Warhol and Cinema

Today I took to the streets and walked around the downtown area. On Friday morning I am going away to camp in one of the national parks, swim in lakes and get a few canoe lessons....so I had lots of preparation to do...things to buy, laundry to do..etc.

I also got in a queue to buy tickets for the film festival that runs for 10 days. They had only gone on sale this morning and almost half of them were sold out. I got two out of three of my choices (one tomorrow evening and one on my last day at lunchtime). I was lucky because when I later walked past the building, only 6 of the films had tickets left!

I have found Toronto to be an extremely cultured place so far... I've had some really interesting conversations with students (there are many universities in the nearby area), browsed through some great bookshops, bought two tickets for their film festival and tonight saw a wonderful Andy Warhol exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

I have seen Andy Warhol exhibitions in London and New York but I have never really felt the exhibitors had any heart for his work or really understood it and consequently, I didn't either...this was completely different. The gallery was open until 9p.m. so I spent the last two hours of its opening there. It was a joy to see how full it was...I always go to galleries during the day...this was much more fun and gave the appropriate mood to view the pieces.

The audio tour was not a series of narration but also interviews with people like Dennis Hopper (he regularly visited 'The Factory' and became involved in some of the work). I never knew this rather shy man from Pittsburgh was actually called Andy Wharhola (he removed the 'a' after moving to New York).

The exhibition was called 'Supernova - Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-64'. The use of 'Supernova' was appropriate because as a supernova has a short life-span, explodes and dies so does tragic events in history and 'celebrity'.
His worked showed how celebrity could bring disaster and mortality and mortality could bring about fame...but only for a fleeting moment. The use of the silk screen prints he is known so well for are significant to this...the deepening and fading of paint is used symbolise the degree of fame, danger or concern.

I found some of the works quite moving and of all the 19 pieces, there was not one Campbells soup tin in sight! The electric chair diptych in red was very alarming and the screen tests of Dennis Hopper, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan a real eye opener. Warhol just told them to do what they wanted in front of the camera for 3 minutes and for some 'actors' this was too much..

I also found it quite amusing the spiky, short hairstyle Warhol became famous for was a result of an accident. He was posing for a piece of art wearing a wig but he refused to remove the wig he always wore, the white, bob wig...so the stylist put it on top of his own wig and cut around any pieces of hair sticking out.

When the time came to remove the wig, his own hair now looked ridiculous... The hair stylist happened to have styled the hair of Rod Stewert so she gave him one of those and viola...Andy Warhol was born!

I may not have time to blog again until my return from camp...the weather forecast is thunder!!! However, today it was in the 80s and it felt wonderful to be in a warm environment once more!