People love these giant Screaming Heads, but how did they get here?
Midlothian Castle is the home to both a DIY sculpture park and an annual four-day rave
Destination: Art is a series uncovering some of Canada's unique, unexpected and under-the-radar art experiences. With spring in the air, adventure on the mind and many looking to explore more Canada, CBC Arts is adding some new attractions for readers who want to discover the treasures hiding in their own backyard.
For Peter Camani, Midlothian Castle isn't just his life's work, it's also his house.
Located in Burk's Falls, Ont. — 265 kilometres north of Toronto — the building now known as Midlothian Castle started life in the early 20th Century as a farmhouse.
Today, it's an expansive outdoor art project that's been the subject of over 12,000 Instagram posts, and is home to the Harvest Festival — an annual four-day rave.
Camani, a retired high school art teacher, bought the property back in 1981. At the time, it was quite literally falling apart, and he initially had no plans of making it into a local attraction
"I started repairing it in different ways, and the next thing you know, the public got interested because it was quite unusual," he says. "And I just kept going."
"The house was built in 1912," Camani says. "The old guys that used to live here used to sleep around the wood stove because the front of the house was falling off."
Over the next several years, Camani set about repairing the collapsed house. But as an artist and art teacher, he decided to do it with flair, adding a series of towers and turret-like chimneys, giving the house a castle-like appearance.
Concrete inspiration
As a kid growing up in Hamilton, Camani was fascinated by large structures and the concrete pillars used to hold them up. He remembers the construction of the Burlington Skyway Bridge and Hwy. 403 with fondness.
"You would be driving along or pedaling along on your bike, and in the middle of a field you would see a round tower of cement, 20 or 30 feet in height, where they were going to build a roundabout or whatever. So you would see these odd shapes… these large pillars in the middle of fields in Burlington."
Camani also draws inspiration from more classical sources, like the ancient Greek Parthenon in Athens.
At home in the artwork
It didn't hurt that, by making his home an art project, Camani didn't have to worry as much about building codes.
"The house is not really that large, so I wanted to build something larger," he says. "I knew that if you built art structures, usually the building department had nothing to say about it, right?"
Camani lived in the house while simultaneously renovating it, spending seven years living in just one room while the rest of the building was in various stages of demolition, construction, and renovation.
Eventually, the local building department gave the new additions a permit as a "leaning porch," making the structure legal.
As wild as Camani's house may be, the Midlothian Castle is best known for its Screaming Head statues. The large, circular faces with great gaping mouths, equal parts unsettling and beloved, have become so associated with the place that some people just refer to the site as "the Screaming Heads."
Camani started building the heads back in 1995 when the castle was due to be featured on the CBC TV show On the Road Again, and he wanted to have something new to show off. Initially, he wanted to add another tower, but the towers took around a year to build, and he only had five weeks. So instead, he built the first of the heads, a triangular, claw-like statue.
Camani came up with the idea of making the concrete heads in two dimensions, laying them flat on the ground, and then lifting them up with a crane. The heads have giant, creepy mouths, Camani says, and it's so they don't blow over. Specifically, he drew the idea from watching the construction of a nearby arena, and seeing its large concrete wall topple in the wind.
"So when I was building the first head, the idea is [with] the bigger the mouth, the wind … would go right through."
Camani then added three more triangular heads, followed by 25 round heads that form the shape of an eye when observed from the air. Next, he added another series of round heads in a field farther out on the property. The site now has over 100 Screaming Head statues.
Justin Martins, one of the co-founders of the Harvest Festival, says Camani's property is magical.
"It's a property full of art and creation, built by somebody who encourages other people to be creative."
The four-day, multi-stage electronic music festival has taken over the property nearly every September since 2007.
Encouraged by Camani, the Harvest Festival team has added several structures to the property over the years, including a geodesic dome and a pyramid. Martins says the festival organizers have developed a somewhat symbiotic relationship with Camani and the castle.
"We look at everything we're going to do as 'How is it going to improve the property?'" he says. "Not just for the festival, but improve the property for people to experience it throughout the year."
When the festival isn't happening, Martins says the property attracts many visitors.
"[It's] a free place to come and take yourself and your family for a walk… and see things that are interesting and engaging and thought-provoking."
Camani is still adding more sculptures to the site every year. His latest plan is to build a wall around one of the existing towers.
"From one side of the pond, it would look like a massive fort," he says. "It's got four towers going up. It's got heads coming up to make part of the wall, and then it's got hands coming up out of the pond towards the wall. So it's going to be a very complex visual image."
He figures the new wall will take about three years. At 77, Camani is going strong.
"It's one thing that keeps the mind and body active," he says.
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