Lifeguard stands at the Beaches have been transformed into art installations for the third consecutive year. BuoyBuoyBuoy was one of the competition’s winning designs.

‘BuoyBuoyBuoy’ was designed by a team of artists from Toronto.
Today marked the launch of Winter Stations, a public art exhibition in Toronto’s east end. Over 350 designs were submitted from Canada and abroad, but only eight made the winning cut.
I’ve been speaking to the artists who designed BuoyBuoyBuoy – Dakota Wares-Tani, Dionisios Vriniotis, and Rob Shostak – to find out more about their installation…
“I think the best part is seeing it enlivened with people interacting with it,” said Wares-Tani.
BuoyBuoyBuoy is made up of hundreds of separate units. Cut into the shape of buoys, each unit is either transparent, opaque or reflective. It took the team two days to put the structure together.
“We wanted people to look at this, experience it and think about their memories of water,” said Shostak.
Each installation draws inspiration from the environment, water or the human condition.
Catalyst is the theme for this year’s competition and designers were encouraged to create pieces with the intention to reduce waste.

‘North’ by Studio Perch.

‘Collective Memory’ by Mario García and Andrea Govi.

‘I See You Ashiyu’ by Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela.

‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ by a team from the University of Waterloo.

‘The Illusory’ by a team from Humber College.

‘Midwinter Fire’ by a team from Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at UofT.

‘The Beacon’ by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva.
Winter Stations will remain on display until the 27th of March.