The Brothel Without Walls
Curated by Matthew Brower and Bonnie Rubenstein
University of Toronto Art Centre, 15 Kings College Circle
April 29–May 29, 2010
Presented in partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
Susan Anderson, Maria Gadonneix, Joachim Schmid, Clunie Reid, Jessica Dimmock, Evan Baden, Stefan Ruiz, Christopher Wahl, Douglas Coupland
The Brothel Without Walls opening at the University of Toronto Art Centre on May 1 is the gallery’s inaugural Primary Exhibition for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Presented in partnership with Scotiabank CONTACT this provoking show explores photography’s role in our contemporary media environment through the lens of communications guru Marshall McLuhan on the thirtieth anniversary of his death and one year before his centenary begins.
Photography permeates contemporary society; there are billions of photographs at work in the world ranging from family snapshots to forensic documents, from celebrity images to product shots. The ascendence of digital technology and the internet have only deepened our immersion in photographs. The pervasiveness of photographic images leads us to question the effects of photography on society. What, to use Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s terms, is the message of this medium? The Brothel Without Walls maps McLuhan’s critical insights about media theory onto contemporary photographic practice. Named after a chapter in Understanding Media, McLuhan’s 1964 book about his investigations into media and communications, the exhibition looks to McLuhan’s work to examine what his thought can tell us about the effects of photography. McLuhan wrote of the photograph as a “brothel without walls,” and described photographic images as “dreams that money can buy” which could be “hugged and thumbed more easily than public prostitutes”.
Drawing on McLuhan’s insights, the exhibition brings together nine Canadian and international artists whose works give form to McLuhan’s concepts helping us to grasp the cultural role of photography, not in isolation, but in relation to our general media culture, and more specifically television and the internet.
Stefan Ruiz, Factory of Dreams. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Susan Anderson, High Glitz and Douglas Coupland, Prows. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Jessica Dimmock, Papparazzi. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Joachim Schmid, Cyberspaces. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Marina Gadonneix, Remote Control. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Evan Baden, Technically Intimate. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Christopher Wahl, News Gatherers. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Susan Anderson, High Glitz. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Clunie Reid, Take no Photographs, Leave only Ripples. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
REVIEWS
Glen Baxter, “Contact 2010,” Fashion Television.
Gloria Chik, “Scotiabank CONTACT Photo – Brothel Without Walls,” Urbane Bloc, June 5, 2010.
Terence Dick, “Toronto,” Akimblog, May 27, 2010.
Leah Sandals, “Positives From Negatives,” National Post, May 21, 2010.
Anita Clarke, “I want - I got goes to the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival - Behind the Lens Tour,” I Want-I Got, May 20, 2010.
David Balzer, “At the zoo: Two new U of T exhibitions explore creatures in captivity,” Eye Magazine, May 12, 2010.
Dina Pugliese, “Contact Photography Festival,” Breakfast Television, May 11, 2010.
Kelly Rankin, “U of T primary partner for CONTACT photography festival,” News at the University of Toronto, May 6, 2010.
Mr. Will-W., “Scandal in the Brothel,” May 2, 2010. mrwillw.blogspot.com
Leah Sandals, “Contact’s Rap Sheet,” National Post, May 1, 2010.
Victoria Ahearn, “Contact Photography Festival focuses on Canadian media theorist Marshal McLuhan,” The Canadian Press, April 30. 2010.
Feature, “Contact 2010: Photography, Reframed,” Canadian Art, April 2010.
Murray Whyte, “Contact Festival: Plenty of eye candy in the ‘brothel without walls,’” Toronto Star, April 28, 2010.
Ruby Beesley, “Photography and the Pervasive Influence,” Aesthetica: The Art & Culture Magazine, 34, April / May 2010, 33-37.