his Warhammer 40,000 model and army building experiences.
