A Toronto artist’s project featuring a series of plaques installed around the city that reimagine what Canada would look like as the 51st state has people on both sides of the border talking.
Inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st state, Toronto artist Dara Vandor began creating plaques that look similar to those that mark historically significant locations in Toronto.
The public art series, called Pax Americana, uses a collection of aluminum plaques adhered to surfaces in the city to create fictional narratives about what Toronto would look like under American occupation.
“Assuming that we were taken over, then we’d be American and there’d be plaques erected to the victors, right?” Vandor told Now Toronto on Friday. “It would be a different country and [this is] what that alternate history would look like.”
With the help of Gorilla Tape, Vandor has posted five different signs throughout the city, each with a different fictional story. She explained that to her knowledge, four of the five signs have either been removed or stolen. The only remaining plaque is affixed to a bridge near Union Station and bears the title “The Hot Dog Stand.”
“This spot served as the center of operations for United States Army snipers during Operation McKinley, the campaign to liberate the northern territory formerly known as Canada,” the sign reads.
“From February to May 2035, this site, code-named ‘The Hot Dog Stand,’ served as a concealed sniper’s nest, providing precision fire support, disrupting insurgent movements, and protecting advancing American units,” it continues. “These marksmen, unseen and uncelebrated, were the quiet vanguard of Patriot resolve. Let this plaque stand as a tribute to the enduring spirit of our American defenders, watching over freedom from above.”
Online some people seemed to misunderstand the installation.
“Take that garbage down asap,” one person commented on Reddit.
“If it’s supposed to be satire it’s not funny. I would’ve ripped it down,” another person said.
While others seemed to get the point.
“I don’t think this is pro-American. I think it’s the exact opposite. This really seems like someone pointing out how violent occupiers will erect plaques to commemorate the oppression of the local population,” wrote one Reddit user. “Both to inspire occupiers and make the locals stay in line. This is a warning about American aggression, not a support of it.”
“Its crazy that people can’t immediately see this is art and it’s designed to Stir emotions. Its not pro American,” another person said.
Vandor explained that she wanted to create an image of a chilling alternate reality, where Canada no longer exists as a country.
“So, I wanted to try [to ensure] as much as possible that each sign has a little bit of absurdity to it. Like a little wink that hopefully tips you off to understand that this is not our actual reality, right,” she explained.
“So, with The Hot Dog Stand, I thought, hot dogs are so American, right? Like, of course they would call something The Hot Dog Stand,” Vandor laughed. “Like it’s a bit of a joke, right? You know, like it’s a bit goofy, a bit tongue-in-cheek.”
Another sign she installed in March has the title “LET GO OF YOUR PAST, AND WELCOME OUR UNITED FUTURE.”
“On this spot on September 2, 2031, from atop an Ml Abrams tank, United States President Ivanka Trump gave her ‘Let Go of Your Past, and Welcome Our United Future’ speech,” it reads. “The surrender one week later of the last PTS (Place to Stand) Forces signalled the end of the most active phase of the Ontario resistance.”
Vandor plans to post another sign somewhere in the city this weekend, marking her sixth Pax Americana Instillation.
She explained that the reaction to the project has been huge, with many fans reaching out to her to share their admiration privately.
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“People don’t want to comment publicly or like the post publicly,” she explained. “I think everyone’s very digitally native right now and understands that these things are tied to them forever: what they like, what they share, what they comment on.”
Her project has received comments from Americans and Canadians, with our southern neighbours finding her work via her social media profiles and Toronto Reddit forums.
Saying she doesn’t think of herself as a political artist, rather a conceptual one. She explained that there is not a lot of anger in modern conceptual art, so while taking on a more political project, she has found people’s reactions interesting.
“Some people… think that it’s pro-America, [or] that it’s [by] someone working for Mark Carney,” she explained. “All the reactions have been really outsized, and I think this is because this is an issue that makes people wild. This idea of being annexed, I think, is making people really upset, as am I. That was the impetus, just my great anger about it.”
