Epic Sail – part 36
There’s a great modern art gallery in Toronto called Narwhal, that used to be attached to the excellent Magic Pony shop. And when I say modern art, I mean that in the best sense possible. In other places I’ve seen a lot of junk like giant pieces of cut up fabric, paper airplanes on sticks, or blinking lights as art installation, that try to Marcel Duchamp you into questioning “What is art?”. But I think the curators, Steve and Kristen, both present stuff that says “This is art”. They often feature artists who can paint or draw like the masters, but apply their skills to subject matter that is more relevant to our times. At least, for me, that’s much nicer to look at and consider.
Speaking of Narwhals and Magic Pony, it was at their store that I discovered the Octonauts. They are undersea explorers designed by the Canadian team Meomi. The designed our 2010 Winter Olympic mascots: Miga (part orca/part kermode bear), Quatchi (Sasqutch), and Sumi (thunderbird/black bear). Anyway, the Octonauts have moved from book to TV. My toddler loves watching their adventures and dancing to their songs. The feature a new underwater animal each episode and have one about a Narwhal. So that’s where that tangent comes from.
November 11th, 2012 at 6:32 am
Outrageous puns, fantastic wordplay, a wry sense of humour, heroines who actually do something – fantastic! I’m confused by probiscus though – isn’t it proboscis, or have I been punned (hibiscus)?
November 11th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Thanks Dave! Fixed the mistake. I’ll have to remember to be “pro boss kiss” when sounding it out.
June 1st, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Modern art is fine. I think you are getting it mixed up with postmodern art. Postmodernism takes the already false belief that true art is incomprehensible (which is absurd, to be art it must be at least partly comprehensible), and then go for the further step that incomprehensibility is true art. They get away with it because some people assume if they don’t understand the meaning that it must be either subtle or beyond their understanding, even if they only miss it because it isn’t actually there. I’ve always wondered whether postmodernists actually think of themselves as artists, are simply con artists or create “art” to subtly mock people for what they will buy to try to look cultured.
Nice subtle pun in the spelling of Pat’s response.