Fragments of mirrored glass split, gather light, and painstakingly come together as a new whole within the storied, historic rooms of Toronto’s Spadina Museum. Built in 1866, the grand Victorian-era mansion now serves as the backdrop for interdisciplinary artist Ry Van Der Hout’s latest sculptural interventions, which catch the light and open up fresh ways of seeing and hearing family lore. Entitled In Broken Light, the deeply site-specific exhibition features a suite of new works by Van Der Hout that officially opened to the public on August 26 and runs through October 18, inviting visitors to reconsider the physical and emotional architecture of the historic home.
At the heart of the exhibition lies a conceptual framework centered on repair, resilience, and transformation. According to curator Adrien Sun Hall, the core of In Broken Light is built on the understanding that shattering is never truly the end of a story, but rather the beginning of a completely new narrative. Hall notes that Van Der Hout initiates their sculptural practice with acts of intentional breaking, shattering glass and mirrors only to painstakingly solder them back together using traditional Tiffany stained-glass techniques. These intricately mended surfaces serve as powerful metaphors for queer becoming and personal transformation. Within the context of the museum, the resulting fractures become apertures through which overlooked histories emerge, effectively transforming the sculptures into contemporary reliquaries for lives both remembered and forgotten.
Spanning across the mansion’s four distinct stories, the exhibition comprises five major sculptural interventions that seamlessly incorporate photography, stained glass, and mirrors. Each piece has been meticulously designed to respond directly to the unique character and history of the house’s various rooms. To achieve this, Van Der Hout drew extensively on deep historical research and extensive conversations with spiritual leaders, family descendants, historians, museum guides, and professional conservators. The former resident families of the Spadina estate supplied ample inspiration for the project, as their real-life stories—ranging from tales of forbidden love to accounts of fatal illness—often prove to be stranger than fiction, offering fertile ground for artistic reinterpretation.
The journey through the exhibition begins in the basement’s preserved archaeological dig site, where a fractured disco ball slowly spins to a NASA-produced audio track. As it turns, the piece casts a mesmerizing mosaic of light across the rugged stone walls and infilled windows, immediately establishing a dialogue between ancient history, domestic archaeology, and contemporary cosmic wonder. Moving upward through the house, visitors encounter a stained-glass sculpture that incorporates printed photographs of Tiber, a historical interpreter at the museum. This piece has been shattered and thoughtfully reassembled by the artist, who constructed the frame from a reclaimed antique dressing-table mirror holder discovered serendipitously in a dumpster right outside their studio. Reflecting on the serendipitous discovery, Van Der Hout remarks that it felt akin to being pulled into the story of an object, guided by the material itself to confirm that they were in the right place at the right time.
Perhaps the most monumental work in the exhibition is Open Wing Death, the largest single installation on view. Spanning 12 feet in height, the ovoid geodesic dome is installed on the unrestored third floor of the Spadina Museum. Originally added to the mansion in 1913 as a sunlit sanctuary for a resident suffering from tuberculosis, the expansive room later served as living quarters for the household’s domestic staff, to whom Van Der Hout’s towering sculpture is dedicated. The piece actively engages the viewer before they even step fully inside; stray glimpses of the observer are caught in the mirrored facets at various, shifting angles. For a fleeting split second, viewers may find themselves appearing as a complete stranger, perceived as if through someone else’s eyes, before personal recognition finally sets in and anchors them back to reality.
Through these delicate yet powerful interventions, In Broken Light succeeds in reframing a 19th-century house museum not as a static capsule of the past, but as a living, breathing archive capable of holding complex, multifaceted human stories. By fracturing and mending glass, Van Der Hout bridges the gap between historical erasure and modern visibility, allowing both the building and its forgotten inhabitants to shine anew. In Broken Light remains on view at the Spadina Museum in Toronto until October 18.
