It’s no news that the Junction and its environs have undergone considerable change over the past years. At Landsdowne and Bloor, traditionally working class communities are being displaced by a downwardly mobile but creative working-middle class.

To the North, near Dupont and Landsdowne, obsolete industrial spaces that remain suitable for residential use are being converted into artist studios, lofts, and now, condominium developments.  For example, the condo-to-be pictured below fulfills every gentrification cliche by promising a Metro and Shoppers downstairs to compete with the working class Coffee Time across the street:

Catering to upper middle class penchants for President’s Choice cookies and prescription meds, all the neighbourhood needs now is a douchey, overpriced coffee shop to commodify the dire poverty of the displaced creative poor–oh wait, that already happened.  Unfortunately, “urban renewal” will likely mean more bad news for the working poor and immigrant working class that call this neighborhood home, but good news for wealthy property developers who will cash in big on their displacement.  So it goes.

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Amidst the cranes and dust of condo developments, there is a good news story developing just West of here on Dupont near Campbell Ave.. Here, an urban renewal project is underway that only a street artist in a suit and tie could pull off..

Created by international street artist Joel Richardson, the project’s transformed a dilapidated concrete underpass into a sophisticated street art mural.

Richardson’s mural adds to this sixty-year-old concrete eyesore as part of a broader renewal of public spaces initiated by street artist around the world.  A form of down-up urban revitalization, street art has increasingly become the go-to for visual artists worldwide.  Indeed, graffiti art, in its diversity of forms and manifestations, has arguably become the most important movement to hit the art world in generations.

As for this specific Junction underpass, I haven’t seen anything quite like Richardson’s Suitman mural (especially not in Toronto).  The mural is dwarfing in scale, spanning the length of a long city block on both its north AND south sides.

The South side of the mural presents an endless line of spray painted stencils.  Clad in suit and tie, these stenciled images of businessmen link corporate culture to the dissolution of individualism.  Our worship of corporate growth is also likened to the excesses of religious worship, as each figure sports an ironic halo that is reminiscent of Byzantine-era iconography.

With their right hands up as if performing an oath, each Suitman pledges himself to the Bhuddaesque deity of corporate greed that is the centrepiece of the mural:

On this part of the wall, the Suitman playfully equates businessmen with prison inmates, a suggestion of white collar crime that’s complemented by the green bars of the underpass railings.  Joel also claims that the image below is not intended to look like Stephen Harper, though I suspect this is just a ploy to secure public funding.

And while the identical businessmen imply an erasure of individualism, a Madmenesque nostalgia for the suit-and-tie aesthetic is also present in these paintings.  Blurring the lines between irony and authenticity, Richardson’s effigies are surprisingly beautiful.

In spite of all the ironizing iconography, the mural also quotes both the Bhagavad Gita (an ancient Hindu text) and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

“I don’t think the free market should be thrown away,” Joel tells me. “I just want the capitalist system to be reformed in a way that encourages an equal playing field.”   The mural is slated for completion this summer.

One obstacle is that GOON, who is a talented graffiti writer in his own right, has reserved part of the North underpass wall for himself to paint on.  Joel seems to have left the signature up for now as a sign of respect to GOON, so it should be interesting to see whether or not GOON makes use of the space or if Joel continues his own work over it.  Much of being a graffiti artist means navigating a competitive turf war over prime locations (more on this in the coming weeks).

As for Joel, my interview with him took on some unsuspected twists and turns.  For one thing, he appeared in character, in a suit with sunglasses… I hope to publish a full interview with him sometime later this year.

As always, all comments are welcome below, and if you have a story to tell or tip for new graffiti that’s gone up, email me at pablolikessandwiches@gmail.com.