Presented by the Gladstone Hotel for the CONTACT Photography Festival. The exhibition runs from May 6-30, 2006 from 12:00pm-5:00pm daily. The opening reception takes place on May 5, 2006 from 7:00pm-10:00pm.
Featured artists include Dale M. Reid, Michael Conway, Aaron Finbow, Stephanie Fysh, Mondo Lulu, Kevin Steele, Jonah Zalken, Talia, Lisa Binnie, Stephen Brookbank and Cece Scott.
Intern architects Michael Conway and Aaron Finbow have created The Cities, a photographic installation of 54 images of neglected urban landscapes in Toronto. The spatially rich and extensive infrastructural network of the Gardiner Expressway and the laneways represents an automobile-oriented fabric which is, by nature of zoning regulations and accepted norms of urban living, underutilized at a human scale. The exploration of these infrastructures through both isolated and combinant images seeks to dissolve and dislocate familiar objectified references towards these conditions, offering spaces of contemplation balanced between attraction and repulsion, emptiness and potential inhabitation. This dichotomy reflects the current complexity of views towards appropriating these spaces beyond their initial intended use.
For more information, please visit www.gladstonehotel.com/urban-optics.htm.