A Rare 80s Snapshot of Wendell Castle in Toronto

The late American artist and furniture maker Wendell Castle – dashing in bow tie, oval-rimmed glasses and fur collar – beams in front of his sculpture, Full Moon (1988) at the corner of Yonge and Bloor streets. The six-metre tall public clock, created for Hammerson Canada, acts as an archway, time-teller and meeting place for quizzical locals.

Since his death earlier this year, the post-modern oddity has become a memorial to Castle’s functional art, from his innovative moulded plastic Molar chairs (1969) to genre-bending carved wood furniture that engages walls and floors at once.