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Ry Van Der Hout’s site-specific exhibition In Broken Light opened Aug. 26 at Toronto’s Spadina Museum and runs through Oct. 18. Five installations combine mirrors, stained glass and photography to respond to the mansion’s rooms and the histories connected to them.
Artist Ry Van Der Hout’s In Broken Light, a five-part exhibition of new sculptures and installations, opened Aug. 26 at Spadina Museum in Toronto and is scheduled to remain on view through Oct. 18. Staged across the 1866 mansion’s four stories, the works combine mirrors, stained glass and photography to engage with the building’s rooms and the personal histories associated with them.
The exhibition includes five sculptural interventions, each developed in response to a different part of the museum. According to Design Milk’s report, Van Der Hout’s research and conversations involved spiritual leaders, descendants of families connected to the house, historians, museum guides and conservators. The resulting installations draw on accounts that include forbidden love and fatal illness, while the exhibition’s approach brings those histories into conversation with contemporary artistic practice.
Van Der Hout makes the central sculptural forms by deliberately breaking glass and mirrors, then joining fragments with solder using Tiffany stained-glass techniques. Some pieces also incorporate photographs. Curator Adrien Sun Hall describes the repaired surfaces as metaphors for queer becoming and personal transformation, and says they create openings through which overlooked histories can emerge. That is the curator’s interpretation of the work, rather than a claim that the sculptures document a single definitive account of the house.
Among the installations, a fractured disco ball spins in a preserved archaeological excavation area in the basement, casting light across stone walls and infilled windows. Another work features photographs of Tiber, a museum historical interpreter, printed on stained glass made from a reclaimed antique dressing-table mirror holder. Van Der Hout told Design Milk that they found the object in a dumpster at their studio and felt drawn into “this story of an object” that seemed to signal they were in the right place.
Memory Reframed in Museum Rooms
The exhibition’s placement makes the mansion more than a setting: its rooms and histories shape how visitors encounter the work. Five installations across four stories invite visitors to move through the house while seeing familiar interiors refracted through glass, reflected surfaces and photographic images. The works connect the museum’s interpretation of former residents and household staff with stories that may receive less attention.
The project also raises a practical question for historic sites: how can contemporary art engage with a preserved building without reducing its past to decoration? Van Der Hout’s approach, as described in the source report, starts with research and conversations with people connected to the museum, then responds to specific spaces and stories. The exhibition’s significance lies in that combination of site-specific art and historical inquiry, not in a claim that it resolves contested or incomplete histories.
For visitors, the repaired mirrors offer a visual experience as well as a theme. Reflections shift as people move around the sculptures, placing the viewer within the work’s changing field of light. That encounter gives the exhibition a direct way to connect ideas about memory and transformation with the physical act of looking.
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A Mansion Shaped by Its Histories
Spadina Museum is an 1866 mansion with rooms and architectural features that reflect different periods of its use. In Broken Light responds to that setting rather than presenting the sculptures as a standalone gallery display. The source report notes that the former resident families’ stories informed the project, alongside research and consultation with museum-connected participants.
The largest installation, Open Wing Death, stands 12 feet tall in an unrestored room on the building’s third floor. The room was added in 1913 as a sunlit sanctuary for a resident with tuberculosis and later housed domestic staff, according to Design Milk. Van Der Hout dedicated the sculpture to the household’s domestic workers. Its scale and location connect the artwork to the room’s documented uses, while the broader exhibition includes works in other parts of the house.
In the basement, a spinning fractured disco ball is paired with a NASA-produced audio track. Elsewhere, the work titled Tiber incorporates photographs of the museum interpreter. Together, these details show the range of materials and references in the exhibition: historical interiors, present-day museum figures and contemporary sound and light.
“At the heart of In Broken Light is the understanding that shattering isn’t the end of a story—it’s the beginning of a new narrative.”
— Curator Adrien Sun Hall, quoted by Design Milk
Details Beyond the Exhibition Report
The available source identifies the exhibition’s opening date, scheduled closing date, principal materials and several installations, but does not provide details about admission, visiting hours, ticketing or accessibility. It also does not say whether the Oct. 18 closing date could change, or whether the works will be shown elsewhere afterward.
The report describes the histories and conversations that informed the art but does not provide a full account of the research process or identify every person consulted. Hall’s comments offer a curatorial reading of the work; the source does not present them as a substitute for the museum’s historical records. More detail about individual objects, the full set of five interventions and how the museum interprets each history is not included in the supplied material.
Visit Before October 18
According to Design Milk, In Broken Light is on view at Spadina Museum through Oct. 18. Visitors interested in seeing the installations should check the museum’s current visitor information for hours, admission arrangements and any access guidance before making plans. The source does not announce a later venue, extension or related programming, so those details remain unconfirmed.
Key Questions
Where is In Broken Light being shown?
The exhibition is at Spadina Museum in Toronto, an 1866 mansion. Its five installations are staged across the house’s four stories.
How long is the exhibition scheduled to run?
It opened on Aug. 26 and is scheduled to remain on view through Oct. 18, according to the source report.
What materials does Van Der Hout use?
The works combine mirrors, stained glass and photography. Van Der Hout breaks glass and mirrors and solders the fragments back together using Tiffany stained-glass techniques; one installation also uses a NASA-produced audio track.
What is Open Wing Death?
Open Wing Death is the exhibition’s largest work: a 12-foot-high ovoid geodesic dome installed 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; Van Der Hout dedicated the sculpture to those workers.
Are visiting hours and admission details available?
The supplied report does not state current hours, ticketing or admission details. Visitors should consult Spadina Museum’s current visitor information before going.
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