Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
2020 marks the sixth year Dylan Toymaker has displayed his works of art at the Dark Sky Festival, held this year from Oct. 16 to 25.
Toymaker is a light design and installation artist from Edmonton whose eye-catching creations have been seen at a variety of other festivals including the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and Astral Harvest.
The dark sky preserve that Jasper National Park is, provides a perfect backdrop for Toymaker's works of art. Patterned cubes and a variety of other shapes are illuminated from the inside, shining a mosaic of colors on their surroundings.
"As a light and installation artist, darkness is a precious and valuable commodity," Toymaker said.
Toymaker's display is usually set up at Lake Annette, but was moved to Centennial Park due to COVID protocol because bussing people to the site didn't allow social distancing.
"I'm glad the site is more accessible to people," he said. "I really enjoyed the site in Jasper. The shape of the park worked really well for an installation."
Most of Toymaker's festival work is outside and he has done a lot of winter festivals.
"There's a lot of work in the winter, so lantern-based artwork works really well," he said.
Setting up an installation anywhere is a huge effort.
"It all depends on the scale," Toymaker said.
For the set-up at Centennial Park Toymaker said he probably spent 16 to 20 hours to set up over two days - Oct. 15 and 16.
Toymaker said his installation practice came from being at festivals.
"I was doing recycled materials jewellery and sculpture,” he said.
“Being in the environment showed me the place for my work at festivals."
For example, he said, at the Burning Man Festival he attended, it was almost all installation art.
It's inspiring to see 100 different artists doing their creations in a deep and meaningful way," he said.
A lot of the events he does are city-based, and many are music festivals but Toymaker has been hired to do displays at weddings too.
This work, he said, is his main gig. With festivals being shut down this year due to COVID, he's doing more one-on-one work. He's been booked to do more winter festivals throughout 2020 and 2021.
Toymaker noted on his website that he began his artistic career in craft, unexpectedly, while receiving a BA in Anthropology. Early experience working internationally in craft production in places such as Toronto, Vancouver, Tucson, New Orleans and New York, led him down a long and winding road to his real passion: light design.
With his art, Toymaker said, "There's a state of mind that could be described as enchantment about something in the world, and I find I can set up a world in a way that is enchanting to people. The medium of sparkling lights and shapes and moving patterns in the dark, have some very enchanting qualities to them.
"There's a new, different place when it's dark, that feeling of enchantment. I enjoy it, and I enjoy that other people enjoy it too."
