James David Morgan
Untitled replanted button sculpture planters by James David Morgan.
These sculptural planters can be found on the North West corner of Spadina Ave and Richmond St West, and were cleaned and replanted by David. He explains:
"The planter I was working with is a sculpture at the start of Toronto's fashion district that the city transit commission and a local business organization commissioned Stephen Cruise to install, I think back in 1997 when the light rail system was put back on Spadina Avenue. The sculpture is a 9' high pile of buttons with a thimble on top, with a couple other buttons flanking the thimble tower where they've installed trees in the button holes. It is dedicated to the garment workers who created so much of Toronto's wealth in the days when that was a huge industry here, and there were mills all along that street with tiny apartments for the workers (with few or no windows) on the top floor.
We planted yarrow, a native medicinal herb that doubles as a stimulant and a circulatory/digestive aid, and an appropriate choice to match the focus of the piece that would house the plants. Planting something productive in public would be a tiny act of commoning, both in further tribute to the workers (because they likely had to do that kind of thing all the time to get by) and as a protest of the prefigurative variety."