Bigger Better than Ever

Project Artist: Shellie Zhang

Project Website 

Date of Release: June 23, 2022

“Bigger and Better than Ever” is a neon glass artwork commissioned as part of a larger project titled Stories and Storefronts; a storefront exhibition project on the culture, history and geography of immigrant shopkeeping in East Danforth.

The project looks to how Toronto’s streets and our day-to-day urban life came to be. In particular, it highlights a facet of Toronto’s storefront streetscape that may have been taken for granted over time and routine. Seeing wares and goods sold on streets is not an uncommon sight nowadays. However, this was not without strife.

The discourse around varying definitions of what is sightly and unsightly in the context of public space underscore a deeper consideration of what is to be seen and what must remain unseen. In Toronto’s neighbourhoods, mapping societal responses towards how pedestrian facing spaces and their associations with dining, agriculture and food have been used, and debated chart the changing demographics of the city and a conversation of what constitutes public good, civility and belonging.

In 1934, the Danforth Business Men’s Association organized a protest against the “scourge” of fruit stores selling their wares outside on the sidewalk. This association believed that fruit vendors violated a city bylaw and began and a public debate about what is acceptable to display on streets. The association attempted to parody fruit vendors by mimicking the act of selling their goods outside . However, the plan backfired and many patrons and customers welcomed this format of bringing commerce to the streets.

The title of this piece, “Bigger and Better Than Ever”, comes from a quote from one of the protesting businessmen when asked if their demonstration would come back. While this statement and the protest was intended to discourage fruit merchants from crossing the line into public space, over time, the phrase “bigger and better than ever” encapsulated how immigrant fruit merchants flourished on the Danforth. Nowadays, the streets of Toronto are difficult to imagine without goods being displayed outside. “Bigger and Better Than Ever” is a small glowing testament to local green grocers.

Additional Project Team Members

Shellie Zhang: Artist

Negin Zebarjad and Charlene Lau: Co-Curators