Month: September 2013

How about a ride in the park… with Danica… on her new bike? Throw in a sunny morning, low weekday traffic levels and cooler temperatures and you have perfection!

Woodbine Park, between Queen St. E and Lakeshore Boulevard.

I leave my fingerprints all over the place, especially on my iPad screen, so why should I care if Apple wants to fingerprint me? They say the scan of my prints will remain on my device, not in their database.
They say.
I pull my tinfoil hat on a little more snuggly to think about this. The hacker community will quickly alert the public if Apple cheats and code reveals harvesting and storage of prints. Apple is usually the first to adopt new technology, so biometric ID systems will soon be everywhere.
I presume that the fingerprint scan with be converted into device-readable digits. The ID number will probably be very, very long and longer passwords are supposed to be harder to crack. But digital numbers are easy to copy and paste… easy to transmit and store. How hard will it be for someone to fake my digital fingerprints?
Old guy, me. Don’t like the smell.

Danica and I attended the dress rehearsal tonight for a wonderfully entertaining “real space” play called Dine Her. You can get in on the fun and enjoy dinner to boot. The comedy takes place in the George Street Diner on Richmond Street. Do make plans to go before it’s over on September 23rd.
Check here for dates. I don’t know where else in Toronto you’ll get so much for your entertainment dollar. Bruce Hunter and Erica Wood do a wonderful job and the supporting cast will surprise you.
It’s interactive theatre and I was lucky enough to get a small but heroic part. Great fun. Thanks for the heads-up, Sandy Zwyer!

The slogan appears as illustration of one of 100 new, free fonts. The fonts are nice, but slogan… well, it was written for me!

Danica and I popped into an open house demo being conducted by landscape painter and teacher John Pryce. He is opening a new studio at 1600 Gerrard St. East on the Rhodes Avenue corner (right across the street from the Flying Pony Café). From what I heard, John has a wealth of practical experience to impart and a nice way of expressing himself. He’s offering classes.
“Little India” was always “Little Pakistan” too, but that is diversifying further. We hope that the South Asian stores will continue to flourish, because we like their products… especially the spices. But we are also glad to see new enterprises perking up the street.

Brian did all the legwork for us in a two week tour. His photos are online.
Hong Kong (128 photos)
Macau (48)
Ho Chi Ming City (134)
Hoi An (49)
Singapore (129)
 

Top: Heroic scale cardboard statue of Ai Weiwei in the AGO lobby, by Canadian artist Sean Martindale. Left: Ai Weiwei exhibits. Neolithlic vase painted with silver Coca-Cola logo. Right: Large rosewood cube, textured with traditional Chinese carving. Bottom: Chinese “Forever” brand bicycles in an eternal circle, without pedals.
A camel, the saying goes, is a horse designed by a committee. Outstanding art-making usually depends on a kind of totalitarianism… one authority making all of the decisions. Workers may assist in production, but they must follow the design dictates of the lead artist. A bit of irony. Ai Weiwei works this way, producing thought-provoking work, superbly crafted. Danica points out that Weiwei’s workers are volunteers who are not imprisoned if they do not want to help on one of his projects. So there’s totalitarianism, and there’s totalitarianism… in this case, one working against the other.
Most of the works in the current show could not have been made by a single artist. They are too big, too heavy and too demanding of specialized skills. Even installing the show must have required armies of helpers and heavy equipment especially the straightened rebar rods. They weigh 38 tonnes.

Straightened rebar rods from concrete in earthquake-destroyed school
The rebar was salvaged from the ruins of a school that collapsed in an earthquake, killing over 5,000 students. It was mangled and twisted until Ai Weiwei began to straighten out the record. Substandard construction had contributed to the disaster and officials were keen to suppress evidence of corruption. Even the number of victims was difficult to find out, until Weiwei and his helpers made the count, name by name, and memorialized the students with a wall and audio reading of the list.

Wall of school children’s names.
The Chinese government’s displeasure with Ai Weiwei has led to his present house arrest, of course, while he is the darling of Western governments who are pleased to hold him up in contrast to our our relative freedom of expression. “Everything is art. Everything is politics.” One of many Ai Weiwei quotes imprinted on the gallery walls.
For me, the show is one irony layered upon another. For you, it may be something else… perhaps an awe-inspiring experience of Chinese culture and craftsmanship, or a curiosity about who funds Ai Weiwei’s massive undertakings. One thing is sure, the show will make you think, and think, and think… about art history, aesthetics, politics, freedom, the future of China in the world. Go and enjoy it. Ai Weiwei. According to What? Art Gallery of Ontario until October 27, 2013.

Rather than say what the pieces in the show mean to me, I’m going to record some ideas that went through my head as I looked.

Snake made of school backpacks
Backpacks were strewn all over the disaster site, after the school earthquake collapse. I wonder what the serpent symbolizes in Chinese culture. How clever! How well made! The head is sculpted into shape, as is the tail. Multitudes of people working together. Mass production. Industrialization.

Han dynasty pots dipped in paint
The garish, bright new colours cover old shapes. The old shapes makes the drips and dribbles run the way they do. Sometimes the pots have been turned upside down while the paint dribbled and dried, then turned right side up again. The new and the old. Old defaced. Behind, picture sequence of Ai Weiwei dropping, smashing an ancient pot…and having the act preserved in a photo, framed and shown in a gallery. Preserver/destroyer.

A silver-threaded handerchief is supposed to prevent surveillance of your location if you are carrying a mobile phone. Fifteen bucks plus shipping and tax. Yes, it’s available in Canada… we have our own NSA. It’s called CSEC… same thing.
Authorities are not the only ones scooping your data. Merchants want to pitch you if you are nearby, so cloaking your phone, might prevent nuisance messages. What’s more, the handerchief bears a courtesy message, informing those in your company that you are paying attention to them, not your phone. Nice touch.
Oops. An ominous message appears at the bottom of the ad:
Please note, this item is discontinued. When it sells out, it will no longer be available.

It’s been a long time since teachers confiscated our Mad Magazines in school. I was never an avid reader, but I admired the illustrations and the irreverance. This month’s cover takes great advantage of the Spy vs Spy series that dates back to the Cold War.