Posts Tagged ‘blankets’

you better watch out

Posted: November 22, 2016 in events, people
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

You better watch out, you better not cry
Better not pout, I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is comin’ to town

… and he arrived on Saturday amidst the gusty winds and light snow.   Winter arrived on the same day!

Before the parade there was the Holly Jolly Fun Race, a 5 km race along the Santa Claus parade route.

Holly Jolly Fun Run, before the Santa Claus parade, runners getting ready to start the race - group shot, woman in Mrs. Santa outfit, man in ho ho ho toque and red Santa jacket, woman in blue and another woman in a white Toronto hoodie

Holly Jolly Fun Run, before the Santa Claus parade, runners getting ready to start the race - a boy with black scarf over most of his face, wearing red gloves, gives a two thumbs up

Santa Claus parade - two clowns in fuzzy hair wigs mingle amongst the crowd before the parade starts, lots of smiling faces.

Santa Claus parade - two kids in shiny orange, green, red and yellow costumes, sitting on a float in the parade, they have their hands in mitts covering their mouths and chins trying to keep warm.

Santa Claus parade - Toronto mayor JOhn Tory poses with two kids at the start of the parade

Santa Claus parade - people walking in the parade dressed in large blue and white rabbit costumes, all carrying large stuffed carrots.

Santa Claus parade - a girl is looking cold, sitting on a float in chef's jacket and hat and large orange scarf. She is sitting beside a large sculpture of a woman sitting on a wood chair with an orange cup in her hand

- a boy is sitting on a float in a white chicken costume, two fake but real looking chickens are beside him

Santa Claus parade -

Santa Claus parade - a float with a very large replica of Thomas The Tank Engine with three kids sitting beside it.

Santa Claus parade - two kids wearing Toronto Maple Leafs sweatshirts and toques sitting on a float with a loarge replica of Carlton the Leafs mascot. The skate and end of the stick of a large statue of a hockey player is also in the picture.

Santa Claus parade - a young boy stands with his back to the camera. He is in front of people sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the parade to start. It is snowing and people are all bundled up. In this case, a mother and her daughter are dressed in white jackets and have a white blanket over their knees.

Santa Claus Parade - a young woman with a gold crown decorated with little red hearts, wearing a pale yellow dress, walking in the parade, waves at the camera

Santa Claus parade - the mascot for the Toronto Raptors basketball team is standing on the back of a golf cart driven by two people, others in costume walk behind, people standing on the sidewalks watching the parade go by

Santa Claus Parade - a man dressed as a clown with frizzy orange hair and a polka dot outfit laughs as the wind tries to blow his wig off

Santa Claus Parade - a black woman in a red jacket and brown scarf poses with a man in a clown costume with bright red hair.

Santa Claus parade, pokemon float, with a large yellow pikachu in front

Santa Claus parade - many people dressed like raggedy Ann dolls in pink, orange and yellow with bright red hair.

Santa Claus Parade - a young Asian boy stands beside a float featuring large sized characters from the Peppa Pig story books.

Santa Claus parade - three people walking in the parade with costumes that make it look like they are clowns that are walking on their hands, people on the sidewalk watching the parade.

Santa Claus parade, along the beginning of the parade, off to the side, a character in a Chase costume (a character from the TV program Paw Patrol) is posing with two little kids and their father

Santa Claus parade - a young woman in a clown costume with large fuzzy white wig, waves, she is wearing white gloves

two kids dresses as Christmas elves in green, red and white wave to passersby as they sit on a float with a large Grinch reading a book, Santa Claus parade

Santa Claus parade - a woman in hat and plaid shirt has a puppet of a long necked white goose on her hand and arm

boys cheering and watching floats in the Santa Claus parade, some people dressed in costumes like gold and blue toy soldiers, a fox on a float.

Santa Claus parade - at the end of the parade, Santa arrives on his sled being pulled by reindeer

people standing on the sidewalk cheering and waving at the Santa Claus parade

Santa Claus parade - two girls huddle under blankets and parkas while sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the parade to start

#TOsanta | #TOsantaparade

Surrender

Posted: October 16, 2015 in galleries
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

The title of the exhibit is ‘Surrender’ and the words on the wall say this:

“Liz Magor’s art invites us to reconsider our relationships with the things we encounter every day.  Through subtle shifts in materiality and context, her works reveal the important role that objects play in our lives: they can allow us to conceal ourselves or to express our identities.  In her sculptures and photographs, Magor explores how we depend on domestic materials to develop a sense of self.”

Nothing is mentioned about surrendering, or why the exhibit has the title that it does.

In the first room there are boxes on the wall.  Each box looks like a carefully wrapped sweater or jacket that has just been purchased.  I can envision a middle aged saleslady taking her time to package your purchase, like in an Eatons store thirty or forty years ago.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - two walls with many open boxes on them. The boxes are made to look like they've just been opened to reveal a sweater or top folded neatly inside, including the tissue paper that often accompanies a new purchase. The clothes have all been decorated with different objects.

On closer look, most boxes also have a hand print, or shape of a hand with index finger pointing at something and little details are amiss…  a ketchup package for example.

blog_liz_magor_cornhuskers

The second room has a number of smaller installations.

A garment bag left over a chair.
Neatly folded blankets hanging on a wall.
A platter of chocolates and left overs.
A tweed jacket on top of a liquor bottle.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - in the foreground are two long narrow tables. On one of them is a platter with chocolates and a platter with the remains of cheese and crackers.

A husky under a blanket (of snow?  on a bed?)
A coat and purse hanging on a hook.
The contents of a room boxed and ready to move.

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - 3 pieces. First, a pile of moving boxes and other items that look like they are in the midst of getting ready for the movers. Second, a large white blanket bed sized that has a hole in the middle of where the pillows should be but instead there is a wolf curled up inside the whole. Third, what looks like a jacket hanging from a hook on the wall

art installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario by Liz Magor - two hangers with plaid blankets folded over them hanging from hooks on a wall. One of the blankets has a clear plastic Creeds bag over the top part of it

On closer look, some of the details on the blankets are wrong
including the labels that are sewn on back to front.

The label on a plaid blanket is sewn on backwards so that the writing on the label faces the blanket.

I was interested in what people’s reactions were to this exhibit so I had a chat with a couple of the employees about it.  According to them,  there was no reaction.  Most people showed interest in the boxes but when they walked into the second room they rarely stopped to take a closer look.

blog_liz_magor_rose

As for surrender, I did find reference to it in the description of the exhibit on the AGO website, ” In this exhibition, everyday objects and forms, as well as the natural world, function allegorically by evoking the human need to surrender to desires, compulsions, fantasies.”  Once again, I will leave it to you to decide if this description fits.

Exhibit continues until 29th November.