Douglas Coupland is invading Toronto.
Canadian luxury retailer Holt Renfrew, has unveiled Douglas Coupland's massive Gumhead sculpture at Toronto's Holt Renfrew Men location on Bloor Street in Toronto. The interactive installation highlights an upcoming exhibition on the world-renowned novelist and artist – a joint presentation of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.
The seven-foot-tall Gumhead sculpture is described as "a gum-based, crowd-sourced, publicly interactive, social-sculpture self-portrait." The public is invited to visit the newly opened Holt Renfrew Men store in Toronto and contribute to Gumhead's changing design by adding some of their own chewed up gum to the newly unveiled sculpture. The point? Eventually the gum will hide Coupland's face and create an entirely new art piece.
"I love the way art and culture are going in Canada," said Coupland in a press release. "I'm very curious to see what happens with Gumhead. What a strange and wonderful experience."
The statue is being used to help promote an upcoming exhibit of Coupland's work at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, titled "Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything." The ROM's exhibit is set to run from January 31st until April 26th, while MOCCA's will run from January 31st until April 19th.
This isn't Gumhead's first Canadian appearance. The sculpture (which has since been scrubbed down) was previously installed outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery last summer in conjunction with their Coupland exhibition.
