Our Main Building and galleries will not be open to the public for Nuit Blanche. Access to “Hopes and Fears Assembly” will be on the northwest side of the Main Building.

November 13, 2021 – March 27, 2022

Comfort and Caution

Nicole Coon

yellow square of glass hanging in a window

Serial Light #5, 2021. Plexiglass, silver, aircraft cable, LED. Design and fabrication assistance by Eric Kirwin. Metal fabrication by Saydee Chandler.

Overview

Nicole Coon’s modest lights cast a warm yellow glow that mimics something we all crave when summer ends, and fall begins: Sunlight. The colour draws us in with its radiance, yet can repel us with its harshness due to yellow’s high light reflectance, acting as its own light source bouncing off surfaces.

It’s a double-edged sword: The most visible colour on the spectrum, and the one the human eye processes first, is synonymous with warmth, sunflowers and happiness. It is also the colour of warning and caution with connotations towards cowardice and illness. Coon plays with this potential to significant effect, understanding its dualism by creating balanced illumination – to soothe and ultimately not overwhelm.

– Melanie Egan

About Nicole Coon

Serial Light #5 is a series of five identical yellow plexiglass cube lights, lit by a single electrical cord that jumps from cube to cube. An experiment into monochromatic lighting, this installation explores the objectivity of colour, its spatiality, and its relationship to the viewer. The yellow objecthood enhances our relationship to the space contained within the vitrine and functions as both a diffuser and a stimulant. The physical unification of the object is created by the single shared power cord.

Nicole Coon

Design and fabrication assistance by Eric Kirwin.
Metal fabrication by Saydee Chandler.

Nicole Coon is based in Toronto. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from McGill University and Furniture Design from Sheridan College. Coon works cross-disciplinary between art and design principles to create speculative furniture objects.

Venue

Big Vitrine

A large display facing Ontario Square

Outdoors

Wheelchair Accessible

235 Queens Quay West, East Side
Toronto ON M5J 2G8

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