Gallery 6: PUBLICity
The PUBLICity exhibit at the Toronto Free Gallery was one of my favorites.
It is also the only gallery listed here that was in no way related to school.
The exhibit is a collection of works from photobloggers -- bloggers that write using images, more specifically photographs. I happen to reguarly read the posts of two of them.
Rannie Turingan and
Sam Javanrouh. So to my suprise and delight, they happened to be doing a collaborate exhibition which just started last week (and therefore fell within the timeframe of this assignment). A total of seven artists participated in the exhibit, but it was the work of these two that drew me in.
The gallery is two floors, and was entirely empty when I visited - which gave me the freedom to move and see whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and not have to worry about disturbing other people.
While a number of the photographs felt mundane and uninspired (the theme of the exhibit was "Urban Spaces") I quite liked the work of Rannie. Sam only had 3 pictures on display, of which only one I thoroughly enjoyed.
The above and below images are both Rannie's work.
All of the artists showing at this exhibit are from Toronto, which made me feel an immediate connection to their work - moreso than just knowing the locations that the photos were taken in. Knowing that everything in the gallery was shot in Toronto, by Torontonians was a nice experience.
The subject matter of the work varied widely - some were portraits, some were landscapes, some were happy, some were sad, some were big, some were small - all were presented framed and on the wall. Only two pieces from the exhibit were not framed photographs - the picture of the above work by Rannie (it appeared to be printed on a canvased frame), and an old television which had the screen replaced with a grid of tiny images.
Gallery 5: Christo & Jeanne-Claude
This was the third of three exhibits I visited at the AGO. It was well laid out over two or three large rooms, as well as a mini-theatre area showing a documentary on Christo's work (which I had already seen in one of my New Media classes!).
The exhibit was moderately busy but well laid out. All of his works from back in the 60's when he wrapped a telephone up to the current New York Gates piece were covered in writing and photo.
The magestic florida islands had huge conceptual drawings, as shown in the AGO. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are absolutely crazy. Having watched the documentary I have some idea of the obstacles and hassles they had to overcome on some of these projects, however I cant even imagine where one would begin to even start working on one of these projects requiring thousands of people and an exponential budget.
The only problem I had with their work that was done on such a massive scale, was that is it really THEIR work? I mean technically thousands of people made it. This is something that has always bothered me.
My favorite piece that was on display was the one involving pink umbrellas seemingly scattered randomly throughout vast areas. While I do enjoy the wrapping of obscene things, there was something serene and peaceful about the umbrellas that I felt lacked in the wrappings.
Sadly, as with the Group of Seven exhibit, I have no pictures because my camera was dead :(
Gallery 4: Group of Seven
The Group of Seven exhibit was the second of three featured at the AGO. As you recall from my previous gallery review, my camera died so there are no pictures from this exhibit or the following one :(
What was virtually inescapable when I entered the exhibit was the wall of silence that I'd seem to have hit. The exhibit felt almost dead it was so silent. The few people that were looking around moved as if they were cat burglars or ninjas -- attempting to make no noise at all costs.
The Group of Seven paintings themselves were magnificent. A great testament to Canadian culture that is all too often overlooked in this day and age.
The paintings themselves were varied in mood, style, subject matter and color - just what you'd expect from seven different artists. My personal favorites were any of the abstract pieces that experimented with color... they felt very vibrant and alive. More "modern" if you will, than the other pieces.
An interesting interactive piece in the exhibit was showcased in the first room. In a glassed in area was works (written and drawn) done by gallery visitors and submitted to the AGO. Some were simply stunning renditions of paintings on the walls, others were amazingly elegant critiques (some by people as young as 14 years old!) of the paintings. I felt it added an amazing degree of interactivity and closeness with the works, the ability to comment or reflect on them and have your thoughts displayed right next to those very works.
Amazing.
Gallery 3: Massive Change
The Massive change exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario may have been my favorite of all the galleries. While it cost a solid $15 for students to get in, I'd venture to say it was worth every cent. Especially since Dan and I went to see it the friday afternoon that we had the guest speaker in for Kathleen's class - the author of the Massive Change book.
The Gallery was massive in size - consisting of eleven (I believe) different rooms - the exact same way the book is broken down into chapters. It also offered an audio service, a cellphone-esque item that gave additional info on almost every single thing displayed.
The room full of images (as seen above) may have been my favorite room. The entire room is the antecedent to an entirely white room (save the text explaining how important images have become). The entire room is covered in images - some color, some black and white - all of various subject matter (there was even censored pornography).
Unforunately for me, my camera died only 2 or 3 pictures into this gallery. Which truly is a shame because I could have shot atleast 25 pictures.
I believe my second favorite area of the gallery was the military one.
Here military advancements and civil advancements were represented as working together. For example, the military calls something society uses based on military equipment as "spin-off", and similarly something the military adopts that was first designed for civillian life is called "spinning-on" or a "spin-on".
The entire exhibit was just a massive (ha. haha.) assault of information: visually and audibly. With well timed rest areas (complete with soft couchs and copies of the Massive Change book on the tables :)) and a bar at the end, it was an amazing experience!
Gallery 2: Dead End
Out of all the galleries, I would have to say my visit to this one was the one I liked the least. The space wasnt overly confusing, I just wasnt
into it.
There were a number of works (
Take Five and
Illuminations to name 2 of them), and there were a decent number of people in this gallery as well.
Take Five consisted of 5 copies of himself sitting around a table smoking a pipe, ala Duchamp. It was probably the piece I enjoyed the most (perhaps because it was the one I understood the most?). It was also a video installation, not just a picture on a wall, which undoubtedly added some appeal.
Truth be told, I actually liked the 3rd Year work at the Ryerson Gallery (which was just down the hall) far better than any of the pieces here. All of these pieces seemed based around the central idea that you had to "get" something for the pieces to have an impact on you. They werent intrinsical in their approach. There seemed to be a barrier.
Gallery 1: Sense
The first gallery I visited was the 3rd year New Media exhibit at the Ryerson Gallery back in January. I actually ran into both of you, Kathleen and Steve there.
This was an interesting gallery experience for me -- I happened to come a little after the reception had started, so there were plenty of people there. The space was not very big, however the pieces were fairly simple so it worked out qutie well - I think I enjoyed the gallery space more when it was full as opposed to how it would have felt when it was empty. It had more... life. more energy. I suppose the free boozing also helped that :P
While I enjoyed the subway piece, I would have to say the flowers piece was my favorite -- but ONLY after Steve had explained it to me. Apparently the movement of the flowers was entirely random - not the direction of the movement so much as when they were moving and when they werent. Steve had quite a bit to say about it and it really was quite entriguing to watch. I wish had taken video of it on my camera :(
Unfortunenately I didnt really get to see much of the bicycle because somebody
else was always riding it, however it looked interesting.
The final piece was a strange animal that made scary noises and ran around on the hardwood floors.
It was interesting, but I feel the interest lay mostly in the mechanical workings of it rather than the concept.
Looking forward to 3rd year...
