Site Lines

Created in 2021 by visual artist Jhyling Lee, Site Lines connects to its historic, cultural and environmental context. As such, this artwork is considered to be ‘site specific’. In contrast to modern public art, Site Lines site was created with the location and setting in mind - the surroundings in fact shape the artwork itself.

Lee comes from an architecture background, and has developed a preoccupation for designing public artworks that extend surrounding architectural forms. In this regard, Lee is interested in the viewer’s spatial and temporal experience as they approach, move through, perhaps stop under to look up, and then walk away from it. Indeed, Site Lines can be experienced differently, depending on if one experiences it from across the street, just a few feet away, or underneath it.

Lee endeavoured to acknowledge London’s changing natural skyline by alluding to the forests that once dominated this landscape. She also aimed to acknowledge the changing built skyline by referencing the surrounding architectural history, particularly the prominent vertical lines, soaring spires and ornamentation of St. Peter’s (196 Dufferin Ave) and St. Paul’s (472 Richmond Street) cathedrals.

Site Lines invites viewers to project their past and present experiences onto the meaning of the artwork.