Alive and Well
Kayla Whitney
This summer I have been creating work for the public realm that is part of my “Ecstatic Joy Project”. These pieces have arisen directly from my personal experience enduring covid, gentrification, and late stage capitalism. As a response to these experiences I began making the work that I felt I needed to see in the world. Images that responded to and shed light on these truths, but also celebrated the absurdity of it all, and the undercurrent of joy that we can find in these moments. These pieces are celebrations of life with all its strangeness and difficulty in concert with all its beauty, magic and joy. This installation, made for Barton street, is a nod to the legacy of the area and the people who live there. The sense of wonder and possibility peeking out from behind what can be seen as a very rough area. I have explored a deeper palette with the mural in honour of Ways to Wisdom, the store that occupied this space, and was an integral part of this community for over 40 years.
Kayla Whitney is a Hamilton based artist, muralist and community engager. She is so grateful to live this weird magical life where she can connect with community through her art.
470 Barton St. E
The ‘Anything is Possible on Barton’ exhibition is a neighbourhood wide art project that was selected for the Government of Canada’s My Main Street Community Activator program. This project is organized by the Barton Village BIA and funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and the City of Hamilton. Thank you to the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and the Canadian Urban Institute for supporting local communities and revitalizing our main streets.
Please check out the other 14 installations HERE.
