The Fourth Wall: How Project T-Dot Transformed Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport

A Short Film on the Fourth Wall Expansion of Project T-Dot at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Location: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2025, Production Company: The Ark Media Group; Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Director of Photography: Ajani Charles; Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam, Editor: Keegan Tam

Approximately a 6-minute read.

Outline

Expansion Through Public Demand

The Power of Partnership and Scale

Accessibility, Reach, and Public Impact

What The Public Does Not See Behind the Scenes

Looking Toward 2026 and Beyond

Expansion Through Public Demand

Thank you to everyone who has visited my second solo Project T-Dot exhibit at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

What began quietly in 2023 as part of the 2024 CONTACT Photography Festival, following a personalized tour of my successful solo Project T-Dot exhibit at Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square for part of the Nieuport Aviation team in 2022, has grown into something far larger than I or anyone else expected.

The installation has now been extended three times and expanded with a newly completed fourth wall, an expansion driven entirely by public demand.

There is something powerful about seeing an idea evolve beyond its initial design simply because people keep showing up and wanting more.

This project has been reshaped by every traveller, every local, every supporter, and every Torontonian who has woven it into their movement through the airport.

The growth of this exhibit is a direct reflection of the city’s hunger to see its hip-hop culture honoured in a real, visible, and tangible way.

A Screenshot from a Short Film on the Fourth Wall Expansion of *Project T-Dot* at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Location: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2025, Production Company: The Ark Media Group; Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Director of Photography: Ajani Charles; Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam, Editor: Keegan Tam

The Power of Partnership and Scale

Presented by Nieuport Aviation and proudly sponsored by Sony Music Entertainment Canada, with support from Canon Canada, the City of Toronto, PortsToronto, and other key partners, the scale of this installation is the result of genuine belief, ingenuity, and incredible coordination.

This support has transformed the project into the largest art exhibit ever displayed at Billy Bishop and the most extensive hip-hop–focused public art installation in Canada today, and I have yet to find an art exhibit in Canada that embodies Toronto’s cultural diversity and features as many diverse subjects as my current exhibit.

To have so many major institutions stand behind this work is an acknowledgment of Toronto’s cultural legacy and the necessity of documenting it with depth, accuracy, and creative ambition.

I am grateful to both presenting and supporting partners for believing in the long-term vision and for helping it reach millions of people over nearly two years.

Partnerships of this calibre elevate a project beyond the realm of “art show” and into civic infrastructure.

The exhibit is no longer simply a display; it is a piece of Toronto’s cultural memory preserved in real time.

A Screenshot from a Short Film on the Fourth Wall Expansion of *Project T-Dot* at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Recording Artist: Smiley, Location: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2025, Production Company: The Ark Media Group; Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Director of Photography: Ajani Charles; Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam, Editor: Keegan Tam

Accessibility, Reach, and Public Impact

One of the most important elements of this installation is that it remains fully public.

The exhibit is free, accessible, and open daily from 5:00 AM to 11:59 PM, making it possible for nearly anyone to engage with Toronto’s hip-hop culture without barriers.

Visitors can reach it by walking through the airport’s underground pedestrian tunnel or by taking the electric ferry; no plane ticket required.

This accessibility was intentional; the goal was always to embed the work directly into the city's movement rather than hide it away in a gallery.

Millions have passed through the space because it meets people where they already are.

The exhibit has become a living part of Toronto’s geography, quiet, constant, and unavoidable in the best possible way.

A Screenshot from a Short Film on the Fourth Wall Expansion of *Project T-Dot* at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Recording Artist: Sadboi, Location: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2025, Production Company: The Ark Media Group; Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Director of Photography: Ajani Charles; Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam, Editor: Keegan Tam

What The Public Does Not See Behind the Scenes

What most people do not see is how rapidly the broader Project T-Dot initiative is expanding behind the scenes and how much complexity lies beneath the finished images on the walls.

This work is far more demanding and layered than it appears, historically, operationally, and creatively, particularly when considering the sheer number of individuals I have documented over nineteen years.

The exhibit is simply the surface; one chapter of a project that continues to unfold, and that includes archives, collaborations, and new media formats.

Several major elements will not be revealed until 2026, when additional chapters, partnerships, and expansions will be formally announced.

I will share a much longer message of gratitude once this extended run of my current exhibit officially concludes on November 30, 2025.

For now, the exhibit remains a living reminder that the city’s culture deserves to be preserved with the same seriousness as any global art form.

A Screenshot from a Short Film on the Fourth Wall Expansion of *Project T-Dot* at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Recording Artist: Roy Woods, Location: Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2025, Production Company: The Ark Media Group; Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Director of Photography: Ajani Charles; Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam, Editor: Keegan Tam

Looking Toward 2026 and Beyond

Thank you for visiting, supporting, photographing, writing about, and championing this work over the past two years.

The next era of Project T-Dot is already underway, and the fourth wall represents only the beginning of what is coming.

This exhibit was designed to honour a city’s hip-hop ecosystem as thoroughly as possible, but its next iterations will honour a much wider community of artists, historians, dancers, producers, documentarians, and cultural architects who shaped the Greater Toronto Area’s identity.

Much larger archives, installations, and international developments are in motion, and the next chapter will be more ambitious than anything I have released so far.

Your support has helped turn decades of documentation into a public legacy.

Below are the credits for the third and final short film featured in this iteration of the exhibit:

Production Company: The Ark Media Group.
Executive Producer: Ajani Charles.
Producer: Ajani Charles.
Director: Ajani Charles.
Writer: Ajani Charles.
Director of Photography: Ajani Charles.
Talent: Ajani Charles.
Editor: Keegan Tam.
Camera Operators: Ajani Charles, Keegan Tam.
Unit Still Photographers: Ajani Charles.
Camera Gear: Canon Canada.
Executive Assistant: Maria Chua.
Catering: Hong Shing Chinese Restaurant.
Soundtrack: “Lifestyle” by Dante “Ithedon” Lopez-Gomez (via The Remix Project).