Birds at my face

Hitting your city's sidewalks with visiting feet is a chance to re-envision the place you live through another set of eyes. Living in a city of constant transition, I have a rotating front door, welcoming in regular visitors, but my favourites are the ones that want to gallery hop. 

While I much prefer the small-sized studio spaces nestled along Ossington, and sprouting out of distillery-cobblestone, last night we went to one of the continent's biggest galleries, the  AGO. Since the re-design, the talk has all been  Frank, and not nearly enough about the architecture of what's inside. 

Pictured are two of my favourite pieces currently on display. Both bridging the gap between mediums, what's most captivating is the way these works enhance and defy the gallery-space. 

First,  The Index, a sparkling structure by  David Altmejd, part fantasy, part nightmare. Created for the Canadian pavilion at the 2007 Venice Art Biennial, the architecture-inspired sculpture-meets-instillation, is a hit with the critics. But to the afternoon crowd of kids on classroom tours, the testicles hanging off of suited birds' faces are bound to seem more art-bizarre than avant-garde. 

Second is a room that is all pop. Conceptualized by  General Idea, the media-based collective that produced light-hearted-looking, but extra-heavy works of political pop from 1969 until 1994, when two-thirds of the trio died. Famous for artizing AIDS, the room does just that, attacking the eye with sensory over-load of a-i-d-s and a tilted "D". 

Before we could make it down to the bottom floors, the bell rang announcing that our Wednesday night  freebie was over. We walked back onto the street, characters in vacation photos of the gallery's fresh exterior. And as the camera's clicked, I welcome myself back, to my city of art.