Death's Children by Mark Adair...

Mark Adair
Death's Children
March 27 - April 18, 2010

loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West (3 doors west of Dovercourt)
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8

Wed-Sat 1-5pm

Sun 1-4pm

Went to see Death's Children, the latest (and final?) installment in Mark Adair's Death series. The first in the series, also on display, is entitled Death Drinks. These are small, playing card or tarot card sized charcoal drawings about the seemingly normal misadventures of Death in the modern world (falling in love, getting a job, having kids, etc.). Incredibly detailed drawings, especially for charcoal work; these are wonderfully creepy little Gothic vignettes that amuse and disturb at the same time. Elements of dark European art and Tim Burtonesque landscapes blend to create little scenes that draw the viewer into Death's world. Very engrossing. Highly, highly recommend anyone in the Dundas & Dovercourt area to drop in and take a look.

I've seen this piece in various stages over the last decade or so and it has easily become one of my favourite pieces created by Adair. Mark's work has always seemed to delve into the darker side of life and in the late '90s we discussed this and other ponderings in an interview entitled Culture, Art, Death for a now defunct online zine (The Annihilation Fountain).

There is a very interesting bio film (directed & produced by Patrick Jenkins) about Mark and his art entitled Death Is In Trouble Now, available from Moving Images Distribution. A short youtube excerpt of this film is below.

Proof that God exists and has a sense of humor...

From Fake Steve Jobs:

Jesse Helms and Bozo the Clown, dead on the same day. Nice work, O Great One. I honor the place where your sick sense of humor and my own become one.

Too bad.... I'm going to miss Bozo....

George Carlin RIP...

I saw George Carlin live when I was 16 or 17 at what was then named the O'Keefe Centre in downtown Toronto. Very, very funny show. I remember the outcry from his 70's Class Clown comedy LP featuring the 7 Words You Can't Say On TV. My mother was one of the outraged.... A wonderful quote from him:

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating …and you finish off as an orgasm."

May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008 R.I.P.