“Harvest of Memories” runs to Jan 18, 2009. Mon-Thu 10am-6pm; Fri 10am-9pm; Sat-Sun 10am-5pm. Exhibition of Days of the Dead altars runs Oct 31 to Nov 5, with extended hours: Sat to 2am; Sun to 11 pm. $6-$12. Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8080.
www.gardinermuseum.on.ca.
In Mexico, the Days of the Dead, which can stretch from the last days of October to the first days of November, are an opportunity for people to welcome the spirits of the dead into the daily life of the living during the fallow period after the season’s harvest. The Gardiner’s new exhibit, “Harvest of Memories,” examines the festival’s history and its shifting contemporary context, including but extending well beyond familiar images of grinning skeletons dressed up in party clothes.
There is a strange tension between the cacophonous intent of many of the pieces and the bright white light of the Gardiner’s exhibition space. On one hand, this puts a well-deserved focus on the individual craft involved in the production of these often-delightful toys, prints and sculptures; indeed, photographs and biographical information on contributing artists and their specific backgrounds and techniques provide essential insight into the enduring tradition. On the other hand, the inherent nature and even purpose of these objects is to invoke chaos and surrealism — a disorienting jumble of dazzling colour and gallows humour applied to the grim subject of our shared mortality. There is a great deal of beauty on display, but the exhibit is more informative than experiential.
This is the ideal backdrop, however, for Vincenzo Pietropaolo’s photographic series, “Harvest Pilgrims,” displayed in two sections: portraits of Mexican seasonal workers on Ontario farms on the right and ones of families left behind in a village in central Mexico on the left. The photos, taken in the 1980s and ’90s, show the rarely documented role Mexico plays in our own local harvest.