The work received lots of positive reaction, from Zoo visitors, the media and the public, starting with three articles appearing in the Toronto Star from May to July.

The Toronto Zoo's giraffes now gaze down on long, rising structures of dirt and wrecked cars - 42 partial wrecks, to be exact - incorporated into the centrepiece of this summer's Zooarts Festival. …Zoo manager Cal White explains that the mounds are part of a pitch to new audiences and "a fun thing… It's also a gentle way to get people thinking," White said. Nearly every visitor will see Serpentine Mounds and its implied comment on our environment-abusing culture. "That's pretty effective communication with some shock value,: White said. "Not everybody gets it, but the kids seem to."

John Deverell, Toronto Star, May 18, 2004

This Toronto-based initiative recycles obsolete cars, and builds them into earth mounds structures. The burial of North America's most used consumer vehicles, combines a kind of ancient sense of earth burial. Ironically these sites are neither sacred, nor ancient, but land art that integrates and makes use of the end-of-the-line detritus of the automobile industry.

John Grande, Vie des Arts, Été 2004

The ambitious exhibition-which included site-specific works by Janet Morton, Joe Fafard, Karen Azoulay, Jeff Winch, Ian Lazarus and Badanna Zack-set an exciting new precedent for the possibilities of cooperative public art projects involving local artists, municipal governments and corporations. "zooarts" closed September 30, but its success had provoked interest at all levels in extending parts of the exhibition, in particular SERPENTINE MOUNDS, a large-scale land art sculpture by Ian Lazarus and Badanna Zack.

www.canadianart.on.ca, October 2004

Testimonials

Great example of commentary, with humour and grace, on our conflict with dealing with remainders from our modern culture and maintaining Mother Earth's sustainability. Creates a moment of thought on our personal contribution. I'll bet kids got it way before adults.

Paul Gallagher, Toronto (individual who saw the work online)

As a visual complement to the zoo landscape, this work was lively, incongruous, witty, and charming, and I hoped it would become a permanent installation. As it matured, it might have become a significant tourist attraction, the kind that stimulates interesting questions and comments. Kids, the zoo's primary visitors, would love it, and it could have been used to initiate discussions about art and the environment. Its very ambivalence would have helped this process: the car epitomizes our deep desire for the very commodities and technologies that cause natural destruction, and this desire must be acknowledged in any discussion of solutions. At the same time, these cars are stripped down and harmless; only their bright, unnatural colors and totemic forms remain to delight.

Kathy Vanderlinden, Toronto (individual who saw the work at the Zoo)

Funny, smart and potent. The Zoo was lucky to have Serpentine Mounds on its premises.

Dr. Stephen Kirkland, Regina, Chair, Friends of the Dunlop Art Gallery