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Toronto’s Sculpture Garden (115 King Street East) has been a venue for the weird and the wonderful for more than 25 years but few installations have been as ambitious or as popular as Katie Bethune-Leamen‘s 20-foot tall Mushroom Studio.

Under normal circumstances the “sculpture” wouldn’t merit a styleNorth post but when I called the Garden administrator to ask about the project she mentioned that Katie had been “quite particular” about the furnishings that went into the studio. I had inadvertently stumbled upon a story about a real Canadian decorating a highly unusual space.

My biggest surprise upon stepping inside the Mushroom was the discovery that there’s a skylight in the roof, something you can’t see from ground level. All the natural light meant I had no feeling of claustrophobia–something I’m a bit prone to–even though the space is only 8.5 feet across at its widest point. The white walls also help to expand the tight quarter.

Katie’s specifications called for a build-in desk, which hugs the wall opposite the door. “Normally you wouldn’t work with your back to the door like this,” she says, “but the windows and door dictated where the desk had to go.”

The artist insisted upon a black, Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair, in part because she says it’s so ubiquitous in the art world. “The chair was designed to be functional, first and foremost,” she notes, “and yet it’s become this fetishized icon of modern furniture design.”

Katie was just as specific about the Jielde Signal Lamp ($450 from Toronto’s Ministry of the Interior), which she admires for its superbly functional design: “You can bend and twist it in any direction and the cord never becomes tangled.”

On the desktop is a similar office set-up but in miniature, below. It’s a whimsical allusion to the space it inhabits and also a reference to the artist’s inspiration for the Mushroom Studio. “The notion of mushrooms as habitable spaces is a mainstay of fairy tales,” she notes. “An artist’s interest in forging a livelihood from their work, and in the case of the Mushroom Studio, creating an artwork in which to create more artworks, offers an odd clash of the real and the fanciful.”

Constructed last spring and due to come down in mid-April, the Mushroom Studio has been Katie’s temporary work space for 10 hours per week, even through the coldest, darkest months of the year. Built and assembled by MCM 2001 Inc., the structure is fully wired and boasts a space heater, even an internet connection.

Not that Katie’s gotten much work done when she’s been in residence. “There’s lots of distractions,” she notes just as a young child hurls himself against the outside of the structure. “Whenever I’m here people knock and ask questions, they’re usually surprised to find someone inside.”

Katie says she’s ambivalent about the impending end of the project. In a few weeks the structure will come down and be moved to a country property where it will be reassembled. “I’ll be happy it’s over because it’s been a lot of responsibility,” she says, “but I also think I’ll feel sad, maybe even sadder than I’m expecting.”