While walking under the Gardiner Expressway a few days ago, I came across the debris left behind by those who once camped here. Or maybe it was trash that was thrown here.
Whatever the source, I found it rather fascinating to see what there was. Detritus as subject matter whether for photography or sociology or as anthropology in centuries to come.
A return to St. Helens Avenue and the galleries there.
A few galleries devoted to contemporary art can be found on St. Helens Ave. I know that I have mentioned some of their past exhibits in previous blog posts. Exhibits change and so back we go. The three exhibits that I saw today have little in common with each other. Three artists with different views; three men trying to turn their thoughts and ideas into something visual. The first gallery that I visited today is the Clint Roenisch Gallery where the exhibit is “Hot Takes, No Sax”, by Torontonian Niall McClelland. It will be there until 21st April.
From Wiktionary: “Noun[edit]. hot take (plural hot takes). A bold, broad, and subjective moral generalization on a situation, with little or no original analysis or insight, especially by a journalist.” Something written quickly and without much thought put into it. Although some people associate it with journalism, you could also apply it to a lot of things online – think about the comments section after a news article, or something on your facebook or twitter feed. Sometimes I think that that expression applies well to contemporary art – thrown together to provoke but not much actually went into it.
below: Running diagonally across the room is a line of trunks and metal cases that are covered with bumper stickers. On the wall are 4 images, each with a black and white background. The frames are covered with more bumper stickers. This is only part of the exhibit.
below: These are the three images on the wall in the photo above. The frame on one side of the image on the left has the names of four American politicians from the not so recent past – Nixon, Goldwater, McGovern, and Carter. Some of the images may be familiar to you as well.
below: More of the stickers. Is there a theme to them? How do these relate to hot takes? Which side is the artist on? “Urban farmer”, “When you sit down for dinner, thank a farmer”, “Impeach Trump”, “Give a hoot”, “The times they are a changin”, “Be green”, “Bio fuels: no war required”, “Who’s your farmer?”, “I’d rather be gardening”, “Nasty woman”, “Break the chains, shop at independent stores”, “Saving seed is a basic human need”, “Localvore”, “Whatever happens to the water, happens to the people”, “What is the proper way to fold an anarchist flag?”
Next is Douglas Coupland’s “Tsunami” at Daniel Faria Gallery, until 28th April. Trashy in a certain way. Coupland has collected, cleaned and painted various plastic containers and other disposable items he found along the shore in British Columbia. A number of the items probably crossed the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011. Trash on display? We’ve all heard the expression “reduce, reuse, recycle” which may be facetious here? Is it too pretty to be a statement about the environmental impact of plastics?
below: The large gold piece is a collection of more debris that Coupland has amassed and painted. Another one, all in black, is on a different wall (not shown here).
This spring, Coupland will transform the Vancouver Aquarium into a vision of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by filling aquarium tanks with some of the trash that Coupland has collected – by some I mean 20 tons of it. Twenty tons of found rubbish. Twenty tons of plastic and other debris. Jet streams will simulate ocean currents and the garbage will “float, bounce, disperse and gather along the tank, fragments flowing into one another like an overwhelming and exhausted assemblage”.
below: Tucked away in the back room of the gallery are four paintings like this, also by Douglas Coupland.
Part three is the exhibit “Raw War” by Bruce Eves that is on at the Robert Kananaj Gallery until 21st April. Eves was just given one of the 2018 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
“taps into a zeitgeist fraught with peril”
below: Part of Work #901 by Bruce Eves. There are seven panels in total. Every hour for a week in February 2014 he took his heart rate. The numbers in the squares are his heart rate. It’s difficult to see in this picture, but each square also has the date and time. In addition, each panel is a day. Something happened on Friday February 14th at 16:00 to elevate his heart rate to 123 beats/minute!
Eves has also painted a sequence of numbers that are actually nine blood pressure readings. It was after he learned that he had a heart condition that Eves started using his health (and the monitoring thereof) as subject matter. A self-portrait based on data about oneself, so to speak. How his doctor sees him.
A few things to think about?
(P.S. My apologies for the title)
Sunny September days make good walking in the alleys days. Here are some of the walls I saw and the compositions that they make. The textures of wood and metal, bright colours as well as subdued ones, the effects of light and shadow, as well as shapes and patterns – these are some of the things that catch my eye and make me stop. Throw a little nature into the mix and the following photos are the result.
I thought that I would see if I could find door pictures today. When I first stepped outside, I wasn’t sure what that meant. I just knew that it was a beautiful day and that I would find an answer to my doorish quest. “Que sera sera” as Doris Day once sang.
Well, what is a door?
door: noun. A hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard.
doorway: noun. An entrance to a room or building through a door.
Well duh, I think most of us know what a door is, at least in the literal sense. As an image just a door on its own is often blah, B O R I N G. There are exceptions of course, but if that was all I was looking for today, I wouldn’t be taking many pictures.
I also think that most of us realize that “door” is so much more. We find them intriguing. Door metaphors abound. Open doors are opportunities and invitations, think “My door is always open”, or “When one door closes, another one opens”. Closed doors are mysteries, obstacles, or dead ends. We talk about not knowing what goes on behind closed doors.
below: Closed for good. No mystery here, just a dead end.
With a smile for being upside down.
A closing door has a slightly different imagery – “slam the door in his face”, or “show someone the door”, or “don’t let the door hit you on the way out”. Can you picture the scene in a movie where the hero walks into a strange room only to have the door close behind him. Can you see the look on his face when he hears it being locked from the other side?
Doors, and their cousins gates, are both entrances and exits. Entrances to buildings and rooms. Entrances to other worlds such as “at death’s door”. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture to illustrate ‘entrances to other worlds’.
below: But maybe this entranceway leads to something exotic? That’s a better explanation than ‘someone went to Home Depot and bought lots of cheap corrugated plastic’. It juts out like a sore thumb from an otherwise well maintained, nice looking house.
Doors are associated with privacy, protection, and control. We feel more secure when we lock our doors. Closed doors, especially locked ones, can keep things in or keep things out. Closed doors separate, open doors connect.
below: Waiting at the door. I can’t decide if he’s patient or impatient. Perhaps bored?
Back doors are private, hidden from view. The expression “through the back door” suggests sneaking around. Front doors are part of the face that we show the world. They can be welcoming or not, a lot like the people who live behind them.
below: Or they can just be a long way up. How are your knees feeling today?
below: A bright red chair brightens the picture. I wonder who usually sits there?
below: Another bit of cheerful red.
below: Another closed door waiting for demolition.
How many people have passed through those doors since 1913?
below: I’ve always been fascinated by the sign above this door.
below: This door seemed to be out of place on the Danforth… it’s an entrance to the apartment above, not to the hair salon on the left. I like to think that she keeps watch over the doorway.
below: These two doors (especially the green one) caught my eye as I walked along the Danforth. On my first pass I had the wrong lens on my camera. After changing lenses, I doubled back. Just as I was getting ready to take a picture of the two doors together, the one on the right opened. Dilemma – to shoot or not to shoot. I’m not brazen enough to shoot someone in the face so to speak; this over the shoulder and hope it works shot is only second rate (or third!). I only include here so I can briefly go off on a tangent and mention my #1 problem with door shots. People. Pointing my camera at someone’s house often makes me feel uncomfortable and I have no desire to have any kind of confrontation, even a friendly one.
below: What to do with leftover tiles.
below: A contrast in colours. The door is in the picture but it’s become just an element in the composition.
below: This is the last of the Danforth door photos that I took today. Again, the doors are just elements; the mailboxes provide the focus and the interest.
below: Doors are part of a building. What you can do with a door is often limited by the structure of the house.
Having said that, if you walk around the city there is a lot of variety. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go through all the permutations and combinations that I saw today! I’ll limit myself to a few (sometimes I can do that!).
below: A few stone steps lead to a simple white entrance.
below: A study in compare and contrast – the wonderful result of semis where next door neighbours with dissimilar tastes, habits, and decorating ideas share a common wall.
Many steps and many hours later I find myself nearing the end of this post. It’s been a bit of a ramble, both in the route that I walked today and in the thought processes that helped create this post. I hope that I have entertained you at least a little bit. And with one final photo I will close the door on this post. Last one out turns out the lights. Adios.
“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” John Barrymore
Two empty chairs sitting in the sun. This photo is only a half truth; it suggests that the beach was sunny but empty yesterday when I took the photo. Sunny yes, empty no.
Back in the winter of 2015, I discovered the first “Winter Stations” event on a day when the temperature was -20C. There weren’t many people there that year! In contrast, yesterday was a beautiful and unseasonably warm February Sunday. Temperatures hit the double digits and lots of people come out to take advantage of the weather. It was also the first weekend of the 2017 version of ‘Winter Stations’. Although the installations officially opened today, all but one of them were completed and ready for the public yesterday.
below: One of the installations is “North” which was designed by studio PERCH in Montreal. Yes, it’s Christmas trees hung upside down. They are prickling to walk between. This year there seems to be a recycling and reusing theme in a lot of the installations. At least I hope these trees weren’t cut down specifically for this project.
below: Another installation is “Collective Memory” designed by Mario Garcia (Barcelona Spain) and Andrea Govi (Milan Italy). People are encouraged to leave messages in the bottles.
below: Paper is provided as are the bottles. The walls are constructed of horizontal empty plastic water bottles with the openings all on the inside of the structure.
below: The sun shining through the plastic bottles makes for some interesting effects.
below: Like most of the installations, “Collective Memory” encloses a lifeguard station.
below: The installation that wasn’t ready yet is “The Beacon” designed by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva (Porto Portugal).
The installation in the background in the above photograph is “BuoyBuoyBuoy” designed by Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, and Julie Forand (Toronto Canada).
below: One of many photo ops!
below: Notched ovals made of wood and clear plastic were used to build this installation. The wood pieces were either painted white or covered with silvery reflective material.
below: More reflections, this time in “The Illusory” designed by a group from Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology.
below: Someone has already written on (scratched?) the surface.
below: “The Illusory” in front, “Flotsam and “Jetsam” behind, and lots of people in between.
below: “Flotsam and Jetsam” was designed by a team from the University of Waterloo. It consists of cubes made of wire cages. The cages on the bottom are filled with empty plastic bottles of different colours and shapes.
***
The Winter Stations will remain until the 27th of March.
Take one ordinary semi-detached house on an ordinary street in Leslieville…
and add a decoration or two…
The above photo was taken back in November whereas the one below was taken a couple days ago. Many, many items are the same. The biggest change is that there a few more Christmas decorations now large candy canes, another Santa Claus, a couple of angels and an elf or two.
Call it cute. Call it creepy. Call it fun. Call it fascinating. Call it a mess.
below: Some of the dolls and toys are attached to wooden stakes that stand upright in the yard.
below: The fence is packed full with toys and dolls and the like, including this creepy clown and ghoulish green faced doll. The pink Powerpuff girl (Blossom?) looks happy and even Elmo doesn’t seem to mind being behind bars.
below: A red candle fence lines the entrance.
below: The retaining wall is also covered. Welcome to our Garden, Boston Bruins, more Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, Season Greetings and a frisbee or two or three.
I wonder how it all started? And where is it going?
I wonder what the neighbours think.
below: Coke, Dole juice, Diet Coke, Fanta orange, cans, cans, and more cans.
below: Coors beer, Canada Dry, Nestea, more Fanta, more Coke, all crushed and ready to be recycled.
The City of Toronto collected about 200,000 tonnes of blue bin recyclables in 2014. Since a tonne equals 1,000 kilograms, that’s 200,000,000 kilos of recyclable plastic bottles, pop cans, tin cans etc.
Piles of crushed recyclables collected from Toronto’s blue bins are stacked along Bay Street beside City Hall. They will be part of an installation entitled ‘There is No Away’ for Nuit Blanche this coming weekend. This work was sponsored by the city’s Solid Waste Management committee and put together by artist Sean Martindale. This installation hopes to raise awareness of just how much garbage we produce and throw “away”.
as I walk Toronto 