Dear Readers, the first time I came to Toronto, back in 2000, I was enchanted by the Canada geese flying across the atrium of the Eaton Centre. There are sixty birds in all, descending from the third level as if to land somewhere around the new food court on the lower level.

The installation is by Canadian artist Michael Stone, and has been in situ since 1979. All the geese are made of styrofoam and fibre glass, and are covered in a ‘costume’ made from photographs taken of a single goose. It is a stunning centrepiece to what could otherwise be a pleasant but generic mall.

Photo By Simon Law – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3510488

Michael Snow was an interesting artist, who worked in experimental film, music, photography and sculpture, but Flight Stop is probably his most visible public work. In 1981 the management of the Eaton Centre decided to decorate each of the sixty geese with a red ribbon around their necks. Snow took them to court for defacing his work, and won: the Ontario High Court of Justice held that the sculpture’s integrity was “distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified” which was “to the prejudice of the honour or reputation of the author”. Take that, Eaton Centre!

Ribbon being removed from an Eaton Centre goose (Photo fromhttps://www.thestar.com/life/dec-3-1982-red-ribbons-removed-from-eaton-centre-geese-after-uproar/article_a9be3bfa-eba2-5290-8402-40ca4f3ec458.html)

All sixty of the geese were away for renovation last year, which was quite the task – there was forty-odd years of grime to clean off, plus some of the geese had lost feet and various other appendages. They were crated up in groups of four and sent off to the Toronto Restoration Centre, where each one was given a name and lovingly restored. You can read all about it here.

Goose being repaired at the Toronto Restoration Centre – photo fromhttps://www.blogto.com/arts/2023/05/toronto-eaton-centre-geese/

And so this year the geese are back, and looking more splendid than ever. Michael Snow passed away at the age of 94 last year, after a lifetime of artistic endeavour. One of his other works is ‘The Audience’, perched on the side of the Rogers Stadium, home to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.  Each character is meant to represent a particular kind of fan – the heckler, the burger-eater, the father and son. They seem to exemplify Snow’s playful side, though I must admit that they don’t give me an urge to go and watch a game live.

‘The Audience’ by Michael Snow