Images Festival focused everywhere but here

The official program for the 19th annual Images Festival seems to be packed with details of the sort of affair that makes the city a stimulating place, alluding to lots of subversive layers of artistic inspiration dedicated to the elusive quest for some kind of comfort amid the hopeless state of humankind etc. etc. etc. Yet, beyond the introductory statements – from local, provincial and federal arts councils, the NFB, Telefilm Canada and a message from the mayor – it really does seem like the effort of an elitist cabal relishing the fact that there’s no clear indication to outsiders of what this 10-day gallery and screen festival is for. The lack of thematic focus was addressed by Peter Goddard in the Toronto Star, who took a stab at grouping together a few exhibits dealing with the topic of masculinity. Then again, a program of animated films Friday night (April 21) at the Workman Theatre (1001 Queen St. W.) dubbed Drawn Toward Danger are exclusively concerned with violence – from the 1918 production Sinking of the Lusitania and a 1939 MGM Christmas short “featuring adorable woodland creatures living in the fallen helmets of murdered soldiers in a post-apocalyptic landscape” called Peace on Earth, to shorts depicting children being held captive and/or killing themselves, to obligatory spoofs of the current White House mess. But beyond the assorted gallery installations, a few online works curated under the Images Festival banner offer some insight into web-based art trends: Utopia Suite is a five-year multi-platform project by local intermedia artist Clive Holden – plans include the development of a storytelling model using Google Earth’s satellite shots to illustrate personal memories from around the globe. That mapping trend is also covered by the online exhibition called Transposing Geographies, including recent efforts to illuminate looking at ruins in How I Love the Broken Things of Rome, and the search for immigrant-age serenity amidst the increasingly gentrified Lower East Side in Folk Songs For the Five Points. Which leaves one to wonder when Toronto will be ready to be subject of such elaborate forays into virtual tourism – or at least earn sufficient amounts of arts council funding evidently required for that to happen.

Images Festival [official site]