All posts by upcycledxd

Come ‘Step into my Space’ this Nuit Blanche 2022 at the Spadina Museum grounds in Toronto. Participate with live performance, film projections, multi-media art, sculpture, painting, ceramics, couture, a massive LED light maze and more. OnePath.mystrikingly.com

To mark Earth day 2021 and in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, please enjoy some images from 2019’s Nuit Blanche Toronto installation “Plastiche Gardens”, which was featured as part of the One Path artist collective at the Spadina Museum grounds. Stay tuned on further updates for Nuit Blanche resuming in 2022, which will be back bigger and better than ever at the Spadina Museum. Artist Statement Single-use plastic products are seeping into every facet of the natural world: our water, the soil, in animals and plant life. This whimsically disturbing wonderland ominously imagines a future where the line between the natural and the artificial has been erased. Most sources indicate that less than 10% of all plastic products created worldwide are ever recycled; roughly one-million plastic bottles are purchased every minute.  That amounts to 470 billion bottles ending up in landfills, waterways and who knows where else each year.  Sourced and created from post-consumer plastic bottles, Plastiche Gardens represents the ramification of our single-use plastics addiction and the irreparable impact on the environment.  Remaining on our current trajectory, the “Midas touch” of a once-thought miracle material is fast becoming our physical reality, from plant roots to our intestines.  When […]

As part of the One Path collective of artists, upcycledXD will be participating in Toronto’s Nuit Blanche the night of October 5, 2019 from 7PM to 7AM. The One Path Collective’ is the accumulation of the many choices one has in life but ultimately the ‘one path’ we end up taking. Our exhibits display some of the paths we have taken in the art created by the artists who have chosen to create these paths with us. Located at the historic Spadina Museum grounds on the Davenport bluffs, 285 Spadina Road, the collective’s theme will encourage participating in crafting high art with live performances, couture, video sculpture, light installations and more created with upcycled materials. Stay tuned for more updates as the big night approaches…

                              How we Live in Cities at Big on Bloor Festival Over the weekend of July 22 – 23, the Bloor Street Business Improvement Area hosted a two day street festival of arts and culture from Dufferin Street to Lansdowne ave in Toronto.  Dyan Marie from “How we Live in Cities” coordinated a series of art and garden workshops that got the public involved in place making and garden creating at home by distributing “Spot gardens” which members of the public would plant in their yards.                                       Eric Anthony Charron brought BIG lights and Wind catchers to the festival and helped interested upcyclers create their own garden solar lamps out of reclaimed plastic bottles, and multi-coloured wind catchers from the off-cut pieces.  Bees and other pollinators are attracted to intense and deep colours of blue, green and purple.  By teaching how to create solar bottle bubbles for gardens and encouraging their placement in yards and gardens, they will act as targets to pollinator species that will be attracted […]

ART AND ECOLOGY WORKSHOPS FOR THINKING GARDENS How We Live In Cities at the BIG on Bloor Festival offers arts, culture and urban ecology workshops. The 3-hour-long relay projects provide hands-on opportunities to participate in interactive, multi-disciplinary events that explore ways to animate, enhance and improve the experience of living in cities – each encouraging garden-making.     How We Live In Cities is a feature event for the BIG on Bloor Festival of Arts and Culture, taking place from 1:00 PM- 7:00 PM on Saturday, July 22, and from 12:00 PM-6:00 PM on Sunday, July 23, 2017, at car-free Bloor Street between Lansdowne Ave and Dufferin Street, with up to 100,000 people attending. How We Live In Cities Hub is located just West of Dufferin Ave. on the South side of Bloor Street, in front of the Tennis Courts.     Eric Anthony Charron Garden Sculpture: BIG Lights and Wind Works Worshop Hours: 12:45 – 3:45 on Saturday July 22, 2017 (How We Live In Cities Booth at Bloor and Dufferin Streets)  Eric will provide instruction and assist with the building and installation of hanging solar lights and wind catchers, constructed from recycled materials. Eric’s regenerative Sun Lights demonstrate the use of recycled plastic water bottles made luminescent by solar LED technology. This workshop will feature […]

A special video of scenes from the 2017 AZ Awards Gala held at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto has been loaded online, courtesy of Azure Magazine. Please follow the link to find the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XW1YW4ibiU&t=3s

Azure magazine has published a special behind-the-scenes article featuring the creative partners that helped to make the AZ Awards Gala a massive success.  Chandeliers made from upcycled plastic bottles, an elaborate paper installation and sleek steel trophies designed by Philippe Malouin upped the wow factor at the 2017 AZ Awards Gala on June 23. Click the link to the full article: http://www.azuremagazine.com/article/behind-scenes-look-2017-az-awards-gala/ Photo courtesy of Mauricio Calero.   The chandeliers, by Eric Charron Toronto architect Eric Charron reworks recycled plastic bottles into striking light fixtures, furniture and artworks. Since 2012, he has successfully diverted over 2000 plastic bottles from landfill to live-on in new, useful art forms. After discovering his works at a local art exhibition (Place and Placement at Galleria Mall), Azure asked Charron to create custom chandeliers for the 2017 gala. He came back with seven sculptural fixtures – four that measured nearly a metre in diameter and three smaller iterations – made from bottles, wire armature and reused packing foam, and lit with LED bulbs. The lights were suspended over party-goers in the Brick Works’ CRH Gallery.

This past Friday, June 24th, 2017 marked upcycledXD’s first collaboration with Azure Magazine for their annual awards gala held at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto.  Seven stunning, brightly lit chandeliers were prominently hung from the historic industrial kiln building’s trusses over the cocktail and lounge reception area. The event was attended by local and international stars from the worlds of architecture and design.  Seventy projects, in 20 different categories were handed out in a ceremony led by Canadian television veteran Denise Donlon. The guest of honour, renowned Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, kicked things off with a special address.                                                     This was upcycledXD’s first collaboration for an awards gala as well as premiere of 4 original chandeliers that were hung along the perimeter of the lounge.  They are build 3 feet in diameter of clear, re-purposed plastic bottles, wire armature and re-used packing foam lit with LED bulbs.                                                               […]

On May 26, 2017  Eric from upcycledXD was interviewed by Sarah Van Exan, Alena Grunwald and Emma Rogers representing Ontario’s Sustainability CoLab, an organization charged to find ways of building a sustainable, cyclical economy. The focus of the discussion was towards a challenge posted to the OpenIDEO  website – The Circular Design Challenge, How might we get products to people without generating plastic waste?  The intriguing points from the discussion were posted to the OpenIDEO site on June 7, 2017.  Please see the link below for the full article. https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/circular-design/research/how-a-garbage-strike-drove-an-architect-to-reimagine-plastic-and-provoke-change-through-art-and-design Sustainability CoLAB: http://sustainabilitycolab.org/

Eric Charron is mentioned in the June 8-15 edition of NOW Magazine Toronto for his participation in the Place and Placement Exhibition.  He is participating in a workshop on Saturday, June 17 to demonstrate the building and design of Sun light garden lamps. See the article below or follow the link: https://nowtoronto.com/news/beyond-galleria-mall/ Civic Studies  – Host of Place and Placement: http://civicstudies.ca/ Upcoming event at BIG on Bloor, July 22-23, 2017  featuring How we Live in Cities event hub: http://bigonbloorfestival.com/about/HowWeLiveInCities/