Remember radicalism? A time when the Toronto art scene was in
formation - and destruction? When there were no models and anything
was possible? The late 1970s was a key period when Toronto thought
itself Canada's most important art centre, but history has shown
that the nascent downtown art community - not the established
uptown scene of commercial galleries - was where it was happening.
It was a political period. Beyond the art politics, art itself was
politicised in its contents and context. Art's political dimension
was continually polemically posed - or postured - by artists in
these years. Beyond politics, posturing, in fact, was a constant
presence as the community invented itself. It was also a period
rich in invention of new forms of art. Punk, semiotics, and fashion
were equally influential, not to mention transgressive sexuality.
It was the beginning of the photo-blowup allied to the
deconstructed languages of advertising. Video and performance
aligned in simulations of television production as the
"underground" mimicked the models of the mainstream for its own
satiric, critical purposes. With no dominant art form and the
influence of New York in decline, there were no models and anything
was possible: even the invention of the idea of an art community as
a fictional creation. Is Toronto Burning? takes you on a journey
through this period rich in invention of new forms of art. It
brings together artworks by Susan Britton, David Buchan, Colin
Campbell, Elizabeth Chitty, Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge, Judith
Doyle, General Idea, Isobel Harry, Ross McLaren, Missing Associates
(Peter Dudar & Lily Eng), Clive Robertson, Tom Sherman, and
Rodney Werden alongside archival documents. The artworks were all
shown at the exhibition of the same name at the end of 2014 at The
Art Gallery of York University, curated by Director Philip Monk. In
partnership with The Art Gallery of York University.
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