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Urban Planner: January 7, 2010
Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to [email protected]
Champ De Povots by Jannick Deslauriers, an installation at the Emergence Exhibition Series. Photo courtesy of Whippersnapper Gallery.
ART: In the second part of the Emergence Exhibition Series at the Whippersnapper Gallery (a gallery whose future we will have more on soon), up-and-coming artists Amanda Nedham and Jannick Deslauriers navigate the physical space between aesthetic beauty and social ugliness in their elaborate sculptural installations—Nedham’s piece consists of a custom-designed torture bed, while Deslauriers’ work features a life-sized war machine surrounded by a field of poppies. Funded by the Ontario Arts Council, the show (which opens tonight and runs until January 22) is committed to showcasing major bodies of work by promising Canadian artists under the age of thirty; the first part, which focused on photographic art, was a resounding success. (587A College Street); Wednesdays–Sundays, 1–6 p.m. (opening reception tonight, 7–11 p.m.); FREE.
LECTURE: Last month, B.C. premier Gordon Campbell announced that in mid-2010, the Queen Charlotte Islands, an archipelago on the province’s northern coast, will be renamed Haida Gwaii (“Islands of the People) as a gesture of reconciliation towards the Haida, an aboriginal nation that has occupied the islands for over six thousand years. Before European contact reduced their numbers from several thousand to less than six hundred in the nineteenth century, the Haida were an industrious, seafaring people who, in addition to having possibly invented the totem pole, are also notorious for their historical use of slavery. Tonight, join Gib Goodfellow (president of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society) for an informative discussion about the history of both the Haida and the Haida Gwaii. Annette Library (145 Annette Street); 8:20 p.m.; FREE.
THEATRE: What do Lewis Carroll and corporate capitalism have in common? More than you’d think, according to The Red Queen Effect, which debuts tonight as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. (We’ll have plenty of festival reviews next week.) This comedic update of Through the Looking Glass, which runs till January 17, reimagines the Red Queen‘s surreal chess game within the context of the equally absurd world of corporate asset management. The cast—which includes Gemini Award–winner Nicholas Campbell and former Second City troupe member Aurora Browne—devised the piece collectively through the use of improvisation, interviews, and dance. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street); 7 p.m.; $12.
MUSIC: If you’ve become one of those old curmudgeons who complains that all pop music sounds the same, Nightlosers (who play two sets at Lee’s Palace tonight) might be the band for you. This Transylvanian troupe is dripping with originality—its sound fuses gypsy folk with strains of jazz, blues, and swing, and in addition to conventional instruments, the eight members play the washboard, ceramic bird flutes, and the cimbalom. Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor Street West); Doors, 8 p.m.; $25.
ART: If you associate the word “lowbrow” with “low quality,” prepare for your mind to be blown by the “Toronto Lowbrow Show,” which runs until January 11 and is the first in a series of exhibits designed to increase the city’s awareness of the thriving lowbrow art movement (also called pop surrealism). Lowbrow art—which derives its influences from street culture, pop art, comics, and surrealism—emerged as an underground movement in California in the mid-’90s. Its aim is to dispense with the bourgeois distinctions between “fine” and “commercial” art and put the emphasis back on quality. The exhibit holds its opening reception tonight, and features works by five of the city’s best lowbrow artists: Lucas Espin, Mahban Ghadakpour, Adrian Forrow, Rajni Perera, and Kristin Vincec. 52 McCaul Street; 8 p.m.; FREE.