Obelisk

Toronto-based emerging artist Anthony Koutras
explores the distinctions between fact and fiction
by manipulating photography’s ability to represent
reality. He widens the parameters of the medium by
constructing simulated images and mimicking
everyday objects in their typical settings.

Koutras’ latest public intervention along Queen
Street West features life-size images of Toronto
bicycle lock posts that are lengthened and skewed
from one to the next. His images, installed on the
sidewalk in front of 10 consecutive posts, mimic
the movements of shadows cast throughout the day
that indicate increments of time through the
changing position of the sun. They allude to a
sundial, the oldest known device for the
measurement of time, which in today’s complex
digital world has become a timepiece redolent of
another era. Koutras’ sequential presentation of
these works literally reconstructs the passage of
time during a forgotten day in recent history, as
the sun creates an obelisk out of these upright
posts. The presence of these hyper-realistic
photographs – hybrids of shadow and image – arrest
the typically frenetic movements on the street.
Stimulating perceptions of history and time,
Koutras offers a photographic portrayal of the
fleeting moments that pass unnoticed.

Anthony Koutras, born in Ottawa, Ontario, is a
graduate from The Ontario College of Art & Design
and is an active participant within the Toronto
artistic community.