05/01/09
Text: Nik Mercer
For the past 13 years, CONTACT―one of the world's most cohesive, in-depth, and international photography festivals―has been supporting and promoting the celluloid work of countless artists both big and small. Unfortunately, you―along with pretty much all of North America, not to mention the globe at large―hasn't really heard of the month-long shindig that consumes Ontario's finest urban hub for the entirety of May.
So, when Tourism Toronto invited us to check out a few days of the event, we couldn't refuse. Let's just put it this way: CONTACT is grossly overlooked, and we can't quite figure out why it's taken this long for us to get up North and check it out.
We landed Friday evening and were immediately ushered over to Brassaii (461 King St. W.)―named after the famous Hungarian photographer who rose to fame by shooting every nook and cranny of Paris in the first half of the 20th century―and enjoyed a filling meal before hopping on what appeared to be a party bus you would normally find packed with teenagers on their prom night. (If you've yet to sit under a ceiling-spanning LED light that mimics the trippy oozing of a lava lamp while sipping champagne from flutes and lounging on fake ostrich leather upholstered sofas as you zip around town, we highly suggest you rent one of these babies yourself!)
By and large, CONTACT is centered around Queen West St. and the Distillery District, both of which are on the west side of town, so that's where our gigantic F-650 shuttled us. We began our media tour at the Nicholas Metivier Gallery (451 King St. W.―right next door to Brassaii) at which the work of Jeff Bark was being shown. Bark's latest stuff has revolved around the juxtaposition of normal people as models and tropic thunderstorm-meet-dream sequence environments. The pieces wind up being really sexy (and it's not just because of the rainbow pastiche of gels he uses) despite the fact that all the people are masked and, in some cases, in, erm, compromising positions (the weirdest one, for example, involves a naked and obese 40-something man, passed out on the floor, surrounded by dead birds, swatches of cloth, and other unusual props).
From there we went to the Olga Korper Gallery (17 Morrow Ave.), which occupies the entirety of an old single-story warehouse. The stunning surrealist-done-formalist work of Lynne Cohen surrounded us along with the ever-present trail of smoke from Ms. Korper's cigarette. (The woman is quite a character: she lives in the immaculately furbished other half of the warehouse, dons light pink highlights, and can't be found without a smoke in one hand and a martini―or glass of melot―in the other.)
Then we swung by KOMA Design (1239 Queen St. W.)―a furniture store that is showing the aerial photography of Louis Helbig, an Ottowan obsessed with the mind-bending Canadian tar sands―and finished up at the artist-run space Gallery 1313 (1313 Queen St. W.) before finally finding ourselves at the Drake Hotel (1150 Queen St. W.) In addition to being one of the coolest boutique hotel's we've ever been to (think sparse modern comfort merged with gritty diner aesthetics), the Drake is a recurrent supporter and member of CONTACT; in fact the hotel is also a gallery!
We boogied on down to a local DJ's jams at the Underground, the lodging's subterranean nightclub, after chowing down on some lip-smacking sushi at the Raw Bar on the ground level. We almost called it a night at that point, but decided to cheer on the karaoke-obsessed locals at the Gladstone Hotel's (1214 Queen St. W.) Queeraoke night.
After a restful night of sleep, we set out for more gallery touring on Queen St. W. (when we say everything's within walking distance, we really mean it), starting with IndexG (50 Gladstone Ave.), a gallery and, strangely enough, bed and breakfast ($100/night for a room and continental breakfast in the gallery itself). A number of Anothermountainman's "lan wei" (abortive buildings) pieces were on display (the rest were stuck in customs) in addition to dozens of smaller prints by the likes of Araki and several others. If you're looking for a steal, definitely hop on over to IndexG. Some of the prints start at $30.
From there we went to the gallery of one of CONTACT's founders, Stephen Bulger (1022 Queen St. W.), and checked out the eerie photograms (and quasi-photograms) of Alison Rossiter, an American who has been scouring the world for expired photographic paper, some of it dating back to the early 1900s, and treating it with light and chemical washes to a stunning effect. The woman even "paints" with flashlights!
There's almost too much art to write about, it seems. We've barely touched the surface, yet we're already well over halfway through day two of our trip. Keep an eye out for forthcoming updates. The plan is to keep you posted with whatever we're keeping ourselves busy with up here. For now, though, we need to catch a quick nap before what's bound to be a wonderful opening night party at MOCCA (952 Queen St. W.) Until then, eh?
