Toronto Royal Ontario Museum | ?m | ?s | Daniel Libeskind

Cost overruns ... construction behind schedule ... a design that some people don't like ... not yet as many visitors as projected ... it reads as if it was written for people who have been asleep for the past three years.
And, as you say, desperation. I think there are as many quotes dredged up from anonymous members of the public as there are insights into the design of the building. In fact, there was very little that was new.
 
Though I'll grant the piece this much: whatever design criticism there was, wasn't necessarily with a Kunstlerian axe to grind.

OTOH, by existing at all, the piece might still fuel those with a Kunstlerian agenda, anyway.

One thing I find kind of curious is that--was Mark Kingwell cited *at all* in the piece? Given his past associations with the ROM's Institute for Contemporary Culture, plus the fact that he criticized Libeskind's ROM in these very Toronto Life pages in 1994, it's kinda odd for him to fall between the cracks like that...
 
Last night the ROM appeared very quiet:

DSC00009.jpg


DSC00010.jpg
 
I went to the Sobey Art Award preview this morning - the works of the five finalists are exhibited in the space where the 20th Century Design and Byzantium galleries are going on Level 3. It opens to the public in a few days as part of the ROM's mandate to present the arts.

There's certainly a wide range of work - Mississaugan Terence Koh's eye-grabbing giant white sphere and vitrine, Raphaelle de Groot's wrap video, Mario Doucette's naive paintings, and Tim Lee's Bach/Gould video and large photographs were the four I saw. I didn't get the chance to see Daniel Barrow's video.

The winner will be announced on October 1st. In addition to the $50,000 first prize, Sobeys have announced that the runners-up will each get $5,000. With the Federal government shaming us with its culture of funding-denial, thank goodness for Sobeys.
 
The TO Life piece (to backtrack a bit) wasn't shoddy so much as an interesting piece that was torqued past its limits by inflammatory display copy.

W/rt Kunstlerian agendas, remember that the man has moved on. The Kunslterian grinding-axe these days is "we're all gonna die."
 
There was some sort of York U. frosh thing happening throughout the Museum last Friday night, with half-naked lads painted in blue and red woad, and the rest of the boys and girls clad in orange t-shirts with 'Mac' slogans scrawled all over. They claimed to have decided against a big drunk this year.

Some of the elaborate paintwork and gilt on the Chinese Imperial Palace reconstruction is quite cracked now. Did the artisans from Beijing give us their version of The Cheapening I wonder?

Triple A-P has me in its thrall. I've been going back, and soaking it all in, time and time agan.
 
^ A friend/classmate of mine from RyeArch who is very interested in Chinese architecture (he helped create drawings for the East Chinatown Gate) said to me that the palace construction at the ROM is wrong. I'm no expert at Chinese architecture, so I have no idea what that means.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Triple A-P has me in its thrall. I've been going back, and soaking it all in, time and time agan.
Click to expand...

US - you've lost me. What's 'Triple A-P'?

42
 
Thanks.

Yes, when those galleries opened I was amazed by how many artifacts were suddenly on display that I had no idea the ROM had in its collection...

42
 
Did anyone read the "Renovation From Hell" article in Toronto Life? Apparently the ROM is doing much more poorly then expected. They are running a deficit instead of a profit.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top