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Ry Van Der Hout’s site-specific exhibition In Broken Light opened Aug. 26 at Toronto’s Spadina Museum and is scheduled to run through Oct. 18. Five sculptural works across the 1866 mansion combine broken and repaired glass, mirrors and photography with stories connected to the house.
Artist Ry Van Der Hout’s In Broken Light, a site-specific exhibition of five sculptural interventions, opened Aug. 26 at Toronto’s Spadina Museum and is scheduled to remain on view through Oct. 18. Installed across the museum’s four storeys, the works combine fractured and reassembled mirrors, stained glass and photography with histories associated with the 1866 mansion.
The exhibition responds to the rooms and histories of Spadina Museum, a former residence now presented as a historic site. According to Design Milk’s report, Van Der Hout developed the sculptures through research and conversations with spiritual leaders, descendants, historians, museum guides and conservators. Stories connected to former residents include forbidden love and fatal illness, though the report does not identify particular individuals behind each work.
Van Der Hout’s process begins with intentionally breaking glass and mirrors, then joining the pieces with solder using traditional Tiffany stained-glass techniques. The assembled surfaces incorporate photography and reflections. Curator Adrien Sun Hall describes the fractures as openings through which overlooked histories can emerge; that is the exhibition’s interpretive framing, rather than a claim that the artworks establish new historical facts.
In the basement, a fractured disco ball turns above a preserved archaeological dig site. It casts scattered light across the stone walls and infilled windows while a NASA-produced audio track plays. Another work, made with a reclaimed antique dressing-table mirror holder, incorporates a stained-glass image of Tiber, a historical interpreter at the museum. Van Der Hout told Design Milk the object felt as though it had drawn them into the story.
The largest installation, Open Wing Death, is a 12-foot-high ovoid geodesic dome on the mansion’s unrestored third floor. The room was added in 1913 as a sunlit sanctuary for a resident with tuberculosis and later housed domestic staff. The work is dedicated to those staff members, according to the report. The other titles identified in its captions include Tiber, Orpheus Twice and The Shattering.
Mending Glass, Reframing House Histories
The exhibition matters because it places contemporary sculpture inside a historic house and connects the material experience of looking at broken, reflective surfaces with stories of people who lived or worked there. Rather than presenting the mansion’s past only through rooms and objects, Van Der Hout’s installations invite visitors to encounter those histories through light, reflection and sound.
That approach also shapes how the work addresses memory. Hall’s description links the repaired fractures to queer becoming and personal transformation, while the installation’s dedication of Open Wing Death to domestic staff directs attention to people whose lives can be less visible in accounts of a household. These are curatorial and artistic interpretations; the source does not claim that the works resolve gaps in the historical record.
The site-specific design means the experience depends on the museum’s actual rooms, including the preserved basement dig and the unrestored upper floor. The exhibition therefore offers a way to encounter the building’s history alongside new art, rather than separating the sculptures from their setting.
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Why Spadina’s Rooms Shape the Works
Spadina Museum occupies an 1866 mansion in Toronto. Van Der Hout’s installations respond to its architecture and to research about the people connected to the house. Design Milk reports that the work draws on conversations with people who have different relationships to the site, from descendants and historians to guides and conservators.
The clearest historical connection described in the report is the room that now holds Open Wing Death. Added in 1913 as a sunlit space for a resident with tuberculosis, it later served as accommodation for domestic staff. The dome’s dedication gives that later use a place in the exhibition’s interpretation of the house.
The method of breaking and rejoining mirrors also connects the objects’ appearance to the exhibition’s themes. Van Der Hout uses Tiffany-style soldering to hold the fragments together. The report presents this repair as a metaphor for transformation and remembrance, not as a literal reconstruction of historical objects.
““Shattering isn’t the end of a story—it’s the beginning of a new narrative.””
— Curator Adrien Sun Hall
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Details the Report Leaves Open
The source confirms the exhibition’s opening date and scheduled closing date, but it does not give visitor numbers, admission details or exhibition programming. It also does not provide a complete account of all five installations or identify which specific family histories inform each one. The report does not say whether the run will be extended or whether the works will be shown elsewhere after Oct. 18.
Interpretations of the sculptures, including their relationship to queer transformation and overlooked histories, are attributed to the curator and artist. The source does not independently verify every historical story referenced in the exhibition, nor does it describe the limits of the museum’s archival record.
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Exhibition Runs Through October 18
In Broken Light is scheduled to remain at Spadina Museum through Oct. 18. The source provides no announcement of an extension, later venue or follow-up exhibition. Readers seeking practical details such as hours and admission should check the museum’s current visitor information, since those details are not included in the report.
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Key Questions
Where is In Broken Light on view?
The exhibition is at Spadina Museum in Toronto, in the historic mansion that informs the site-specific installations.
When did the exhibition open, and when is it scheduled to close?
It opened on Aug. 26 and is scheduled to run through Oct. 18, according to the source report.
What materials does Ry Van Der Hout use?
The five interventions combine mirrors, stained glass and photography. Van Der Hout breaks glass and mirrors and solders the fragments back together using traditional Tiffany stained-glass techniques.
What is Open Wing Death?
It is the exhibition’s largest work: a 12-foot-high ovoid geodesic dome installed on Spadina Museum’s unrestored third floor. The work is dedicated to the household’s domestic staff, who later used the room.
Does the exhibition establish new facts about the mansion’s former residents?
The report says the works draw on research and conversations with people connected to the museum, and that they respond to histories associated with the house. It presents the sculptures’ meanings as artistic and curatorial interpretations; it does not claim they independently establish new historical facts.
Source: rss
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