This past weekend the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art ended both the summer and their run on Queen West with an exhibition that went big with a life-sized beach shack slash club house replacing the entrance and a full-sized yacht tipped on an angle to fit the mast inside the gallery. Farther west in Parkdale and a bit north on Lansdowne (within spitting distance of MOCCA’s eventual new home on Sterling), another exhibition went small with a series of dioramas built into jewelry boxes and watch cases that had as much impact, if not more intrigue, than the blockbuster gestures back down in hipster-ville. 
TALWST, The Rape, 2015, mixed media
Dean Baldwin owned the ship and retrofitted it with his usual supply of social lubricants and signifiers; though unless you visited when one of the many summer programs that animated the setting were in full swing, you missed an essential element of the art (though, to be honest, I think the sailboat said enough on its own in an empty room). TALWST’s miniatures in Convenience Gallery’s window, on the other hand, are each self-contained in a cubby hole-sized cubicle that is only visible from the street. Each tiny scenario is suspended as if in a vacuum and held at a distance, like valuables behind bulletproof glass, yet exposed to the outside world. The six on display reference art history, mythology, and anthropology, while also alluding to current issues regarding race and gender. There’s a fantastical aspect to the suggested narratives that demands a private viewing at odds with the outdoor location, so I’d recommend swinging by late at night when no one will interrupt your reverie. And, like the very small art of Hagop Sandaldjian, the monkish discipline needed to craft such details lends a sacred aura to the work while also demonstrating the undeniable presence of the artist's hand. Precision is the ally of intent when the object of the art is both perception and contemplation.
Convenience Gallery: http://conveniencegallery.com/#about
TALWST: Outside continues until September 6.
Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, Prefix Photo, Camera Austria, Fuse, Mix, C Magazine, Azure, and The Globe and Mail. He is the editor of Akimblog. You can follow his quickie reviews and art news announcements on Twitter @TerenceDick.
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Talwst at Convenience Gallery, Toronto
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