Dylan Toymaker’s artistic practice finds the intersection of light, technology, and public gathering. Based in Edmonton, Toymaker’s brilliant light design transforms festivals and urban spaces into immersive, participatory environments.
Toymaker designs and crafts intricate, dazzling light structures and lantern systems, with a focus on “placemaking and path-finding.” HIs work has been part of the nighttime landscape of numerous Alberta festivals, including the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, North Country Fair, the Jasper Dark Sky Festival, and recently Calgary’s Block Heater festival, where he designed a unique lantern display to illuminate the CKUA tent at night.
Perhaps his most impressive work, however, can be found at the Flying Canoë Volant festival, where he has designed, built, and curated all aspects of the festival’s light design since 2012.
“Working on event work…brings people together to experience each other, mediated by this sort of alternate reality art form.”
Toymaker began his art career while pursuing a degree in Anthropology from the University of Alberta in the 1990s. While he found study of people and culture fascinating, he always “imagined [himself] as someone who does the culture” rather than observe it. After completing his studies, he decided to pursue a full-time career in the arts, starting with selling jewelry and sculptures on the North American festival circuit, including extended stays in Toronto, Vancouver, Tucson, New Orleans and New York.
While enjoying life on the road as a travelling artist, Toymaker observed “the big gap of lightness” present in festivals’ nighttime landscapes.
“The stages would be lit up, maybe the bathrooms if you’re lucky, but then all the stuff in between was not really well lit,” he recalls. So, using the LED lights he employed in his craftwork, he began making small light installations that were not only practical, but also added ambiance to the festival environment. As Toymaker’s reputation grew and the technology behind LEDs evolved, he began crafting more elaborate displays that functioned both as infrastructure and immersive art— “real solid, but also [a] magical adventure into an alternate reality.”
As his installations grew from small lighting experiments into site-wide works, Toymaker found himself working at a much bigger scale and in more places. But that experience also made it clear how much those projects depend on time, familiarity, and the people around them. In that sense, Toymaker’s decision to root himself in Edmonton is a practical one.
“Doing the really big things required time and investment with people for a while,” he explains. “I had a solid network here, so at the end of that travel time, it felt really good to be investing in a studio that I was going to be in for a while.”
Ultimately, Toymaker takes pride in being able to create and showcase his work at home. “Wanting to do the cool thing in your backyard is absolutely… part of the on-purposeness with why [we] choose to stay and do cool things.”
Toymaker’s work is as much about the people who move through his installations as it is about the lights themselves. Whether illuminating a festival pathway or reshaping a familiar space, his practice continues stems from a simple idea: that art can help us find our way.
Learn more about Dylan Toymaker’s work here.
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