The 2010 CONTACT Photography Festival kicked off May 1 and runs to May 31, marking Toronto’s first real month of spring with its pervasive influence. And pervasive it is: CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world (yes, the world), boasting over 1000 artists hailing from Canada and beyond.
Their work is being shown at over 200 venues across the Greater Toronto Area in both typical spaces like galleries and museums and unexpected places ranging from Pearson International Airport to Caplansky’s Delicatessen.
The omnipresence of the festival ties in perfectly with this year’s festival theme, “Pervasive Influence,” which is inspired in part by Marshall McLuhan’s theories on media and culture.
You’d have to have your head buried in 18th century sand not to notice the ubiquity of technology in today’s world: between the Internet, television and print media, we are bombarded with images at a rapid-fire pace that’s difficult to keep up with.
What could be more appropriate, then, than a festival theme focussing on the relationship between technology and photography, begging questions about the power of images in a time when technology makes them so ubiquitous.
The lead MOCCA exhibition, The Mechanical Bride, is one of the best examples of how the 2010 CONTACT theme is weaved into this year’s photography exhibits. Named after McLuhan’s 1951 book, which uses art criticism to analyze mass media and its effect on society, this exhibition displays photo-based works that dissect the connection between advertising and photography, painting and mass media.
There is much more to the festival, though, than this lead exhibition. CONTACT’s mission to celebrate photography extends to merry-making over all photographers, both known and unknown. Hence the organizers’ commitment to giving all artists a chance to participate by responding to an open call for exhibitions. Torontonians get the benefit; we are given the opportunity to see both professional photographers’ works as well as those who ordinarily show their equally valuable art on a less publicized scale. Check out CONTACT’s interactive online map to find exhibits near you.
Here are three CONTACT exhibits I most look forward to hitting over the final weeks of May, despite their disparate locations:
- Le siècle des lumières (2008-10) — Brookfield Place
This work, reminiscent of stained glass, takes over Brookfield Place’s Allen Lambert Galleria and its 18-metre-high windowed entrance, turning it into a portrait of human faces lit only by the screens of their BlackBerrys and other portable electronic devices. - PROPOPSYCHOGANDA — Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
I’m a huge fan of Workman Arts, the organization responsible for helping to produce this outdoor street banner, which presents messages about mental health and addiction by artists who struggle with those issues on a daily basis. A provocative look at a taboo subject. - Canadian Women Revealed — De Sotos
Photography is the perfect tool to challenge our preconceptions. This exhibition showcases Canadian women in the nude. Tastefully done and artfully portrayed, viewers of this exhibit are forced to guess each subject’s station in life, sans clothing. Who’s a lawyer? Who’s a waitress? What defines a Canadian woman, anyways?
On a personal note, I’ve been struggling to define myself as a female Canadian, too — particularly as a writer. I’ve recently realized that my true love is fiction writing, which has led me to make a difficult decision: this will be my last Get Out More column.
Even though I won’t be writing about future arts events, I hope that you all join me this summer to experience some of the good stuff to come. I’ll be out at Luminato, the Fringe Festival and the Broken Social Scene/Pavement show on Olympic Island, just to throw out a few cool things on the horizon, and everyone should make some room in their schedule to experience a taste of each.
Thanks for reading about my artsy exploits over the past nine months; this column has been a labour of love to write, and, hopefully, it’s inspired at least a few people to get out more.
We’ll miss you, Leanne! Click here to browse the Get Out More archives.
Image by Mark Belvedere / courtesy of Contact Photography Festival