PUBLIC: COLLECTIVE IDENTITY | OCCUPIED SPACE at MOCCA (952 Queen West), to June 3. 416-395-0067. Rating: NNNN
MOCCA’s exhibit takes a wary view of public space and its discontents. Anonymous crowds dominate, from Michael Wolf’s snapshots of compressed Tokyo subway commuters to Philippe Chancel’s panoramic photos of North Korean mass games.
The cold panoptic light in many of these photos brings the viewer into an uneasy voyeuristic alliance with the camera.
This is especially true for appropriated images. Many subjects are unaware they’re being photographed in the daily urban crush. Some faces, as in the Google Street View photos appropriated by Montreal’s Jon Rafman, are digitally blurred, underscoring the tense feeling of alienation and surveillance.
Others, like Bill Sullivan’s elevator photographs, are an attempt at candid photography that is also theatrical. Mostly, however, the ambivalence is palpable.
art@nowtoronto.com
