the exhibition that never was
“Due to the secrecy of my intended outcomes, I initially desired to find greatly inaccessible spaces for installation and performance. However, in an attempt to respect rules of institutions that house these secret locations, I faced continual failure and rejection."
Besides first imagining my final exhibition as an installation in a white windowless van that could travel undetected through the city, an early thought was to hold a final show/slide show/defense in the Toronto Hall of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes in Leslieville. I noticed it while wandering around the area, and have never seen anyone going in or coming out, despite the sign that reads “OPEN DAILY 11AM.” I managed to call and reach the “Buff’s” voicemail, so I left a message about renting the hall. However I quickly gave up on ever hearing back. I would still love to infiltrate this strange and mysterious club one day though.
I also had the idea to hold a performance/installation in the freight elevator, which I have already written about in detail. This is a section of the proposal I submitted to several OCAD officials before rejection, that clearly states that the elevator is not required to move, and that “I would not interact or interfere with anyone who would need to make use of the the elevator.” Still, the proposal was rejected, and the most I could do exhibition wise with the freight elevator, was affix this proposal, my completed space proposal forms, and a cover sheet scan of my email rejection up next to the doors of the freight elevator on each floor. Documentation intentionally does not exist for this, which questions if the entire show existed if it was never intended to be seen in the first place.
The desk and typewriter I was proposing to use while in the freight elevator. I was able to bring the desk up to the sixth floor studio space in the postage-stamp sized people elevator, so I am positive such a desk would fit in the larger freight elevator.
After the freight elevator show was rejected, I focused my efforts on setting up the desk and a fabricated office space in a hallway between galleries in the same building. The office would be a compliment to the “mobile” trench coat exhibit. This view shows the door into the hallway space.
My plan for the exhibit was to carry the objects I had created in the pockets of the trench coat, as a sort of “mobile” exhibition. In place of an actual exhibition, this telephone on the desk would sit in the hallway gallery. A hidden camera would be set up to live stream the action in the hallway, and once visitors enter, I would call the rotary phone. I have detailed this in the exhibition failures section of the thesis document. The main issue with this is that I could never set up the Obihai device to work. I visited a forum that suggested rotary phone users (with no * button) write to Obihai support, who will automatically add a device. This did not work for me. I was pointed back to the same article I read in the first place. I was told to find an analog phone with the * button, and once that was set up with a Google Voice account, I could switch it over to the rotary phone. I was given the account information of the previous owners of the second hand device and told I would have to purchase more support time to receive help with this. And so the phone aspect has not yet come to fruition. I’m still searching for an analog phone.
I had actually contacted the Toronto Reference Library before ever visiting the Arthur Conan Doyle room on the 5th floor. It was only after they had rejected my request that I decided to finally seek out the room and visit. I took a friend of mine who was visiting from Milwaukee, and when we got there it was surprisingly accessible. I had heard rumors surrounding the room while I was getting in contact with the head of the special collection. “I heard you can only enter the room through another room,” and “I hear it’s behind glass and you can’t go in at all.” Both are somewhat true. To access the collection, you do enter a few rooms with large glass windows. The collection also exists outside the “22B Baker Street” room, with shelves and a table just outside the main attraction. The librarian also asks to take off any bags and large coats, and if you’d like to look at a book to pull it off the shelf and leave the book out for a librarian to shelf back in the correct spot.
I reserved one of the adjacent galleries for the same dates I had planned to install the small office space in this corner of the hallway. However, I was informed that this hallway, like the freight elevator, was a separate space that had to be booked through a space proposal form. I thought of proposing this as a space for the install in place of the freight elevator (as was offered to me in the rejection). However I suddenly had other install issues that took presedence.
An alley nearby the galleries where I would wait, watching the live stream, waiting for visitors I could call on the rotary phone.
There is an overwhelming amount of amazing finds in the room. In addition to old novels, early detective tradebacks, and all manner of beautiful books that have connection to Doyle, there are also numerous artist books printed and bound by hand with beautiful papers. The collection itself is splendid, although not very secret. In the end, I suppose it would not be best as a secret. The room is part of a library, a place that should remain accessible to as many people as possible and not try to hide itself away for that reason.
Finally, I wanted to keep it mostly a surprise but my plan for the final defense was to hold a slide show - a real slide show with slides and an old projector. I began researching the possibility of this and it looked like it would not be too difficult to pull off. I looked through AV Loans at OCAD and saw they do lend out slide projectors. The first trip I made to AV Loans, they hauled the projector down from a dusty upper shelf, but with no carousel. I asked if there was another part, but they included the lens. Clearly, from the thick film of dust on the surface of the lens, neither had been used years, maybe a decade. I hope I have secured the need for slide projectors (AV Loans has 4 apparently) for another decade through my frequent check out of these items. I acquired a great deal of slide equipment, including a carousel (see right side video) from a Toronto local named Dougal, who was kind enough to give me loads of equipment, including the stack loader and writeable slides show in the video on the left. Upon my next return to AV Loans, it turned out they did have carousels, most people just don’t know the parts exist, or are needed for the projector. But I had my new slide loaders and had fun testing them out. I also found a manual online for the Kodak Ektagraphic III, as well as a repair manual for servicing (mostly schematics, but helpful to know what parts were what inside the projector). This is how I found out the projector also has a built in slide viewer (seen in the video on the left).
I was also lent some actual slide images from C. Rodmore, which made testing out the projector a lot more exciting than looking at blank slides. I did test out the writeable slide as well, which was fun (seeing how my tiny handwriting from different implements translated to a large projection on the wall). He also advised me on a few places that still process slide film. I did some test runs with regular C-41 negative film on my trip to Buenos Aires, to get refamiliarized with this old camera I purchased years ago at a flea market in Berlin. I purchased a former government issued generic slide film from “The Photography Project” which has a strange background story. Ultimately, also signed up with the student program at Downtown Camera of Toronto, which offers 10% developing and a free roll of any Kodak film. So I requested a roll of Ektachrome, to have extra frames just in case.
The film from Buenos Aires was a tiny victory. About 4 out of the 40 or so that I shot came out beautifully like this one, taken at Recoleta Cemetery. But I did realize through the film experimentation that my camera is unbelievably low tech, and really must be in the ideal range of 125 shutter speed and F8/F11. There is not much room for deviation. I have read that slide film is more finicky, and I have never shot it before. I was never able to get the slides processed for this show that never happened. However, it’s a thrilling new possibility that I want to explore when I have time and more beautiful scenes to photograph. I would assume my success ratio would be the same 4/40 once I get the hang of shooting slide film. But even, then I need viewers to whom I can show the slides.