VoCA was at the opening of the MOCCA show Between Memory & History: From the Epic to the Everyday in Toronto last night.

Alessandra Sanguinetti, from the series The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams.
Image: danielazoulaygallery.com

The exhibition was, as always, an interesting mix of artists. The overriding theme that we got from the best works on view was that beauty exists in the mundane, the poor, the special, the creative aspects of the everyday.

The best work on view was the slideshow by Nan Goldin, Heartbeat from 2000-2001. With Bjork’s sombre, prayerful soundtrack based on a Greek Orthodox mass, these slides of couples living and loving are so touching – and truly beautiful in their normalcy.

Nan Goldin, Simon and Jessica in bed, faces half-lit, Paris, 2001. Image: artnet.com

Perhaps the work that best illustrated the show’s theme was a small image at the end of a series The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams by the Argentinean photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti, it showed two children play-acting the story of the Annunciation.

Also at CONTACT, public installations throughout the city:

Rodney Graham, Napoleon Tree, 2003. Image: artists4kids.com

VoCA recommends Rodney Graham’s Tree Portraits on the concrete columns under the Gardiner Expressway.

A forest of upside down trees urges us to re-think the concrete wasteland that divides the city from our waterfront.

Graham’s upside-down trees refer to the history of photography – specifically the camera obscura, the ancient device that allowed man to bring nature indoors, to depict it realistically in a small format.

Click HERE for the other public installations at the Drake, the AGO, Pearson International Airport and others.