A Week of Culture

Last week, Marcia and I attended three cultural events around the City.
The first one was at Daniels Spectrum on Dundas Street East. 
This new venue was rebuilt as part of the Regent Park development project.
Not only is it a community centre, but a work space, gallery and an exhibit space.

Earlier this month, I acquired free tickets for "Fractured Land" and "Keepers of the Water", which was part of the "Water Docs".
So, on Tuesday, we braved the rain, and enjoyed two documentaries. Afterwards, there was some free appetizers for the film goers.

On Wednesday, we had lunch at the New Yorker Deli, and then walked over to the Gardiner Museum. I had a MAP (Museum and Arts Pass) from the Toronto Library, so this visit was free. 
Since we arrived just before 2 o'clock, we were able to take advantage of the FREE guided tour.

The exhibit was called "Beneath the Surface".
According to our guide, there was a flood that exposed a host of artifacts on the banks of the Rio Grande Coclé in Panama around 1940.
Some of these artifacts were an display at the Museum.

Then on Thursday, we enjoyed a free documentary called "Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven", at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.

This film chronicled the travels by train, canoe and by foot of four people in Northern Ontario who searched for the exact spots where some of the Group of Seven painters (Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, R.H. Thomson, Arthur Lismer and A.J. Carson) had stopped to sketch the Canadian landscapes.
This is the poster from the film. 

The painting is titled "Solemn Land, Algoma" by J.E.H. MacDonald.
Well, I think we had our fill of "Culture" for this week.
The nice part was not needing to spend a lot of money for our outings.

 

The Aga Kham Museum

The Aga Khan Museum opened in September of 2014, and both Marcia and I decided we needed to visit this new place.
This is an aerial view of the cultural centre located in Don Mills.

Once again the Toronto Library gave us passes (MAP) to the Museum.
The building itself was designed by Fumihiko Maki, while the surrounding garden was designed by Vladimir Djurovic.

"The architect (F. Maki) used light as his inspiration by ensuring that light was ever-present in the building".
                    Quote is from the Aga Khan web site.

The landscape designer, on the other hand, based the garden on a traditional Persian and Mughal (a four part garden).
Beyond the edges of the formal garden is a park area with Silver Birch, Magnolia and Aspens, to name a few.
A lot of the shrubs and plants are favourites of our local birds and will attract butterflies, as well as honey bees.

 
 This will give you an idea of the Museum and the reflecting pond.

Inside, we were greeted by a chatty Muslim woman, who gave us some idea of the current exhibits that we could see.

This is a picture I took of a huge Persian rug in one of the exhibit rooms.

Here we have a beggar's bowl (Kashkul).
It is a beautifully engraved ceremonial object with dragon heads at each end.
It was used by wandering mystics, who had renounced all of their worldly possessions and subsisted only on alms.

I tried to get a picture of these two ceramic birds, but it did not turn out.
So I nabbed it from cyberspace.

All in all we were suitably impressed with not only the artifacts and the building, but also the surrounding landscape. We both agreed that we should visit again, since they do change the exhibits, much like other museums.

They also do tours (for a price), Check the web site for any more info.
 

Royal Ontario Museum Rotunda

The intricate designs in the mosaic ceiling of the ROM are probably overlooked by most visitors.
I happened to be on an "Insider's Tour" one afternoon, when the guide stopped to point out the various symbols that adorn the museum's rotunda.

The writing says "That All Men Shall Know His Work".
The rotunda was designed by the ROM architects as part of the 1932 addition to the main building.
Italian craftsmen from Connolly Marble and Tile, worked for eight months to assemble and install the tiles from more than 4,000 12inch by 18 inch Venetian glass.

It was meant to reflect the breadth of the collections contained within.
Above the arches, and in the four corners of the base, are representations of four different styles of architecture:

• Mesopotamian ziggurat
• Egyptian pylon or gateway
• Classic Greek temple
• Mayan temple

 

Between the arches, are four panels; each containing symbols of the early culture.
Some examples are:

• A bison - reminding us of the early cave drawings
•  The winged Lion of St Mark (from Venice)
• The Sacred White Elephant, from India
• The Egyptian Falcon, grasping the symbol for the fullness of Life.

 In total, the symbolism of the dome's pictures suggests a unity of spirit for all work through the ages.

Turner at the AGO

We were nearing the end of the Turner Exhibit, so Marcia and I attended one day last week (she has a membership).

I also wanted my friend, Kinga to see this exhibit, so I snapped up a MAP (Museum and Arts Pass) from my local library.
We almost didn't make it into the gallery, due to the fact that I never kept the receipt.

But, I managed to hike over to the Lillian H. Smith Library, where they reprinted the receipt. Thank goodness!
We still had to pay ten dollars each to see the exhibit, because the MAP only gets you in the gallery.

I snapped a couple of pictures, but anyone can see his landscapes simply by surfing the net.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851).
He was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London.
His father was a barber and wig maker, while his mother came from a family of butchers.
There is a film that was released in 2014 (Mr. Turner). His character was played by Timothy Spall.

 

 According to Wikipedia, Turner became more eccentric over the years, and had only a few close friends. Apparently, his father lived with him for some 30 years, working as his studio assistant, where he mixed pigments and stretched canvases for his son.

This is a photo of my favourite Turner painting.
At the end of the gallery tour, Kinga said "it makes me want to go home and paint".

The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art

To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, this year, the Gardiner Museum invited a British artist by the name of Clare Twomey to create a new installation that somewhat reflects some of the museum's vast collection. of ceramics.

The artist was intrigued with George and Helen Gardiner's private collection of Commedia dell'arte porcelain figurines; and so started to work on moulds of Harlequin, Leda and Scaramouch.

From these moulds, Clare and a team of five women hand-made two hundred and forty objects.
They then kiln fired them and the result was 2,000 figurines ready for shipment to Toronto.

Thus, "Piece by Piece" was created.

 

 My friend Marcia and I visited the museum, expressly to see this exhibit, not realizing that it was going to close the next day.

I was able to score a free pass for us both through the Toronto Public Library's "MAP" (Museum and Arts Pass).

We like Free!

The artist laid out the figurines that were made in England and then proceeded to make more during the exhibit. She calls this a perforamative installation.

Here is a picture that I took:

They seem frozen in place, like little white ghosts on the museum floor.