Queen & Ossington : The Mute Book

If Cindy Sherman and Gustav Klimt had a lovechild, the photographic evidence of their coupling is hanging on the walls of the Katharine Mulherin Gallery on Queen Street. The Mute Book, a series of photographs by the intriguingly named Janieta Eyre, is on display until June 9th 2013 in conjunction with the CONTACT photography festival.

These large-scale black and white photographs have a collage-like feel to them, combining pattern and decoration style textiles and Klimt-like textures with female portraits. There is an oppressed feeling to the depictions of these women. Perhaps its a combination of the abstract makeup dissecting their features, the monochromatic colour palette, and the use of patterns & images that can't help but throw back to an older time of domestic femininity.

The pattern & decoration movement and the photographs of Cindy Sherman seek to challenge traditional depictions of domestic or feminine stereotypes. It was all a part of the art world's answer to second-wave feminism.

But what now? This is 2013 and we are moving far beyond the days of burning bras. How does the work of Janieta Eyre (whose very name is a strikingly convenient reference to a classic female icon) speak to where feminism is today? Do images of mute women surrounded by floral prints really speak to today's feminists? And what has Klimt got to do with it?

Perhaps Eyre's work is intended to be more personal than socio-political, but with such strong references to feminist artists and art movements how can we not wonder about what this means for contemporary art by women?

I would like to see a female artist create a work that doesn't remind me of an art history lecture on the 1970s & 80s. Do these references to past generations mean that we haven't come as far as we'd hoped? Or that we have yet to figure out what it means to be a feminist today? Or maybe we no longer need a movement. Maybe what I'm looking for is proof that women have finally gotten what we've always wanted : the freedom to live and make art without our gender being an inherent political statement.

The Mute Book
Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects
1086 Queen St W
416-993-6510
www.katharinemulherin.com 

Queen & Brock : Electric Mud BBQ

I'd been dying to eat at Electric Mud BBQ since they opened in March, but stories of three-hour waits and a strict no reservations policy had me waiting weeks for the hype to die down before I even tried to get my name on their ever-popular wait list. So what made this tiny Parkdale restaurant an instant hit? It's the second culinary venture of nearby Grand Electric owners Ian McGrenaghan and Colin Tooke. These two have already mastered the art of creating a hipster hot spot, and it looks like, in this case, success begets success. To be perfectly honest, it was my love of Grand Electric that made me so eager to see what else these guys could cook up.

hushpuppies

fried chicken with honey and coleslaw

pork belly with toast and honey mustard

hot links with pimento cheese spread

look at the mess we made!

We arrived around 6:30pm on a Friday night, thinking that we would put our names down early and expecting a long wait. I don't know if we got lucky or if business picks up more later on in the evening, but we only had to wait half an hour. They take your name and phone number down on the waitlist so you're free to go around the corner for a pre-dinner cocktail without fear of losing your place in line. They call when you're table is ready, but don't go too far because as soon as they make that call they can only hold the table for 5-10 minutes. Good news for locals is that walk-in guests can pick up takeout to avoid the wait. 

Time for the verdict. Is Electric Mud BBQ worth the hype and the wait? The food is delicious, simple, reasonably priced, and falls neatly into the current food trend of dishing up homestyle classics. The atmosphere and decor fit the American BBQ aesthetic, and if you're looking for trendy comfort food, this definitely fits the bill. McGrenaghan and Tooke know how to build buzz. With seating for less than thirty people, wait times are bound to skyrocket no matter what, creating the immediate illusion of an elite instant hit. It's easy to create a demand for tables that greatly exceeds the supply when you've only got room for thirty people, and about a third of those seats are at the bar. Don't get me wrong, Electric Mud is worth the trip, but the success and popularity of this new spot may be slightly overestimated by inflated wait times. I'd be curious to see how an extra twenty tables would shift the volume of traffic outside their doors. 

Regardless of trends, marketing tricks, and rave reviews, good food will keep me coming back to see what this team has to offer. That being said, I'll never wait longer than 45 minutes for a table, no matter how big the buzz. 

Electric Mud BBQ

5 Brock Ave.

416-516-8286

Open Wednesday - Sunday from 5pm-2am

Cash Only

No Reservations

Queen & Walnut : Altered Perspectives at the Alison Milne Gallery

Wednesday night was the opening reception for photographer Anthony Macri's Altered Perspectives, which appears as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Altered Perspectives primarily features photographs taken of an airplane graveyard deep in the Mojave desert. The photographs are beautiful, but perhaps they play all too well into the current trends of photographing urban industrial decay and juxtaposing the man-made against the organic. It's pretty, but familiar.

Photo by Anthony Macri

Altered Perspectives will be exhibited from May 8th to June 22nd 2013 at the Alison Milne Gallery.
Wednesday to Saturday - 12pm to 6pm
198 Walnut Ave. #3
416.203.6266
www.gallery.alisonmilne.com

The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, the largest photography event in the world, runs throughout the month of May at various galleries across the GTA and features works by over 1500 artists. Visit their website for more info on the festival.

Church & Wellesley : Woody's

Despite having moved to the GTA five years ago and having lived in the downtown core for over a year, there are still neighbourhoods which are completely foreign to me, and which never fail to remind me that I'll always be a transplanted small town girl. One minute I'm traipsing through the city like a Torontonian born-and-raised, and the next I'm on some unrecognizable street corner using my iPhone as a compass and wondering (for the millionth time) how city dwellers can be content with a starless sky and never seeing any deer.

But that's another story...

Last weekend, after only two wrong turns and a lot of googling, I found myself in the front row of the Sunday night drag show at Woody's, "everyone's first gay bar". In the past, I've always been so busy meeting straight boys that I neglected a whole world of my favourite guilty pleasure pop songs and fabulously sequinned dresses. But it's not just the outfits that are impressive, these performers can really dance. There aren't many people who can whip themselves across a stage so aggressively, while still managing to be graceful and fearless in four-inch stilettos. While the rest of the world is tucked in bed on a school night, the fast-paced entertainment at Woody's is just getting started, and it's definitely worth the trip across town.

Since opening in 1989, Woody's appears to have become, not only a neighbourhood staple, but a major player in Toronto's queer community. The bar is sponsors sports teams, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Pride Week, and has raised over $300 000 for the AIDS Committee of Toronto through fundraising events. Check out their website or Facebook for more information on nightly events.