THIS WOULD BE ...

As a complimentary project to The Bench Project, I created stencils inspired by street artist Candy Chang. The stencils are inscribed with the words:”this would be a nice place for a bench.” Learning from previous work in the public realm, I have come to appreciate what factors allow for comfortable and pleasant seating areas. Wide sidewalks, awnings, sunshine and adjacent commercial activity encourage use of public seating. Given the time and expense associated with creating benches for The Bench Project, this low cost option provided an alternative solution to drawing the attention of downtown residents to the lack of seating within our public realm. Additionally, the media coverage associated with The Bench Project inspired many “pay-it-forward” actions. It was the hope that these stencils may also encourage similar acts of kindness to improve our main streets and neighbourhoods. Non-permanent children’s spray chalk was used to stencil on public sidewalks.