Hasta La Ideas

Miami-based artist duo FriendsWithYou travelled north to Toronto recently, to take part in the Wish Come True Festival. They created an inflatable town in the centre of the city, plus much more.

FriendsWithYou are artists Samuel Borkson and Arturao Sandoval III. They have worked together since 2002, and say that they want to spread a “postive message of Magic, Luck and Friendship with their art”. They certainly appear to have brought a lot of joy to Toronto, judging by the pics they have sent us.

The Wish Come True Festival took place from June 10-20. FriendsWithYou were commissioned by the Luminato Festival of the Arts to create work for the festival, and responded with a number of inflatable installations, a pop-up shop, gallery show and an animation.

At the centre of their work was The Rainbow King, above, an ambassador for the festival. You an see him making his way around town in the YouTube film above.

The Rainbow City, a large installation of giant totems, magical mushrooms, oversized bouncy houses, and inflatable characters all appeared in downtown Toronto, on the site of the city’s presitigious parliament building in Queen’s Park. Visitors were invited to play with all the sculptures.

Sculptures were also displayed in two large-scale commercial spaces in the city. Starburst, shown first above, was displayed at the Bay Adelaide Centre. “Starburst is the captured moment of an exploding star,” say FriendsWithYou. “In its grand scale it is kinetic even without motion. He is constantly exploding and being reborn for you to witness.” The Secret Garden, above, was displayed in the Wintergarden lobby.

In addition, FriendsWithYou showed a solo exhibition of paintings at Narwhal Art Projects and also set up a pop-up shop at Magic Pony in the city, selling prints and art products. Two of the prints are shown above. These can also be brought online on the artists’ website, here. We defy you not to feel cheerful looking at their work.