Guy Maddin Ransom Notes from the Lavender Underground

Filmmaking, like a lot of lens-based artwork, is frequently driven by new developments in the medium, where aesthetics evolve in step with new technologies. Guy Maddin challenges that notion, bringing the viewer back to a time when images were processed by hand with results that often included unpredictable effects. His celebrated films recurrently evoke dreamscapes from the past while addressing contemporary issues of identity and memory. The artist brings a similar approach to his collage practice, and it is this work that grounds his solo exhibition. Maddin brings a narrative approach to these works, and has written of his collage process: “I suppose the playroom of this gluey and scissory medium is where I find refuge whenever cinema’s laws feel too literal-minded, where I can secretly fashion the blueprints for the little visual collisions I hope will work on the big screen.”

Curated in partnership with TIFF, this exhibition brings together original work and mural-sized reproductions that invite the viewer to revel in the subtle details and layered imagery of Maddin’s vision. An installation of his 11-channel film Hauntings, commissioned on the occasion of the opening of TIFF Bell Lightbox in 2010, rounds out the exhibition.

Curated by Laurel MacMillan and Mia Nielsen