Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there’s art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there’s art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
Astrid Bastin recently gutted her century-old, midtown ravine-side house. Just about everything was updated—except the barn-shaped gambrel roof, which she maintained. Bastin, who was born in Bogotá, runs AB Projects, a cultural exchange program for established Canadian and Latin American artists. She mainly works with avant-garde mixed media artists and often gives them a live-work space in her home for a few months, then helps sell their work; the commissions are invested in the organization. As a result, the first floor of the house is a showcase for experimental pieces. A tiny TV shows a blinking eye, for example, and a series of speakers play noises such as crunching gravel. Even her driveway is an installation, with a piano that plays Chopin every evening from 5 to 7 (the tunes are quiet enough not to irk the neighbours). The renovation, by Dean Goodman of LGA Architectural Partners, was tailored to highlight the ever-changing assortment of artwork. The expansive walls are MoMA white and there’s plenty of room for the crowds of curators, collectors and art lovers Bastin often entertains.
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- <strong>Astrid Bastin</strong> completely gutted the century-old house—except the barn-shaped gambrel roof, which she maintained
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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- Astrid works with avant-garde mixed media artists and often gives them a live-work space in her home
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-01-96x96.jpg
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- The fireplace, by <strong>Stûv,</strong> divides the living and dining rooms
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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- <em>Foundation,</em> the tree stump, is by Colombian artist <strong>Miler Lagos.</strong> It’s made of thousands of newspaper pages layered together, then sanded into shape
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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- Most of the interior walls are MoMA white, but a citron-hued accent wall adds a pop of colour
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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- The digital sketch by the stairs is the work of Colombian artist <strong>Cesar González.</strong> He couldn’t come to Toronto to install it, so he helped Bastin apply the decals to the wall over Skype
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-05-e1392130677482-96x96.jpg
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- The red tire, by Canadian sound artist <strong>Gordon Monahan,</strong> is embedded with a speaker that plays the sound of tires crunching over gravel
- (Image: Derek Shapton)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-08-e1392130823151-96x96.jpg
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- Lagos created this collage, <br /> <em>Tree-ring Dating,</em> by layering more than 400 pages of Canadian newspapers<br />
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-09-e1392130718207-96x96.jpg
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- <em>A Piano Listening to Itself–Chopin Chord</em> is by <strong>Gordon Monahan.</strong> Since its installation in 2012, more than a thousand people have dropped by to see it. Recordings are transmitted by six piano wires attached to the roof peak
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-11-e1392130738339-96x96.jpg
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- Like the rest of the house, the master bedroom is airy and uncluttered
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-12-e1392130846968-96x96.jpg
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-12.jpg
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- The ornamental fireplace is from the original 1912 house
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-13-e1392130759173-96x96.jpg
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- The caution tape, by Canadian artist <strong>Barbara Balfour,</strong> reads “Danger—<br /> I Think I’m Falling <br /> in Love With You”
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-14-e1392130780125-96x96.jpg
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- The hot tub in the backyard gives soakers a ravine view
- (Image: courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame)
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
- Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there's art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway
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![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/style/great-spaces-the-showpiece/&title=Great Spaces: inside a Midtown home where there’s art on the walls, on the floor and in the driveway&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/great-spaces-the-showpiece-intro-624x395.jpg&description=By Matthew Hague
[caption id="attachment_259352" align="aligncenter" width="656"] (Image: Derek Shapton)[/caption]
Astrid Bastin recently gutted her century-old, midtown ravine-side house. Just about everything was updated—except the barn-shaped gambrel roof, which she maintained. Bastin, who was born in Bogotá, runs AB Projects, a cultural exchange program for established Canadian and Latin American artists. She mainly works with avant-garde mixed media artists and often gives them a live-work space in her home for a few months, then helps sell their work; the commissions are invested in the organization. As a result, the first floor of the house is a showcase for experimental pieces. A tiny TV shows a blinking eye, for example, and a series of speakers play noises such as crunching gravel. Even her driveway is an installation, with a piano that plays Chopin every evening from 5 to 7 (the tunes are quiet enough not to irk the neighbours). The renovation, by Dean Goodman of LGA Architectural Partners, was tailored to highlight the ever-changing assortment of artwork. The expansive walls are MoMA white and there’s plenty of room for the crowds of curators, collectors and art lovers Bastin often entertains.
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