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news

ROM Threat

By David Topping

romthreat_4.jpg
Photo by David Topping.
A mysterious bag discovered in an alleyway beside the Royal Ontario Museum at about 7:00 p.m. tonight has shut down all traffic––pedestrian and vehicular––on Bloor between St. George and University and on Queen’s Park southbound from Bloor and Harbord.
UPDATE (10:45 p.m.): CTV is now saying that police have found “what appears to be a pipe bomb,” and that the building was (half-)evacuated (contrary to what we were originally told). They also mention a “A YouTube video entitled “Fake footage of the fake bombing at the ROM, Toronto” [that] appears to show two people staging the event.”
UPDATE (11:05 p.m.): CTV is now saying that it was a definite hoax, with police confirming that the bomb was not real (though there was something that was made to look like a bomb). The videos, however, do exist: the first one is displayed below; the second is after the fold. The videos––both uploaded by a user named toadmeat––are tagged with, among other things, “terrorism” and “recontextualization.”

An AIDS fundraising gala, beginning at 9 p.m., was cancelled as a result of the threat.
UPDATE (11:50 p.m.): Another video uploaded in January by the same user on YouTube––a rendering of the World Trade Center being crashed into by jet planes, though hearts flow out of it (and Osama Bin Laden stands and waves on the roof before jumping off) while Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me” plays––contains this description: “My humble experiments with the 3D animation program 3D Studio Max at The Ontario College of Art and Design. Osama showing some love for NYC and using his Mujahideen ninja moves for good.”
The video, like several other uploaded by “toadmeat,” is credited to “Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson.” A quick search of Facebook turns up two listings for the name at OCAD, both with the same photo, both class of 2009.
UPDATE (11/29, 5:40 p.m.): We’ve interviewed Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson about the whole mess.
The second video and a few more photos are after the fold.



romthreat_5.jpg
romthreat_1.jpg
Photos by David Topping.

Comments

  • quest

    CTV says that half of the museum was evacuated, and the suspicious device appears to have been a pipe bomb. Yikes on both details.

  • David Topping

    …and a YouTube video, too. Updating the post now.

  • Jaime Woo

    I was at Gabby’s across the ROM when this happened. The waitress walked over and told us as casually as possible that we had to exit through the back because there was a bomb threat. Oh, and police had barricaded the front. I can’t believe they kept people in there.

  • Miles Storey

    This was an AIDS fund-raising gala, possibly a motive…?

  • quest

    CityTV says it was a hoax device, made to look like a bomb (wooden dowels, wire, a battery, and a motherboard).

  • Miles Storey

    These people aren’t too bright.

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    I think the gala may be back on… They have one of those valet-parking sandwich boards out front right now…

  • David Topping
  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    Yeah, I was wrong, the event is off… I took another walk by, this time on the south side of the street, and there are signs in the main entrance windows saying as much…. but the valet parking sign is still there, and there are cabs stopped outside… it sure looked swinging from across the street.

  • Miles Storey

    They were interviewing someone from the event on City TV who said it would be a big loss for the charity.

  • JacobPar

    The videos posted by the Youtube user “toadmeat” are from kid at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design). Says that on the credits (director) So no brainer, the same kid made it for a school project perhaps.
    But judging by the other videos he made or has as favorites… this Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson won’t be directing but acting crying baby. Cops got him for sure by now. Took me 2 minutes to check two of his other videos.

  • David Topping

    I just updated the post with that info about ten minutes ago, Jacob. It’s important to not jump to conclusions and say that that is for sure the guy who did the other video (and that the other video for sure has to do with the ROM shutdown tonight)––it’s just a string of evidence right now that, as strange as it all seems, is not anywhere near conclusive.

  • JacobPar

    Sure, whatever you say, but read my post, again.
    I quote my post: ”The videos posted by the Youtube user “toadmeat” are from kid at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design). Says that on the credits (director)”
    quote again “the same kid made it for a school project PERHAPS.”
    Then I named the kid that must crying at some police station (so you understand, guilty or not they have to take him in). The, bare with me, last quote “Cops got him for sure by now”
    Now let’s not jump to conclusions, when did I say “for sure he did it?”
    Nice page you have here.
    Cheers

  • Kevin Bracken

    If this kid actually is from Iceland, his study permit is revoked.

  • hack

    as soon as i saw the youtube im like “its OCAD students”. Lo and Behold. Morons.

  • JacobPar

    Worth reading. You can tell a lot by what people like, read, admire, etc. Here’s his (the infamous video’s youtube poster) OCAD’s students community member page.
    ABOUT HIM
    real name
    Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson
    gender
    Male
    age
    25
    ethnicity
    N/A
    school stream
    Integrated Media
    member since
    Feb 13 2006 2:51pm (21months)
    last visit
    Oct 30 2007 4:16pm (29days)
    FAVOURITES
    artist or designer
    Bosch, Odd Nerdrum, Yoshimoto Nara, de Chirico, Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, Marcel Dzama, Adolph Hitler, Fracis Bacon, Hugleikur Dagsson
    work of art
    the destruction of the World Trade Centres
    author or poet
    Halldor Laxness, George Saunders, Gunnlaugur ormstunga. But honestly…books are meant to be burned
    book, poem, magazine
    Brennu-Njalssaga, notproud.com, The dice man, Infiltration, the Tunnel, Found Magazine, Pastoralia, True tales of American life, The Iceland Bell
    musician, band
    Gogol Bordello, The Clash, Emiliana Torrini, Bonobo, Iggy Pop, Joy Division, Kvartet O’Jonsson & Grjona, Mugison, Boards of Canada,
    song
    Right now, its Kat Nazer by Powersolo…but it changes from day to day
    An art student who “honestly” thinks books are meant to be burned… Hitler and the WTC follows. Here’s the link to the page:
    http://www.myocad.com/members.php?id=meat_for_toads

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    2500 people x $100 = $250 000
    Which is a lot of money. BUT I doubt very many tickets are sold at the door for these sorts of things, meaning that CANFAR almost certainly received most or all of this money upfront — and it’s not like anyone’s going to demand a refund from them. I’m sure there were losses incurred (maybe there was to be a silent auction?), but it’s thankfully unlikely that they’re of the magnitude first assumed.

  • Robin Rix

    The Star story says that the price per plate was $600. 2500 people @ $600 = $1,500,000.
    The issue isn’t that CANFAR will get asked for refunds (it won’t). The issue is that CANFAR’s fundraising is likely to be harmed in future years:
    (1) People may be less likely to buy tickets next year without some assurance that they’ll be more security for the event. Security costs money—money that would otherwise have gone to a worthy cause.
    (2) Fundraising galas exist so that people who care about a cause can hear from, and meet, like-minded people. Otherwise, organizations wouldn’t hold galas—they’d just ask for the money year after year. Cancelling a gala is a big deal because it weakens the social networks that help to keep people caring about a cause.

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    The cocktail and dinner in Yorkville beforehand was $600 and included admission to the party at the ROM. Tickets to the party only were $100 each.

  • Robin Rix

    Ah. My bad for relying on last night’s Star lede:
    “An elaborate bomb hoax forced the cancellation of a $600-a-plate black-tie fundraiser at the Royal Ontario Museum Wednesday night.”
    I see that this is now corrected. Still, the cancellation is a pity.

  • RealityCheck

    Typical artist activity. Nice to see so many people on Torontoist apologizing for the terrorist.

  • The Explosively Talented Christopher Bird

    “Typical artist activity”?
    I don’t think anybody here is saying that this guy is anything but a stupid douchebag. You might want to actually, like, read the comments, you know?

  • Miles Storey

    Who is apologising for the ‘terrorist’?

  • rek

    RealityCheck has a chip on his shoulder.

  • beth maher

    Ok, how glad am I that I dropped out of OCAD? Very. I don’t want to be associated with nit-wits like that. Place attracts the crazys.

  • lit

    Most people here are jumping fast to conclusions. First of all, no one has thought to discuss the validity of this event as an art piece. A lot of the media has contradictory information, so you cannot assume all of it to be true. There is still much to be understood.
    It is clear, however, that it was not a bomb but a sculpture. If you are familiar with the Magritte painting that reads, “ceci n’est pas une pipe.” It is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. This is not a bomb, it is a sculpture of a bomb.
    Leaving it in the public sphere is what gave it its meaning as a bomb. In this case, the bomb is in the eye of the beholder.

  • ElleDriver

    Oh my god. Seriously “lit”? Or “D”? Why don’t you share your brilliant correlation between this event and John Dillinger’s potato gun, like you have at BlogTO? Please?

  • beth maher

    Yeah, you know what Lit, you’re right. It’s art. It’s art in that way that pretty much anything can become “art” if somebody decides to call it that (and then maybe even explain why if they feel like it – but it doesn’t have to make sense or anything, you’ve read artists statements before, right?).
    That doesn’t make it ok, though. It doesn’t make it good for society. It doesn’t make it not illegal. It doesn’t make it a legitimate form of expression. It just makes it “art.”

  • ked

    I heard from one of the organizers of the cancelled event they lost at least somewhere between 40-70 grand last night.

  • RealityCheck

    Yeah I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. And then Lit shows up with more support of artist terrorists. Topping needs to get some courage and understand that while the law requires a presumption of innocence, the rest of us only need to give a smidge of “seems to be”. Especially when the idiot involved used his youtube account to publicise the thing.
    Time to close down OCAD.

  • rek

    Yeah, that’s realistic. Let’s close all the schools, because it makes sense to hold them responsible for the actions of their students. And what about businesses? I bet a lot of people in jail had jobs at the time of their crime, so we should do the public a service and shut down the institutions that obviously trained them in crime.
    David doesn’t need to start the lynching, it’s already underway. And don’t forget to burn the books you disagree with.

  • David Topping

    Seriously, don’t feed the trolls.

  • kaspar

    How is it that this obnoxious clumsy event has preceded all of our sensibilities. An obvious disregard for morality, ethics and etiquette, this action aligns with similar and equally disturbing measures taken by other glory seeking, attention starved individuals masquerading as artists. On par with staged moments like Britney’s bald head or Wacko Jacko’s PJ’s, these incidents require no more attention than they are worth (which ain’t much). We can talk about validity in terms of the effect that this incident has had. It throws into question the severity of our cultural and social concerns. At a moment when ‘caring’ philanthropists are collecting to support Aids research, a hoax is undertaken to dismantle their positive actions. I can’t believe that this was a mistake. It seems too convenient and in line with other ‘projects’ by this individual. While it is important for us as a whole to be critical of ourselves, our relationships and others, we tempt dangerous monsters when we begin to misalign reality. Opinions are fantastic but, having the unfortunate disability of being unable to objectively consider the environment and meanwhile actively take direction from dissidents whose only interest is to undermine the foundation of logic is seriously debilitating. Many evils have found their way into the minds of minions by way of BullS|-|!t. It has a tendency to baffle. This incident, quite frankly is only as good as the discourse it creates. So far, like the tasering last week, it serves to galvanize opinions and unsettle our conforms. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a healthy form of debate. Perhaps if this had a proper ‘staging’ similar to the Blair Witch Project (which, although it required suspending belief, was seriously scary in the theatre before we knew it was totally fake) might still give us the opportunity to enter into the discourse. At this point, the message is profoundly different and the discussion is becoming drunk with fury, criticizing art and artists as if somehow this action has already been sanctioned as ‘art’ and this student is a bonafide artist. I think even Duchamp is turning in his grave with this one. Let’s hope this kid gets a break and a chance to redeem himself.
    Rapsak