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I set out to visit the Juno Tour of Canadian Art exhibit currently showing at the Art Gallery of Ontario as a regular visitor rather than as a reporter. I had pen and paper at the ready to take notes, of course, but also took the visit as an opportunity to experience the art.
For the exhibit, eight Juno Award winners selected artistic works from the AGO’s Canadian collection in which they found personal or artistic inspiration. Their comments were recorded and displayed on a small video screen next to their chosen piece.
The visitor can watch the musicians reflect on their chosen painting and then listen to a song from their own repertoire, which they chose to honour the particular piece they selected.
There were two aspects that surprised me: the seemingly unlikely pairing of artwork and musician, and the heartfelt quality of the musicians’ reflections.
“When I saw this painting, immediately music came to my mind,” said hip hop artist Richard Terfry (aka Buck 65) in the video recording, referring to Florence Carlyle’s The Tiff (1902). Regarding the young couple in the painting decked in ballroom attire, he said he imagined a romantic tale of jealousy and wrongful accusations.
Singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman said he found a childlike enthusiasm in Tom Thomson’s gentle Autumn Landscape (1915-16).
“I think the world is largely caught up in the events and we take so little time to see that these moments really are the poetry of our existence,” he said.
This gave me pause when I looked at the painting—a tranquil scene of deer by a lake set amidst stunning fall foliage. It was interesting to learn that when he goes on tour, Workman misses the rich colours of autumn the most.
Tragically Hip lead Gord Downie was the only artist not on video, but his haunting voice on the audio track prompted reflection on the power of art. “It occurred to me that art belongs to us and we to it, and that we are involved in its creation and its casting to the wind,” he said.
Downie said that while walking through the art gallery, he stopped in front of a quote by 19th century Métis leader Louis Riel: “My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awaken, it will be the artists who will give them their spirit back.” He chose this as his art piece.
The quote is part of an exhibit of Aboriginal art, ranging from a period of peace with the new settlers (1600-1800s), to bitter suppression in the late 1800s, to an eventual revival in the mid-1900s. Although the exhibit itself was sparse, the timeline was powerful.
One of two of the songs that stood out for me was Dan Hill’s bittersweet tribute to his father—one-time Human Rights Commissioner Daniel G. Hill. It was honest and profound, that soon after I got home I listened to it again on You Tube. Hill chose Norval Morrisseau’s native art piece titled Man Transforming Into Thunderbird (1977), which acquired new meaning when paired with Hill’s memories of his father’s visit to aboriginal territories.
The second song I particularly liked was “Imme,” West African singer Alpha Yaya Diallo’s simple and moving tribute to the environment. Interestingly, the painting he chose was J.E.H MacDonald’s Montreal River (1920). He said the restless Canadian river invited him into the painting, reminding him of his childhood in Africa.
Although I was aware of celebrated soprano Measha Brueggergosman I had never heard her either speak or sing. In the video, her personality was warm and friendly while her analysis of Kenneth Keith Gordon’s enigmatic painting The Yellow Scarf (1924) gave me insight into the many ways a painting can be interpreted.
There were two I missed: throat singer Tanya Tagaq’s choice—which was all the works in the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre—and Jane Bunnett’s comments on Riopelle’s modernistic painting Chevreuse II (1952-54).
Time was tight, and I wanted to enjoy my moment with each one of them. However, I just might return before the exhibit closes on Aug. 31.
