Murray Whyte posts an awesome article on The Star's blog and apologizes because its past due.
We forgive you Murray Whyte! Thanks for the time you took to write the review of no. 1-60.
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Erin Hatfeild of InsideToronto visited "Parkdale's hidden sculpture and instillation gallery" (that's us). Here's what happened:
"Found in an alley and marked by little more than a 3D script of the
number 47, this art gallery isn't the most extroverted exhibition room
in the city's west end.Located part way down Milky Way Alley, between Gwynne Avenue and Elm Grove
Avenue, one must pass through a rickety gate to gain entry to 47. Once
inside this former bank storage facility turned wood-working shop
turned gallery, one will find white walls and high ceilings, stripped
back to create a space tailored to show installation and sculpture
works.Forty-seven is an exhibition space founded in 2008 and run
by Parkdale-based artists Dennis Lin and Jaclyn Quaresma. Quaresma said
47 aims to challenge the artist, empower the viewer and allow the
artwork to affect." ...--Now, I wouldn't say we're hidden- well, we're not hiding-- HERE WE ARE WORLD! Come take a look.
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...And apparently so do the media! Dennis Lin’s n° 1-60 had an amazing online presence with shout outs from local writer Leah Sandals, from MoCo Loco, CMonster, Curated Magazine, and Smith and Pearson. Derek Flack of BlogTO, David Balzer of EyeWeekly and Andrea Carson's VoCA also covered the show in their weeklies, among others.
Thanks for the love, and special thanks to Derek Flack the photos.
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Derek Flack join us Under the Table:
Rob Southcott's "Under the Table" at 47
When I had my first look at this installation, I was underwhelmed. Four giant "table legs?" Surely I'm missing something, I thought. As it turns out, I was and I wasn't. On the one hand, there is no additional element to this show. But on the other -- as I was to find after spending a little time contemplating Southcott's work -- what you see, isn't necessarily what you get. As I dwelled in the gallery space a for a little while, my mind finally kicked into gear, and I realized that there's a sophisticated challenge posed by "Under the Table."Despite the formal simplicity, the implications of this particular transformation of 47 are quite demanding of the viewer. And here I can't help but recall the (extensive) production notes from Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. In describing the setting (or, more aptly, the stage) of the play, Williams' offers the following: "The scene is memory and therefore nonrealistic."
Another way of putting this, of course, is to say that the play takes place not inside an apartment, but within a brain. Like this direction from Williams, "Under the Table" asks the viewer to engage fully with the notion that he/she is under a table -- to take the figurative construction as real, if only momentarily. And, if the challenge is (really) taken up, wonderful and perhaps discomforting things happen. Beyond noticing that 47's wood ceiling resembles the bottom side of a table top, the creative participant (no longer just a viewer) is left to experience the odd, invigorating and even alienating experience of being half-hidden and profoundly small in relation to his/her surroundings.
Under the Table runs until October 30th, 2009.