Black-and-white images shot at the Canadian National Exhibition in the mid- to late-1970s, part of a new photography exhibit entitled Last Days of Summer: CNE.Lori Spring/Supplied
If you’re anything like me, there are two memory bins labelled “childhood” in your brain: the first is abstracted and full of impressions, a jumble of feelings and colours – most of them surreal – and the blurring and bleeding of, say, 10 Christmases or 10 birthdays into one; while the other bin stores the isolated, hyper-real, intense and usually traumatic moments.
For instance, in latter bin is my getting lost at the Canadian National Exhibition memory. In sharp focus is the jumble of adult legs (most wearing rayon since it was a cool and breezy day in the 1970s) that I crashed through as I screamed for my mother, the annoyed faces that looked down at me, and the terror I felt for what seemed like a half-hour but, in reality, was probably two minutes until my sweaty little hand was plucked upward and I heard my mother say: “Oh there you are, David. Try not to do that again.”
A new photography exhibit at The Silver Shack (1681 Dundas St. W.), Last Days of Summer: CNE, which features the work of Laura Paterson and Lori Spring, reaches into both of those bins.
Ms. Spring’s work, all in black-and-white and shot in the mid- to late-1970s, is hyper-real. Faces are etched with expression, the plaid pants look itchy, painted backdrops and jumbly carnival fonts are both thrilling and scary, and the ‘infrastructure’ of the fair looms menacingly in the background.
In one photograph, a young man in the centre of the frame holds tickets of some kind while wearing an expression of indecision. All around him is motion: a river of people, flashing lights, flapping flags, competing signage and, looming over the young man’s right shoulder is an ominous mechanical device named “MIDWAY” that flings people around in aerial boats.
Black-and-white images shot at the Canadian National Exhibition in the mid- to late-1970s. They are part of a new photography exhibit at The Silver Shack (1681 Dundas St. W.) entitled Last Days of Summer: CNELori Spring/Supplied
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In another, Ms. Spring has captured a group of walkers in front of “Glass House” and its panoramic sign filled with giant clown faces; however, every single human face in the photograph either frowns or shows frustration (a dead ringer for actor Eric Bogosian of Law and Order fame is wearing a flowered shirt and overalls) and the only smiles are to be found on the painted wall … menacing clown smiles, but smiles nonetheless.
A third photograph documents a girl of maybe 11 years old considering a machine that makes and dispenses plastic toys, wearing buttons that read “I love trucks” and “Thumbs down on pollution” (and a CNE Girl Guide Name Tag Service badge), she seems to extract no joy from the anticipation of the prize she’s about to receive.
As complete contrast to Ms. Spring and her Leica M4 is Ms. Paterson’s work, done over the past 20 years or so and with a made-in-Hong-Kong Holga camera. The Holga, with its cheap plastic lens and construction, allows fuzziness, distortions and light leaks into the images – rather like how the human brain stores memories. This takes the CNE to the level of semi-abstraction: colours are too vivid, there is a sort of off-register quality to how shapes fit together, and gone is the distinction between foreground and background.
Ms. Paterson’s little girl zooming down a purple slide is a good example: the curving slide is simply an abstracted, reverse C-shape that plays no part in supporting the girl – she is just floating in the middle of the frame – while the cartoon crocodile in the background is not in the background at all, but rather right there and ready to chomp the girl’s chubby little legs off.
In another featuring a wiggly, multicoloured slide (that seems way too tall to be safe), one can barely spot the children due to the saturated hues and a sky that looks silkscreened in after the fact.
A photograph of two older women playing bingo under a tent is also disorienting: the red-and-yellow ‘sky’ is too bright, too busy, as is the clutter of prizes at right; due to the saturated colours, one woman’s skin seems blotchy and diseased. In yet another photograph, a cotton candy machine looks to be speckled with blood rather than sugar fibres.
While the exhibit is small – 35 photographs on the walls and a few more to peruse on a table – the images are intense enough to fire dormant neural pathways. I found myself not only reliving getting lost, but feeling immense sadness for the loss of the Shell Tower, remembering, with fondness, when the Food Building gave out free samples and wasn’t just a food court (and don’t get me started on the weird food trend, which this year features wasabi ice cream), or considering the unique and varied architecture, from 1794′s Scadding Cabin to the 21st-century Hotel X.
When people ask me where I’d take a tourist visiting Toronto for the first time, Exhibition Place is always in my top five. Where else can I show someone the beaux-arts beauty of the Music Building (1907, originally the Railway Building, George W. Gouinlock), the graceful art deco Horse Palace (1931, J.J. Woolnough), the playful, zigzagging modernism of the Queen Elizabeth Building (Peter Dickinson, 1956) or the Better Living Centre (1962, Marani, Morris and Allan) or so much public art, all in one big, walkable place?
Public art? Yes, from the abstracted Coca-Cola bottles by Walter Yarwood (1965; formerly on Overlea Boulevard), to the new “Garden of the Greek Gods,” which features 20 stone carvings by E.B. Cox, wandering the fertile Exhibition grounds provides not only more memories for the brain bins, but fodder for the camera’s eye as well.
The exhibit was curated by Haley Chambers. While The Silver Shack is not a traditional gallery – it is a print shop owned and operated by Bob Carnie – the gallery space at front is open for “drop-by viewing.” As Ms. Spring told me: “All you have to do is ring the doorbell or call the number and somebody will let you in.”