Saturday, October 8, 2016

Toronto: AGO: The Teeth


Exterior stair, AGO, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.


When Sandy and I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), we entered through the front door. On the opposite side of the museum, where the staircase (in the above photo) hangs suspended from the building like a King Kong on the Empire State Building, there was a construction zone that restricted access to this side of the museum campus.

Exterior stair, AGO, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.


It was only through a photo series about the AGO design that I saw the above stair structure depicted, and the very first image that came to my mind was of a skeletal profile of a jutting jaw with teeth. Fascinating! I had to find this and see it for myself! My God - Cyclops-sized chomping teeth outside an art museum!

Exterior stair, AGO, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.


Sandy indulged me on at least two occasions in visiting the edge of the barricaded Grange Park so I could try to get my own photos. Once in late afternoon and once in the evening. A construction fence created an unhappy barrier to my quest.


Exterior stair, AGO, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 2016.


Speaking of teeth .... 

Frank Gehry is the architect who designed the AGO renovation and remodel.

When I mentioned to an architect acquaintance that I'd visited the AGO and uttered Mr. Gehry's name, it triggered a wondrous fire-and-brimstone sermon against the Satanic force that is Gehry and others of his aesthetic persuasion, which is godless. I was impressed.

Also, evidently, Mr. Gehry can be an asshole.

There is some evidence to support this opinion: 

Frank Gehry. Source: Archinect.


On the other hand, you can move beyond a few moments in time, as depicted above, to a fuller story as told through Sydney Pollock's 2006 documentary, Sketches of Frank Gehry, below:










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