From Grill to Gallery: A Modern Day

I dashed across a busy and crowded Bay Street at 12:35pm. Already ten minutes late for lunch with a good friend and colleague at the Heart House Grill at the University of Toronto. Glad to have worn my shorts and loose fitting top- the temperature was in the high 20's celcius. I arrived in time for an appetizer, glass of wine, and brief catching up with each other before moving into the main dining room for lunch.

Over some more wine and delicious food, my friend and I spoke of everything from training (trained together in martial arts for over a decade), politics, real estate (condo investments), and then onto the topic of our schooling.

Both of us, though roughly thirty years apart in age, began Masters degrees. He's studying Urban Planning, I'm studying Education. As different as these fields appear to be, we are both studying modernity/ modernism. What does it mean to be modern?

In urban planning, being modern might mean that you develop new ways of using urban space in creative and innovative ways; like putting a ferris wheel by the lakeshore. For educators, modernism is seen in how we strive to teach using new methods and state of the art technology. In any case, being/ acting modern ultimately means breaking away from tradition and traditonal ways of operating.

Later that day, I walked down to the Art Gallery of Ontario with the idea of modernity still resonating in my mind. An exhibit that caught my attention was called 'Haute Culture: General Idea, A Retrospective, 1969- 1994".

I then had a thought. I was about to view an exhibit that held some very influencial Canadian art from the 60's through to the early 90's, most of which is considered "modern" art. So, how can something be modern and be almost twenty years old?

The influence these peices had and the resonance they continue to have today allowed me to realize that they are, and for many years will be, modern because of how they dissent tradition and break away from the mainsteam; the traditional stream.

Thought provoking, counter-cultural, and at times shocking (though not mutually exclusive characteristics), the peices pushed boundaries and often made the voyer make considerations from a different perspective; to see the world/ the topics through a modern lens.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself when a middle-aged tour guide hesitantly brought a small group of adults into a room adorned with paintings of poodles in compromising positions. She stated that she tells anyone under the age of 18 to not look too closely. Her voice cracked with embarrassment as she stummbled over her words to describe this particular display.

Perhaps "modern" is a hard pill to swallow, but for many modernity is an essential consideration for aspirations, progress, and hope for what the future will bring.