Congratulations to all the fall graduates!

"When one door closes, another opens" - A. G. Bell.

Angela Grauerholz La bibliothèque (The Library), 1992, printed 1993 National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

It was a dreadfully rainy afternoon and I was out for coffee with a good friend of mine who happens to be an Art History major. Our moods were dampened by the wet weather as we exchanged laments about long lectures and relentless readings. The second-week-of-school-slump was upon us, and was only made more dreary by the grey skies.

For a few days before this meeting, my friend had been asking me to go with her to a photography exhibit on campus. I had said yes noncommittally, like you say yes to a parent’s pleas to walk the dog or mow the lawn. As our coffee date was wrapping up, she implored me to attend the exhibit with her, and my strong desire to procrastinate at that particular moment in time prompted me to comply.

So we huddled under her umbrella and walked to the University of Toronto Art Centre to see the current exhibition, Angela Grauerholz: The Inexhaustible Image. Organized by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, this exhibit contains the diverse works of the Montreal-based artist. The first room presents the artist’s personal collections of books, some related to photography, and her own photographs of paperbacks.

As you progress through the exhibit, there are rooms filled with her photographs, including portraits of women and images of fountains, paperbacks, and libraries, among other subjects. One room displays a sort of bookshelf which has black frames that can be pulled out to reveal photographs of doors, window views, and household scenes. While my friend carefully examined each image, I was interested (on a far more immature level) on just pulling out all the frames for the fun of it.

Another room, dubbed by the artist as the ‘Reading Room for the Working Artist’, projects a multimedia film titled ‘At Work and Play’ which flashes images of suburban settings, people, and books, while the music changes from creepy carnival tunes to relaxing piano songs. Also on display in this room is a futuristic looking chess set and seating and books for, presumably, the artist at work.

To provide full disclosure, I do not feel that I am entirely qualified to critique this exhibit from the point-of-view of a seasoned art historian such as my friend, who paid close attention to detail and will surely write a report for her class that delves into the deeper themes and subtleties of the artist’s intentions and the meanings of the works, which will be a far cry from this post. This stated, I found the exhibit to induce a somehow surreal feeling; as my friend commented afterwards in our discussion of what we had seen, the images flashed before you begin to feel like memories of your own. The exhibit is meant to be a reflection on time, memory, and collections, and it doubtlessly succeeds in putting such concepts at the forefront of your thoughts as you peruse it.

As I walked through the exhibit with the slow saunter which all museum-goers seem to adopt, I felt relaxed and somehow aged. The photographs and displays, emphasizing tones of blacks, whites, and reds, all attribute to a general mood of melancholy and dazedness. The title of the exhibit, The Inexhaustible Image, seems entirely true to its content, for the images seem themselves to be infinite moments in time.

Although, again, my qualifications to review an art exhibit are limited, I found this to be an enlightening experience. The exhibit was filled with images that any obscurity-loving Toronto hipster would drool over, and was an interesting and beautiful rumination on time and memory that served as a perfect diversion from the perils of being a student at the University of Toronto, especially when the weather is a rainy reflection of your own work-related misery. My friend and I left the exhibit thoroughly distracted and in somewhat of a dream-like state, a testament to the worthiness of this artistic venture by Angela Grauerholz, which one does not have to be an art history major to enjoy (although, I’m told, it doesn’t hurt).

The Angela Grauerholz exhibit is open at the University of Toronto Art Centre in University College until November 26, 2011. For further information about the exhibit and the Art Centre (and all the other wonderful things it has to offer including the permanent Malcove exhibit), see http://www.utac.utoronto.ca.

Award winning architecture studio RAW invites all architecture buffs, shutterbugs and those interested in city design to contribute photos to a new Harbourfront Centre exhibit ‘TOO TALL?’ launching Sept 30.  In conjunction with the Toronto Society of Architects, Harbourfront has invited top architecture firms including RAW, Architects Alliance, KPMB and visual artist Douglas Walker to engage the public in a debate on the role, benefit and beauty of tall buildings.

Through a social media campaign, RAW is offering the general public a rare opportunity submit photos to the exhibit and put the debate over tall buildings into perspective.  Hundreds of images are needed!  Examining scale as a relative term, people are encouraged to send in a quick pic using any device of ANY building they consider to be tall, framed between their thumb and index finger. Could be a building people like or hate, just put it in perspective with a caption up to 140 characters.  Pictures will be incorporated into RAW’s ‘TALL IS MORE’ digital installation. Deadline for image submissions is Monday, September 26^th.

Images can be submitted via Facebook, Twitter or Email and should include a brief description up to 140 characters. Max file size is 600×800 pixels.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RAW-architects-and-designers/133960586658656
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rawdesignTO
Email: tall@rawdesign.ca

‘TOO TALL?’ will launch with a VIP event Friday, September 30^th, and will be open to the public from October 1^st, 2011 through December 31^st, 2011. Harbourfront Centre is located at 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON M5J 2G8. For more information, please visit www.harbourfrontcentre.com