check out this article published in the sunday toronto star!
come to the opening reception party this saturday!
i’ll be in toronto may 5th to 17th. hope to see you while i’m there.
dear friends,
two years ago last monday, i was riding a motorbike through the western indian desert when two stray dogs darted out of the roadside bushes and in front of my path. i slammed on the brakes too hard, lost control and careened off the bike into the middle of the highway. luckily, traffic was light: a few moments later, a car screeched to a halt and three men pulled me off the pavement, bloodied and in shock. in the back of their car, on the way to the doctor, through snotty tears, panic, and despair, i decided to become a photographer.
starting next monday, a series of my photographs from india will be displayed as part of toronto’s 2010 contact photo festival. from may 3 – 31, the series will occupy all of the interior advertising panels of a single TTC streetcar. the streetcar will operate on regular service, picking up and dropping off an average of 1,000 passengers per day, switching daily between the 11 downtown toronto lines. the question i’ll pose is the one that’s nagged me for years – and the last thing i remember thinking before seeing those dogs. what does it mean to be a human being?
visiting the website or becoming a follower on twitter are two ways by which you can get a digital experience of the exhibition. much better, however, is to take a ride on the streetcar and experience it yourself. as the streetcar will be on regular service, i expect that it will be challenging to hunt it down during the month. i’m hopeful that i’ll be able to share daily location updates on my twitter page, but i’m not yet sure how that will work out.
so, unless you possess a determined faith in the gods of serendipity, write this date in your calendar: saturday may 15th. the streetcar will be scheduled on the 506 carlton line that entire day; it’ll travel east/west along college street, carlton, and gerrard. i will ride the streetcar from 10 am onwards and hope that you’ll join me for a tour of the installation and the city. on the morning of the 15th, you can check my website to get details about where on the line the streetcar will be when.
that same day, from 2 – 5 pm on may 15th, i will take a respite from the ride to host a very casual gathering at the lahore tikka house, 1365 gerrard street east. think chai and samosas, not wine and cheese. hopefully you can ride the streetcar to or from the event; the 506 carlton runs right in front of the restaurant. if you can’t catch the streetcar, bonus points for those who cycle, rollerblade, walk or skateboard. this is a public event and open to anyone.
through this exhibition, i am experimenting with some big hairy ideas. i hope to question the artificial lines that we draw to divide us from one another. i hope to challenge the notion that individual impact is meaningless. i hope to provoke your ideas about other people and to inspire greater thoughtfulness in your actions.
see, each day seems to bring a new crisis that threatens the way we conceive life. this overload of information makes it really easy to ignore, to disconnect, to speak ironically or with banality about our current condition. maybe this is why we focus on triviality, on celebrity, on extravagance, on our careers, on owning so much stuff. but if you’re anything like me, when you’re still, you’ll hear all sorts of questions echoing in your head: who are you, now? what are we? how can we live with each other? how do we love, fully? what world are we creating? where are we going? these are not questions of a secondary or tertiary order; they are pressing, imminent. where do you fit in? how do your choices affect others? how can you participate, find meaning, engage? what does it mean to be?
this exhibition has grown out of those voices and these questions.
and while it was my finger on the shutter, it’s been your advice, perspective, arguments, ideas and inspiration that has made this real. if you look really closely, you’ll find yourself in every photo; i promise. whether you are near or far, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all of your help.
hope to see you on the 15th.
love,
jordan.
robson street.