Refract: An Open Access Visual Studies Journal

Public Displays of Affection is a multimedia project on makeshift, spontaneous, and unconventional memorials randomly encountered throughout Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Small-scale, personal, and ad hoc in nature, each documents the passing of marginalized and lesser-known individuals. Found in random spaces of civic sprawl, these sites were documented between 2019 and 2022 in public housing, alleyways, sidewalks, storefronts, parking lots, bridges, parks, street poles, and apartment lobbies. If we are all interconnected, death, loss, and grief are obvious equalizers. These ad hoc memorials, disengaged from commerce or the need for social likes, often yield beautiful, community-minded, radical expressions of love.