The first thing you notice when entering Gallery 1313 is the pile of painted pastel plastic bottles on the floor -- or at least, they look painted.
The pale white and brown instalments are actually cement sculptures cast from bottles of water, Gatorade and dish soap found on city beaches.
"It looks like it will last forever," said Elaine Whittaker, co-curator for the Lakeside exhibit. "Of course, plastic does last forever."
Organized by the Toronto Environmental Alliance, a local activist and lobby group, Lakeside: Art Looks at Toronto's Beaches, is a melding of art and activism.
The opening gala, to which the public is invited, begins tonight at 7 o'clock. The show will continue daily until July 24.
The exhibit, held in the artist-owned gallery at 1313 Queen St. W., features an array of mixed-medium, photographic, aural and oil-paint artwork meant to evoke a connection with some of Toronto's oft-neglected public beaches.
The show is opening a week after four of Toronto's cleanest beaches earned the Blue Flag, an international award granted to beaches that boast high water quality and safety plans for pollution disasters.
Shelley Petrie, executive director of TEA, said she hopes the 13-artist exhibit inspires citizens to visit the beach, install more greenery near their homes and to lobby politicians for an even cleaner, more swim-friendly lakeshore.
"It's important for people to know what's in Toronto's backyard and for us to help them reconnect with that space," she said.The exhibit is meant to "provoke people to think . . . how it would be to go to a beach on a hot, smoggy day."
The exhibit was also envisaged as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Balmy Beach Club. In honour of the club, the show and the environmental alliance will try to resurrect the balmy beach dance, a variation of West Coast swing invented by the members of the beach club in the 1940s and 1950s.
The artwork features oil paintings of underwater-scapes, man and animal figures made of driftwood and rusted cans, and poetry documenting the passage of waves. Tonight, performance artist Ilona Staples will present a history of living by the lake on a bed of rocks with a rusted pan over a salvaged grate in the corner of the gallery.
Headphones that hang from the white walls present a history of the Toronto Islands by Wende Bartley. The art is meant to evoke a sense of connection to the beach while pointing out the degradation caused by urbanization and pollution.
Ms. Petrie said she hopes the exhibit inspires people to become engaged in environmental issues.
Toronto's beaches are often too polluted to swim in because storm water and car emissions captured by rain flow into streams, rivers and lakes, Ms. Petrie said. The city also deals with an inadequate storm and sewer drainage system that gets backed up when it rains -- leading to high E. coli levels in lake water, she said.
E. coli bacteria, found in animal and human feces, can lead to infections of the ear, nose and throat and to stomach pain, skin rashes and diarrhea, according to Toronto Public Health, which posts water conditions almost daily on its website. Children, seniors and people who are sick are most susceptible.
The city and its citizens could solve many of the drainage problems by channelling run-off water into green spaces as opposed to sewers, she said. Trees and grass could ensure that much of the water is naturally filtered before merging with creeks and lakes, she said.
"You look around Toronto and see numerous mistakes," she said, while pointing to a photo of an artificial island surrounded by concrete and water in Scarborough's Bluffer's Park. "It makes for a great photo though."