I can hear you humming.
I recently saw the current exhibition at Toronto Image Works, a solo show of Mark Kasumovic. Since whenever I’m at Image works I am usually dropping off prints for work, I had printing on the brain.. and one of the first things that grabbed me about this show was the amazing colour and contrast in these images, somewhere between gritty-real and otherworldly.
I have to admit I had already seen this project in previous incarnations, and was hoping it wouldn’t just be more of the same. It certainly wasn’t: Mark struck a fine balance between making portraits of the structures, and describing their bizarre surroundings. We’ve all seen Becher-clone industrial-architecture pictures, as well as journalistic, didactic humanity-encroaching-on-nature pictures.
So I was glad that I Can Hear You Humming walked the perfect line down the middle between those two extremes. There was just the right level of ambiguity; awe at the structures themselves, and a subtle critical note, where the artist highlighted odd juxtapositions. After thinking about the space between the structures and society, which is where the images are situated, I felt the title couldn’t have been more apt. More than a case of clever anthropomorphizing, the phrase “I can hear you humming” probes into how these structures fit into the world of humans, hints at interruption or disturbance, and in context, is just a tiny bit funny— which is always a good thing.
The other impressive aspect of these prints was the deep space depicted in most of them. The strongest images were the ones that reminded me of the vastness of the whole system, like those moments driving down the 401, passing under the hydro towers, and there’s one fleeting second where the whole row aligns. In a few images, there was a flattening of space, and while they didn’t excite me as much as the others, I’m glad they were there to represent the less-obviously stunning views of these structures. Kudos to Mark for finding all the angles and making them look great together.
Here is some other press about the show: Torontoist, and Flight + Hotel.
I Can Hear You Humming continues until January 30 at Toronto Image Works, 80 Spadina.
