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Charity
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Charity

Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko

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Charity
web experience

In July 2017, residents of Cathedraltown, a suburban development in Markham, Ontario, awoke to find Charity, a giant chrome replica of a cow, facing their homes. The residents, however, had never been consulted about the installation of their new eight-metre high bovine neighbour, and quickly rose in opposition to the sculpture. After a barrage of complaints and numerous municipal-level discussions, the city council agreed to remove the controversial cow.


Charity looks at the unlikely controversy surrounding suburban public art, focusing on the bureaucratic processes that unfolded over several years in the Markham City Council as a way to consider the broader forces at play in our municipal democracies. Presented as a public digital artwork produced by the National Film Board of Canada in partnership with MOCA Toronto, this interactive documentary raises questions about the identity of a place, who determines it and the challenges of representing multiple subjective experiences and histories simultaneously.
 
 
 
 

About the user experience

Charity is a public digital artwork that explores the unlikely controversy caused by an oversized chrome cow being placed in a suburban neighbourhood as public art. The experience opens with Charity, the eight-metre-tall cow sculpture in question, being modelled in 3D on a computer monitor, while an audio recording (along with a transcript) from the Markham City Council establishes the bureaucratic tone. A montage further introduces the prize-winning Holstein cow replica and gives the viewer a glimpse of Markham during its development, long before the arrival of the bovine champ. With the scene set for a Kafkaesque romp, the film turns interactive by employing 360° video and photogrammetry to present a variation on the familiar interactive real-estate tour. As we navigate a house in Cathedraltown, it becomes a site to reconsider a community’s confrontation with a piece of public art, in turn offering a portrait of private property. The audio draws us further into the quasi-absurdist hole that is the council meetings in which the merits of the sculpture, and its ultimate removal, are discussed. The municipal-level bickering makes us consider the broader forces at play in our democracies and what can happen when a cultural symbol is set against an ever-changing cultural climate. With a running time of  approximately 36 minutes, this interactive documentary is an immersive and innovative case study in the challenges of representing multiple subjective experiences and histories simultaneously.

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Awards and Festivals

  • [object Object]

    Canadian Screen Awards

    Nominated for Best Production, Interactive

Creators

Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko

Creators

Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko

Parastoo Anoushahpour , Faraz Anoushahpour and Ryan Ferko all live in Toronto and have worked in collaboration since 2013. Their shared practice explores the interplay of multiple subjectivities as a strategy to address the power inherent in narrative structures. Foregrounding the idea of place as a central focus, their work seeks to both decode their surroundings and trouble the production of images through speculative narration and dialectical imagery. Shifting between both gallery and cinema contexts, their recent film and installation work has been shown around the world.

Website

Credits

A project by Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, in partnership with Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto.
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  • Camera, editing and sound design
    Parastoo Anoushahpour
    Faraz Anoushahpour
    Ryan Ferko
  • UI Design and Development
    Thinkingbox
  • Performer
    Chantria Tam
  • 3D Modeller
    Vincent McCurley
  • Sound Recording
    Benjamin Barton
  • Production Manager
    Amy Gotting
  • Colour Correction
    Dave Roman
  • Sound Mastering
    Joshua Stevenson
  • French Translation
    Marie-Eve Fortin

Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto

  • Adjunct Curator
    Rui Mateus Amaral
  • Artistic Director
    November Paynter

National Film Board of Canada

  • Producer
    Jeremy Mendes
  • Executive Producer
    Rob McLaughlin
  • Project Manager
    Camille Fillion
  • Senior Production Coordinator
    Jasmine Pullukatt
  • Operations Managers
    Camille Fillion
    Janine Steele
  • Studio Administrator
    Victoria Angell
  • Marketing Manager
    Laurianne Desormiers
  • Publicist
    Jennifer Mair
  • Marketing Coordinator
    Eric Bondo
  • Senior DevOps & Infrastructure Specialist
    Sergiu Raul Suciu
  • Project Manager, Digital Products
    Catherine Perreault
  • Legal Services
    Peter Kallianotis
  • Social Media Strategist
    Hannah Martin

Licensed Photos from

  • Metroland York Region
    Susie Kockerscheidt
    Tim Kelly

News footage courtesy of

  • Rogers Media Inc.
  • Bell Media Inc
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