Installation

Framed within the backdrop of the historic 130-year-old Gladstone Hotel, ‘Come Up To My Room’ invites artists and designers to create a 4-day site-specific, immersive installations that stimulate the imagination and encourage discussion and dialogue between contributors and visitors alike. In 2013 Rachael Speirs completed an immersive installation called "The Island of Bonemeal". Generously funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council , in her room Rachael has created a mock exhibit about an island she created called ‘Bonemeal'. The installation tells the tale of a small girl named Isobel and a fictional plague that haunts its inhabitants. Isobels grandfather, an inventor, pharmacist and doctor, evacuates the entire village on his ship. Which ends up sinking in the waters just off the shore of the island. Little did he know, Isobel was hiding in the walls of his apothecary and never made it on the ship, leaving her behind as the only remaining living inhabitant of Bonemeal. The installation features the fictional excavated remains of a shipwreck that occurred off its shores. The fantastical story is steeped in metaphors as a way to translate questions of daily life and distort the unpleasant or mundane into an absurd and fractured folk tale. "The Island of Bonemeal" was listed on BlogTO as one of the top 5 must see installations at 'Come up to my room, 2013'.