|
International Art Treasures Web Magazine June 2006 |
Imaging a Global Culture
CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
|
|
|
Clay Davidson provides a simple explanation for his creativity, "Photography takes me to place that I enjoy." He began as a fashion photographer. Discussing his Parisian images he said, "The only color I see in Paris is African women's colorful clothing, otherwise Paris is classically black and white." |
Early in his career Steve Eprile was a fiber artist before he attended law school. He worked for the Ontario Government until his creativity beckoned. His works are enthused with the wondrous qualities of nature, such as in Solar Forest.
Art galleries weren't the locales for CONTACT. This was a terrific opportunity to show a variety of stores, museums and areas of the city to those attending the Festival.
Notably, one area of Toronto, The Junction through its BIA coordinated between various businesses such as The Hair Lounge, Post and Beam Reclamation, Latitude 44 Gallery and the BIA itself.
The Junction: The Hair Lounge
Title: Fluxicon 1
Event: Time Waves
Artist: Gera Dillon
Image Courtesy: CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
Darlene Adams owner of The Hair Lounge, located at 2940 Dundas Street West, in The Junction was pleased to be involved in the CONTACT festival. She said, "The Hair Lounge has been here for five years, it was our fifth anniversary on May 1st. I came into the Junction knowing that there was a revitalization going on and in five years there have been lots of changes: good ones. For CONTACT, the BIA set me up with it." The Hair Lounge showcases local artists on a regular basis, "We change the art in here every three months. Because of that I am quite willing to put up art all the time. That's how I got in with CONTACT. The BIA knew I liked to pick the pictures. I selected them because the colors would go with the salon. There was a lot of photojournalism and because they were kind of depressing I opted for something colorful to match the salon."
Throughout the month of May various events were held. One evening the participants from the Junction held open houses as part of the festival. Discussing that event Darlene said, "opening night was fabulous. I think we had at least 200 people that went through and a great response to everything: the salon itself, photos, CONTACT."
Darlene added, "We don't have a show with an opening night or anything like that. We do it every three months which is great because clients are usually here every six weeks so they see a change every single time."
The Junction: BIA
Title: Mother, 2005
Event: Mother, Father, Teacher and God
Artist: Sami Siva
Image Courtesy: CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
Chris Haskin, Coordinator of The Junction BIA said, "the Junction got involved with CONTACT to promote the area. In the past ten years the Junction has gone through quite a transformation. It used to be a dry area. It started to get a little more run down, not so many businesses came to the area, especially ones like photography and the arts. In the past ten years the BIA has tried to improve the area and bring more arts here; we have our Arts Festival. We want to make the Junction an area people want to come to; even just close neighbors events such as CONTACT brought people back to the area."
Where is the Junction? Chris explained, "The Junction originally back in the 1800's was the main rail lines for Toronto. This part of Dundas Street was considered a main street of Toronto. Then, when Union Station came, the railway junction slowly moved downtown towards the water. That's when the Junction started to decline. Now we are trying to build it up again. Many buildings are original and date from the 1800's." Adding, "the Junction through the BIA consists of Indian Grove to Quebec on Dundas Street and the first few stores on each side street. The Junction itself is a much wider area, including the entire train track area."
Like Darlene of The Hair Lounge, Chris was delighted with the reaction to the festival, "the response for CONTACT has been wonderful, especially here in my office. It's quite small and it doesn't usually have a lot of through traffic. People just come in and always tell me how much they like coming to the Junction and how they hadn't thought of this before. CONTACT is featured all across Toronto and we are getting a lot of people returning that may not of thought of coming here before. It's been nothing but compliments which is wonderful.
"Businesses just volunteered themselves. The one thing that we did differently here in the Junction is that the BIA subsidized half the costs for both the photographer and the businesses. This has helped a lot more businesses in our area to be involved compared to other areas of Toronto. CONTACT wants to use us as an example for other areas in Toronto to follow through with the same thing. We have our own marketing that goes along with CONTACT that is specifically for the Junction." In addition it was easy to spot the participating businesses because each one had a large black sign announcing it as a CONTACT location. Chris explains, "The signs outside are one of the most popular things that we have because anyone walking down the street knows exactly where CONTACT is. All of the signs are uniform, you don't have to worry about reading your map, you just walk by and see any CONTACT events. The Junction BIA has been using these signs for years now. At first they were just for our annual September Arts Festival where Dundas closes and all sorts of both visual and performance artists participate. We use the signs for most of the events we hold such as the Arts Festival and CONTACT. It's the same poles, we just change the signs. When these signs are up people know there is an event in the Junction and to go and check it out." The Junction Arts Festival will be held on September 9th and 10th, 2006.
The Junction: Post & Beam Reclamation
Title: Kampala, Uganda, 2005
Event: Theatre of the Street
Artist: Simon Willms
Medium: Traditional C-Print
Dimensions: 48 x36
Image Courtesy: CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
Doug Killaly of the Post and Beam Reclamation, said, "The response to CONTACT has been excellent here at the store. It really means that we've been able to introduce what we do to people who otherwise might not have heard of Post and Beam Reclamation. The response to the photographs specifically in our exhibit has been very strong because it's an emotional subject matter and although the artist, I don't think, is expecting to sell a lot of his prints. I think it makes a strong statement and that it reflects well on us as a store to support art that isn't just commercial."
The Junction: Latitude 44 Gallery
Title: Rock Pile, 2005
Artist: Brian Anderson
Medium: Silver Gelatin Print
Dimensions: 15 x 15
Image Courtesy: CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival
Brian Anderson, whose work was on display at Latitude 44 Gallery in The Junction was pleased to be included in CONTACT, "in the last couple of years there have been more places for an artist to show. It gets bigger and better for more artists and artists in general."
Leaving the Junction there were a great many more venues and exhibits. Nearly 175 locations in total. CONTACT is a succession of exhibitions, public installations, lectures, films and other programs that continued throughout the month of May.
M-One-11
Some of the venues, such as M-One-11, make a point of supporting local talent. Grace Carroll from M-One-11 described the store's artistic viewpoint, "we started M-One-11 Presents and each month we feature different local talents of any medium. We look for anything creative. We invited anyone to submit photos with a theme of 'living in the city.' From the ones submitted we selected 20 photos. Those that aren't on our walls are projected onto the back wall and this will run for May."
Steve Ferrara, manager of M-One-11 added, "I was a volunteer at Contact last year and I was interested but I didn't have this store at the time. M-One-11 represents the freedom of expression of art in all forms. It's runway meets street ware."
Laboratoire d'Art
Nicole Croiset and Jocelyne Belcourt Salem each created photo based installations for the event Culture intime, in Laboratoire d'Art, found in Toronto's Distillery District
Nicole Croiset said, "the Contact theme is global culture. I started to think of this medium. I am not fond of globalization but I'm not completely against it. I wanted to do something about people where people are the individuals. I tried to find the common ground between all the cultures. I thought of how pregnant women in any culture place their hands on their belly to express contact with their baby and to care for their baby. That's what you see coming through the larger poster in an intimate way. There are three allegories in the work: air, water and earth. Each is connected through gestures. Earth connects with artistic practice such as dance and music. It is the same way to play the drums regardless of culture. All of my pictures are about hands and gestures."
Title: Sometime I dream...Parfois je Reve..., (partial view of installation,one of eight) 2002
Artist: Jocelyn Belcourt Salem
Medium: Black and White Photo Face Mounted on Plexiglas
Dimensions 18 x 24"
Image Courtesy: Jocelyn Belcourt Salem
Jocelyne Belcourt Salem described her contribution to the exhibit, "it was conceived from my own phenomenon. I grew up French but spoke English. Sometimes I dream in French and sometimes I dream in English. I asked 8 friends whose mother tongue is something other than English to help. I painted a wall black and asked each to spend 30 minutes answering three questions. What is their birth language? Do you dream in your birth language and why? They each wrote their response in their own language answering my questions. I videotaped the session. Some came across as school marms while one whistled a song. After the time was up I photographed the blackboard and washed it. They are all artistic performers and they performed for me. The sound track is fascinating, not only the chalk on the board with a dismembered hand writing but also an explanation. It really reflected their personalities, sometimes in Farsi, sometimes in Italian and so on. I know that when I chat with my own mother in French often that night I will dream in French. I was fascinated by the text." It was a learning experience for Jocelyne who pointed out that, "I knew nothing of Farsi until this film."
Fluid Living
Title: Snare
Event: Liebe
Artist: Jonathan Forsythe
Image Courtesy: Jonathan Forsythe
Jonathan Forsythe, exhibited at Fluid Living in the Distillery District, was pleased to be included in what was his first solo show.
Campbell House Museum
Title: Auto & Aqueduct, Seville Spain,,2001.
Event: Spain and Japan in the 21st Century
Artist: George S Zimbel
printed and signed by the artist
Medium: Archival Silver Gelatin Print
Dimensions: 20" x 16"
© George S. Zimbel 2005.
Image Courtesy: Stephen Bulger Gallery
|
George Zimbel exhibited works illustrating Spain and Japan in the 21st Century at Campbell House Museum. He said, "I like the concept of the modern work being shown in a venerable environment. Hopefully people who would not normally come here will see the pictures and the museum. It wasn't an easy decision [to participate in CONTACT], it's a first and it's been a pleasure to see it on the wall" |
|
Through the many venues, CONTACT is a great way to see and learn about Toronto. For example, The Georgian style Campbell House dates from 1822. It was built for the sixth Chief Justice of Upper Canada, Sir William Campbell.
Cabaret Nostalgia
Not only historic houses, but vintage clothing too was found via CONTACT.
|
|
Thomas Drayton, owner of Cabaret Nostalgia, said "I am a poet and I write children's stories, so I'm an artist and this is all about beautiful art. We have to stay in touch with the people and keep our fingers on the pulse." |
His son, Tao Drayton adds, "The artist and Cabaret collaborated on a series of products before. When she approached me to do a CONTACT exhibition here at Cabaret I jumped at the opportunity. I thought it would be a perfect fit. I am so impressed with it and the way it was a fit with the store. I didn't see the images until they were installed, some on vinyl were inspired by the 70's records we have. We thought it would be a great way to launch her. We get celebrities and great thinkers. Cabaret is a cohesion between art, fashion and genuine authenticity. We have fun here and look for any chance to support people in their chosen endeavors."
Paddy Jane Gallagher, the artist at Cabaret Nostalgia, chimed in, "I love art and I'm also a real person. Things have to be functional as well as fashionable. I think of myself as a photographer, my models are both my friends and from agency contacts. I shoot because I can communicate things visually that I can't with words. With my photography I am the messenger."