The Search for the Hidden Banksy

While I was sorry I didn't make it out to the unauthorized Banksy exhibit in Toronto, I thought the ticket prices were just too high.  Thus, I was pretty interested when I read in the paper that there was a Banksy that was going to be installed in the Path system somewhere south of Union Station.  It wasn't the highest item on my agenda, but I was keeping an eye out for it.

I finally stumbled across it last week.  What perhaps threw me off a bit is that south of Union Station most of the Path is elevated, which means it skirts the stage/arena area inside the ACC and then crosses over Lake Shore Blvd.

In any event, the Banksy is in this elevated portion of the Path, fairly close to the Winners, which itself only opened fairly recently, about halfway between 20 Bay St. and the ACC.  It's a pretty nice piece (cop with balloon dog), protected under Plexiglass so no one tries to mess with it.  It's also a pretty solid piece, so I don't think anyone will try to make off with it.

I don't head over that way all that often, but I will make a point of checking it out when I am in the area.

Last 2024 Updates

Generally, 2024 was a dumpster fire with the U.S. election just the icing on the cake, leading to what will clearly be a shitty 2025 and beyond.  I've certainly lost what remaining respect I had for Americans, and there certainly wasn't much left to begin with.  Probably it's just as well that Jimmy Carter passed away in time for Biden to give him a dignified farewell, since the Orange one would have been his typical graceless, asshole self.  I cannot wait for the day we hear of his passing.  I was going to throw a party when W. passed away, but it will have to be an even more massive party when Trump leaves this planet, hopefully soon.  I'll have to make more friends just to invite them...

I don't think I'm going to do a full year-end review of all the concerts I saw.  I'm just a bit too tired.  On the classical side, I saw Kronos Quartet (the last time with the classic line-up of Sherba and Dutt!), and they were amazing of course.  Laurie Anderson came to town in April, and she was incredible.  (I do hope she brings her new show to Toronto!)  I actually travelled to NYC to see Pacific Quartet, to make up for getting shafted and having to give up my tickets to see them in Toronto.  I was supposed to see Sheku Kanneh-Mason play at Koerner Hall, and, due to the idiocy of Air Canada, they had to cancel and reschedule the concert for June 2025!  This briefly hit the national news.  It certainly didn't help that the news of the cancellation went out at 5:30 pm that day, so I showed up with almost everyone else to hear the bad news.  

In other bad concert fiascoes, Neil Young cancelled his second show at Budweiser Stage.  I guess The Fixx cancelling their show due to a medical emergency actually happened in 2023, but Kronos cancelled a show in Montreal (that I had tickets for!), and then Perry Farrell essentially decided to break up Jane's Addiction in the middle of a concert, leading to the cancellation of the rest of the tour.  I didn't really care about seeing Jane's Addiction, but I did want to see Love and Rockets (again).  So frustrating!  Still no word if Love and Rockets will tour in 2025 or indeed if The Fixx will make up any of their concerts, let alone come over to Toronto.

The single best rock concert of 2024 was probably Squeeze with The English Beat opening, but I also enjoyed Spoon (as headliners at Danforth Music Hall), 54-40 (also at Danforth), Steve Earle (ditto), The The (Massey Hall), The Killers (though I hated having to stand for the full set!), Sarah McLachlan (the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy tour), Skye Wallace (once at the Great Hall and then 2(!) secret shows), Elvis Costello, and the Psychedelic Furs (though I definitely could have skipped The Jesus & Mary Chain).  Nick Lowe's show was surprisingly good, though I also had to stand for the entire set, partially made up by the fact I was standing near Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip!  I found out at the last minute about a Lowest of the Low gig at the Rivoli (I don't think I had been there before) and actually had to sign up for a spot on the wait list, and I got a ticket at the very last minute.

I really saw a ton of Pedro Almodovar films and enjoyed most of them a lot.  The best one (new to me) was probably Volver, followed by Broken Embraces and then I suppose The Flower of My Secret.  I liked the flashback scenes from Julieta but not the story set in present day, which pretty much matches my feelings about the underlying Alice Munro stories.*  (This more than made up for getting the TIFF membership, but I still fundamentally disagree with the way they run things there and won't be renewing for 2025...)  There are lots of interesting parallels when watching them back to back to back, and I'll try to mention at least a few of these connections at some point.

It looks like I have now managed to see all but 5 of Almodovar's films: Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Matador, High Heels and Live Flesh.  I suspect the best of the bunch is What Have I Done to Deserve This? (and I am definitely regretting that I went to see Sing-Along Messiah instead, as that didn't turn out particularly well, but I had no idea of course that my son would have gotten so stressed out over it).  I'll see if I can make a bit of a push to watch these in Jan. or Feb., just to wrap up my deep dive into his work early in 2025.  I keep looking to see about getting a t-shirt or magnet celebrating his work, particularly All About My Mother, but am really turned off by the shipping prices.  Maybe I should just bite the bullet and not think about it too much.  (I did save a lot by shipping several books and DVDs to my step-mother in the States, and I now have everything in hand except the massive Bergman box set from Criterion.  I just don't think it would be worth sending a t-shirt for her to bundle together would make a lot of sense...  Now it probably would make sense to send a Mosaic box set, but honestly I think I am done ordering from Mosaic.  I just don't listen to music obsessively the same way anymore, and it would just be a waste of money -- and shelf space.)

I bought a few pieces of art in 2024 and have my eye on one or two more pieces, though really I just don't have much free wall space any longer!

Probably the best art exhibit I saw was the Henry Moore-Georgia O'Keefe exhibit in Montreal in early 2024. 

I also went to Buffalo twice in 2024!  Early in the year to see the Clyfford Still exhibit at the Albright-Knox, and then back again late in the year to see Marisol.  (I had also seen Marisol in Montreal in 2023, but they did change it up just a bit in each venue.)

Marisol, The Jazz Wall, 1963

Marisol, ABCDEFG & HI (with The Family in background), 1961-62

Marisol, The Party, 1965-66

Somehow I keep forgetting that I made a lot of travel for work, including two trips to Edmonton (where the museums are generally dire, though the art gallery does have two terrific Alex Janvier paintings).

Alex Janvier, Lubicon, 1988

Alex Janvier, Grand Entry, 1980

I also made two trips to Vancouver (once for a conference), a trip to northern California, where I was able to take an extra day and hang out in SF (and of course  check out a bunch of museums) and then a trip to Baltimore for the TRB Equity conference.  The equity conference was terrific, but not only did I catch COVID at the end, though the symptoms passed quickly, but the Crowdstrike IT meltdown ended up stranding me in Atlanta!  Ultimately, I took a Greyhound bus back to Detroit and then Flixbus on to Toronto.  I may be conflating trips, but I think this is also the trip where my iPod finally gave up the ghost.  I tried several things to try to reboot it and resurrect it, but I think it is completely dead.  I'm not entirely sure if I would replace it even if I could.**  Generally, these trips are not documented very well, at least on the blog.  I do have well over 3000 photos from all these trips, and I could probably throw at least a few of them up here.  

I guess I sort of forgot that I went to the Banksy exhibit in the fall.  

Banksy, Grim Reaper, 2005

Banksy, CYW Green, n.d.

It was fine, but it certainly wasn't the most interesting local art exhibit.  That honor would go to Keith Haring at the AGO.  While it opened in 2023, I saw it several times, including in March 2024 right before it closed.

Keith Haring, Red Room, 1988

I haven't documented it well (yet), but the recent New York & Washington DC trip was completely over-stuffed with trips to museums of all sorts, and indeed my legs were really hurting by the third day, which is a new (and most unwelcome) development.  Getting old does suck...  Maybe I will soften my stance about not going back to the States, but it felt like a bit of a farewell trip, and I am assuming I won't go back until the Orange one is out of office, one way or another.

I guess this is the last day to give to charity, though I did hear that the feds may extend the deadline.  I gave to quite a few charities on Giving Tues.  I really had meant to give to Coal Mine, but then just missed the deadline for matching donations by a day.  I guess in the end it doesn't really matter, but it does irk me.  I should probably go back through the list of charities I typically give to and see if I missed any.  I don't make resolutions any longer (like to be more patient or understanding of others), though I have generally been keeping to my exercise regime (though I probably should add back one more trip to the gym or swimming pool per week now that I am barely biking) but not really to any sort of diet.  I am supposed to try to lose another 10 or 15 pounds, but that clearly won't happen until I buckle down and stop eating excessive carbs and/or junk food.  Sigh.

While I clearly have very low hopes for 2025, hopefully I am wrong and it ends up being a decent year after all.


* And of course, 2024 did Alice Munro no favours.  It was only a few weeks after she passed that we learned what a miserable mother she had been.  No question she is already cancelled in the hearts of many of her strongest admirers, and I expect her legacy will remain forever tarnished.  What this means in terms of her place in the Canadian cannon is yet to be determined, but it certainly can't help.

** I did have to replace my phone at some point.  While I did appreciate the much better camera (and storage for photos and video!), I do not like the fact that this messed up the interface between Ticketmaster and Google Wallet, which still isn't resolved and is a total drag.  At least Google Wallet works for other events that are not connected to Ticketmaster.

Expensive art

I mentioned a few weeks back that I thought the Banksy exhibit was just too expensive -- $35 plus a bunch of fees.  Perhaps I would have eventually gone if the total cost was kept to $30, though really $25 is kind of my upper limit for paying for a one-person show.  Ticket sales have been really strong, however, so it is unlikely they will have to do any last-minute discount or deals.  Too bad for me, so I think I will end up skipping this and trying to see the Banksy piece that is somewhere near Union Station.

What I was not expecting is that some of the Luminato shows would be so expensive.  I had been planning on catching Burning Doors by the Belarus Free Theatre with special guest Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot fame.  This would naturally be very challenging and intense, based on their past work.  As they note, there will be scenes of violence and torture, so leave the young ones at home.  However, if one is not an arts worker (and I can't really claim that, even with a piece in the Fringe), then the tickets work out to over $80 with fees.  Have I ever paid that much for theatre?  Yes, but only in very exceptional circumstances, and definitely not to sit for an hour or two and be made utterly miserable by watching man's inhumanity to man.  So I'll skip this as well, and indeed all of Luminato this year.  I'll just have to live with my memories of catching them in Evanston right after the company had been forced into exile.  For those of you still interested, here is the link.  They are playing this week only at Luminato.

Fortunately for you, there are many lower priced options, especially including Fringe, where even with the ticket fees, tickets come out to $13 (or even just $8 if it is a preview night).  As I have mentioned before, Final Exam has one preview on July 5, so come out and check that out.  Tickets can be purchased here.

Art in Toronto - Spring/Summer 2018

Last night my son and I checked out the hottest ticket in town -- Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the AGO. Basically, the advance tickets all went to members, so the only way the general public can go is to get rush tickets.  They have decided that the last two weeks they will extend the hours of the exhibit to midnight on May 17-19 and May 24-26, so I suppose that means there is a decent chance of getting rush tickets (starting at 10 am) for the late evening on those days.  It was an interesting experience, though it was about 2 hours of queuing for around 3 minutes in the various infinity rooms.  I wouldn't go a second time.  I will post some photos and video from our visit later.

There is still just under a month to check out Yoko Ono's exhibit at the Gardiner Museum.  See here.  I'll try to go next Friday after work.

What is even a bit more exciting to me is that the Gardiner is going to be hosting an Ai Weiwei exhibit in 2019.  The main event will be Sunflower Seeds, which are literally hundreds of thousands of ceramic replicas of sunflower seeds.  However, it is pretty clear that they won't be able to get the same scale as was achieved at the Tate Modern in London.  I managed to see this exhibit, and fortunately I was there in the first week or two, before health and safety protocols more or less shut down the exhibit (due to the porcelain dust from people walking through the exhibit).  Had I known how it would all play out, I would definitely have taken one of the seeds.  Maybe this time around, with the more compact setting, it will be possible to walk among the seeds again.  Ideally, they will sell the individual seeds at the gift shop, so one won't be so tempted to steal them.  Anyway, definitely something to look forward to.

MOCA was supposed to open up this summer, but now it looks like it will be the fall.  I haven't decided how often I will go.  It really is in a lousy location relative to transit, and it is far too far for me to want to bike there, so my guess is I won't go often.  In the meantime, there is an unauthorized Art of Banksy exhibit that will be right there.  I am tempted, but the ticket prices ($35+) are a lot higher than I think can be justified for his work.  Still pondering whether I want to go.

There is a photo exhibit being staged at the Unilever Soap Factory through June 3.  I might be able to make that today, if the rain holds off, though that will somewhat complicate my swinging by TCAF.  I don't actually have anything on the calendar for next weekend, so maybe I will hold off on that until next week.

This is the last weekend for the spring exhibit at Power Plant at Harbourfront.  I'm going to be honest that I haven't been all that impressed when I have made it down to Power Plant, and I don't plan on going out of my way to see these exhibits.  The summer-fall exhibit looks better, especially Ellen Gallagher's solo show Nu-Nile.  I'll try to go and should be able to squeeze it in, though I won't be crushed if I don't make it.

Art Destruction

I meant to get around to this post several months ago, but work has been fairly crazy.  Anyhow, last summer I went to the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and got into a discussion with the artist Bonnie Miller.  She had been talking up her project, called the Impermanence Project, where she would essentially loan a piece of art to a collector for 9 months (symbolic, no?) and then take it back and transform the work into something new, presumably 3 or 4 smaller pieces built from the materials of the original work.

While quite a number of artists have recycled canvas, and some even cut paintings down into new paintings,* it is somewhat less typical to cut up the canvas and layer it on top of other canvas, but that is part of Miller's aesthetic.  It does result in uneven surface that calls attention to itself in a way that "flat" paintings do not.  It is exceedingly rare for an artist to take an artwork back to keep working on it or, indeed, to "destroy" it.  I suppose at least Miller is upfront about it, unlike the Banksy stunt from a few months back.

The bigger question that Miller is probing is how people feel about the idea that a piece of art they brought into their home is only temporary, but beyond the idea of having a piece of art on loan (itself not that radical an idea), no one else will have that art in the future, as it will be transformed into something new.  I suppose this gets at the relationship people have with their possessions, with most people preferring to hang onto them and not think of them as temporary.  But it also makes explicit this idea that an artist should have some measure of control over their work even after selling it.  (I tend to react badly to this notion, but that's part of my broader disdain for the way copyright has been evolving over the years.)

The actual terms of the agreement make it possible for the buyer to have "keeper's remorse" and hang onto the work and not surrender it at the end of 9 months, but then they will have to pay a penalty of sorts.  So it is a bit of a gamble on Miller's part to see whether people will grow so fond of the work that they can't imagine giving it up.

I was fairly sure in my case that I could honor the original terms of the deal.  In part, I have a lot of art and it is often a struggle to integrate new work into my living space (and I have no idea what I'll do in 15 years or so if we decide to downsize!).  Also, while I thought the piece in question was interesting, I wasn't so in love with it that I would be broken up if it was broken up (literally).

Anyway, here is the piece in the studio:

Here it is after delivery:

  
And here it is, hanging over the fireplace:

I'm not sure it was intentional, but in the lower left corner there is something that could be a pink conch shell.

But it also looks just a bit like a reclining monk.

In the other corner, there is a object that vaguely reminds me of Marcel DuChamp's experiments in form (and of course DuChamp was well-known for recycling work, both figuratively and literally).

Marcel DuChamp, Chocolate Grinder No. 1, 1913

It appears there are a few more months to go on the contract, but at this point, I am planning on hanging it back over.  I'm actually fairly curious to see the smaller works that are refashioned from the larger one.  Certain parts of the work appeal to me more than others, so I'm hoping that at least one of the resulting pieces uses them in an interesting way.  But I won't know for some time.


* Here is one of the more interesting examples from Picasso's work where he cut the father figure out of the main painting and then painted out the fish that the father was dangling over the child.

I've seen the final painting at the Art Institute of Chicago many, many times.  I've also seen the fragment, but it isn't displayed nearly as often naturally.

Missed Opportunities (Recent)

I try not to dwell too much on things I passed on, since I follow so many different arts and it just isn't possible to do everything (this is certainly one reason that I am extremely resistant to add in anything new into the mix, particularly dance or opera).

I have a few minor pangs of regret that I didn't see the Banksy show last year, though I just thought the ticket prices were far too high.  I did discuss checking out a play up at York U (Goodnight, Desdemona; Good Morning, Juliette) with a friend of mine, but she was too busy, and I didn't feel like trekking up there by myself.  I had seen the play once before (at Brock actually), so I don't feel deprived.

I did debate going off to see TorQ two Thursday ago, in what would have been one of the very last evenings at Hugh's Room (I didn't even realize this was a jazz club, which doesn't speak that well of its abilities to get the word out!).  I was starting to get a bit uneasy about being out for any events, so I passed.  I have seen TorQ quite a few times, so it isn't quite as severe a blow.

There were a couple of concerts last year I got serious about too late and they were sold out.*  This includes Antibalas at the Horseshoe and Bruce Cockburn at Koerner Hall (though he almost only comes through on solo tours, and I'd much rather see him and his band).  I'll probably think of a couple more down the road.

I guess this is more like two years ago, but I didn't go see Collective Soul, since one time they were at the Phoenix, and I would have had to stand all night (and I am just too old for that!), and then they were at the Budweiser Stage, and I try to avoid that place.  (That said, I am slated to see two concerts there this summer and early fall, and I will not moan about going out there if the world has returned to normal and the shows go on...)

Oh, that reminds me that many years ago I passed on a chance to see Toad the Wet Sprocket playing in Chicago, and that I was going to make up for it by seeing them this summer out at the Budweiser Stage (correcting that previous missed opportunity).  The jury is very much still out if that will happen.

I had been hoping (and planning) to see the Sarah Sze exhibit at MOCA.  In fact, there was one weekend where larger cultural institutions were shutting down, but the smaller ones were open.  I went to The Power Plant at Harbourfront, and I would definitely have made the trip out to MOCA, but it closed along with the AGO.  It's not my biggest regret (out of everything that is going on), but it is the one that I could have handled differently had I known just how quickly everything was going to shut down.  It is true that the piece is being loaned to them by David Mirvish, so he may well let MOCA hold onto it for a couple more months after the quarantine has been lifted.  Certainly I hope so, but I have a lot of other things to worry about at the moment.

That covers a lot of the cases I was thinking about.  Some of the other things are wishing I had grabbed a couple more library books before the libraries all closed, but as I noted, I really do have plenty to read, and I might not actually get around to all the library books, regardless of how long I have to read them. I suppose if I had 100% foresight, then I might have grabbed Bottom's Dream by Arno Schmidt from the Pratt Library at Victoria College, as I would have the whole spring to read it.  This is apparently the only copy of the book in the entire city, and there's no way I can read it in 2 weeks (when things get back to normal) as it runs just under 1500 pages.  But this may well be a curiosity that I wouldn't actually like all that much, and really I have quite a few more pressing things to do first, like read Fante's Bandini Quartet or reread Durrell's Alexandria Quartet

A lot of the other stuff is out of my control.  I don't know if Picasso is coming to the AGO this summer or not, though I would say probably not at this point, but it won't be a missed opportunity since no one in Toronto will have that opportunity.  Most of my tickets through May have now been voided, but, again, everyone is in the same boat, and it isn't like I just forgot and missed a show.  I do try to take advantage of things when they crop up, and, consequently, I don't have lots and lots of regrets about missing out on artistic events.**  I certainly do regret there is almost nothing to do at the moment, though I suppose this too shall pass.


* To spin this a bit more positively, I did get tickets to the sold-out Laurie Anderson show, as well as Lowest of the Low at the Horseshoe.  I believe Angela Hewitt's performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations was technically sold out, though there were a few no shows.  Her upcoming (and rescheduled to October hopefully!) performance of Art of the Fugue is also sold out, and I have a ticket for that as well.  And it was a major coup to get a ticket to see Salman Rushdie speaking at the AGO.

** In terms of what I did see before the curtain came down hard, two full weeks ago (already such a different world), I saw Knives Out at the Paradise (which was amusing but not a great movie by any means) and Good People by Lindsay-Abaire at Bloor West Village Players (with lots of seats between people in the largely empty theatre).  While I have some quibbles about the way the character is written (it is not really convincing in the end why she doesn't fight harder for her severely disabled child), the performances were top-notch.  I would have been upset at myself had I skipped these opportunities before the expert guidance tightened up and made such outings a thing of the past.