04 JUNE 2011 – 18 JUNE 2011
OPENING RECEPTION: 04 JUNE 2011, 7 – 11 PM
The Legend is Black at Butcher Gallery examines the visual elements of punk rock culture in Toronto in the 80s. Often it feels like these elements are lost on us – or lost in a myriad of visual language relating to music, art and advertising. This exhibition will generate the feeling of the spirit and circumstance that inspired a new generation and defined street code.
Punk posters from Mickey Skin and Steve Goof‘s collection are drawings on cave walls, they are markings on three stumps, hobo trails, warnings, and testaments to the life of profits and of leaders, young people possessed by inspiration, ritual, sacrifice and defeat.
The work Girls of Prey by Jamie Ross and Esther Rot is a generous incarnation of that spirit. When gender identity politics and battles against authority cease to feel sacred, a new influence arises in an abandoned quarry, inspiring a dynamic where progress can be made. Rott and Ross’s short film is an acutely staged atrocity that makes it feel like the future is now. The Legend is Black is a three-part curatorial project by Xenia Benivolski commissioned by the MOCCA for THIS IS PARADISE.
With support from The Canada Council for the Arts.