Exhibition Reviews
Exhibition Review by Theodora Dimitrijevic
Exhibition: Boom Town at Open Studio
Toronto, Ontario
Colin Lyons, Canada Maltage, zinc on left and etching on paper on right, 17" x 13" x 5", 2007.
<http://www.openstudio.on.ca/>.
We all reminisce about our childhood, but as artists we are able to recreate and recapture these
memories. This is what Montreal artist, Colin Lyons sought out to do from an architectural
perspective in his exhibition, Boom Town. Lyons grew up in Petrolia, a picturesque town near
Sarnia, Ontario that used to be a significant oil- producing town in the 1850’s and once more in
the 1930’s. Boom Town, which is Colin Lyons’ first Toronto exhibition, is ironic in that it
exclusively focuses on non functional industrial buildings and creates an ambiance of
architectural nostalgia. I was at first attracted to Lyons’ exhibition because his models of
factories remind me of the models toy train modellers use to make the building models that their
trains drive around. I have always enjoyed train sets and the model buildings that surround them,
so I wanted to reach into the deeper meaning behind Lyons’ work.
Lyon’s work reminds me a lot of Kevin Yates’ work, a guest artist that
spoke during one of our Critical Issues lectures, in that they both create sculptural models of
buildings in order to capture an era or time frame. Yates’ work, Pearl Street is a miniature house
made of wood and bronze 1. It’s dimensions are 32 by 25 by 19 centimetres, around the same
size as Lyons’ buildings. Homes like Yates’ model would have been built in the early 20th
century, around the time when Petrolia, Lyons’ town was an oil producing town. In fact, both
artists are from small towns- Yates was born in Owen Sound in 1974 2. At Lyons’ exhibit, I
noticed this similarity between the two artists and it struck me that where you grow up can have
such a monumental impact on your art making experience, even well into your adult years. This
observation got me thinking about myself as an artist and my own art making experience. I
began to question where my own work was coming from and realised that much of it deals with
nature, and features a lot of tree life. Uncoincidentally, my house backs into a ravine and there
are many ravines in my town of Oakville, which although growing, used to be quite small
throughout my childhood. I suspect it is this similarity between myself and Lyons that
unconsciously led me to chose him as the artist I am going to discuss in this essay.
The subject of the exhibition was Montreal’s Lachine Canal, a strip of factories that are
partially empty and partially functioning for other uses such as artists’ lofts, music studios and
places where homeless people seek refuge 3.
3. Dault, Micheal Gary. “Gallery Going.” The Globe and Mail 11 Oct. 2008.
Working off of skilfully self-captured photographs of the Canal, Lyons steadily etched the
buildings’ worn out facades onto zinc plates. Making prints of the plates onto paper, he then cut
and folded the paper, assembling the printed planes of the structures into three-dimensional
buildings are made for model train layouts by railroad modellers. This process of model building
creation was repeated many times over to create the Boom Town collection.
As well as the process involved in creating the buildings, Lyons has equally dedicated his
attention to the appearance of each individual building. They are all unique in size, shape and
design with etched on features that signify the appearance of soot, harsh weather, and graffiti,
making the paper appear as if it were as heavy as lead.
While most of Lyons’ works in Boom Town are accurate representations, some are hybrids,
tweaked by the artist’s imagination 2. Walking around the exhibit, the works as a collective took
me back to another time of commerce and a form of production that has almost completely
disappeared through computers taking up much of the machine work in factories.
In venerating these old buildings, they become works of art as we are no longer accustomed to
seeing these factories in modern cities. Thus, they are enjoyable to look at as they represent the
industrial revolution, and therefore Canadian history.
Lyons’ media of choice, intaglio, is hundreds of years old and further emphasizes the age
factor that accompanies the buildings. The choice of paper is a medium that also brings to mind
the ephemeral qualities of big industries and zinc 4.
4. Dault, Micheal Gary. “Gallery Going.” The Globe and Mail 11 Oct. 2008.
Boom Town truly creates the feeling that Lyons has reached into the past and captured a time
and culture that I felt was recaptured when entering the exhibit. The buildings, instead of being
set up in a strip are scattered around the gallery on white square platforms. I think this is more
effective than displaying them in a strip like the original Lachine Canal as it allows viewers to
Boom Town truly creates the feeling that Lyon has reached into the past and captured a time
and culture that I felt was recaptured when entering the exhibit. The buildings, instead of being
set up in a strip are scattered around the gallery on white square platforms. I think this is more
effective than displaying them in a strip like the original Lachine Canal as it allows viewers to
walk around the different buildings and enjoy their three-dimensionality. As well, due to some of
the hybrid works in the exhibit, I don’t feel the artist is aiming to deliver the message that he was
purely trying to create a replication of some historical buildings. Instead, the purpose of the
exhibit seems to be about recapturing an industrial time frame that could be extended to include
more buildings.
To conclude my impressions on Lyons’ works, I would like to say that I enjoyed visiting this
exhibit as it felt like being a giant in a village of little buildings. Bending down to look at the
works, I began to imagine the daily labour that occurred inside the buildings. I
wondered about the worker’s issues at the time and if fair policies and pay had been
implemented. Apart from the architectural differences, the exhibit made me want to find out
what the main differences in working conditions are today for factory workers as opposed to
then; have things changed as much in the system as they have in the appearance of the buildings,
and are they for the better?
Works Cited
Newspaper article:
Dault, Micheal Gary. "Gallery Going." The Globe and Mail 11 Oct. 2008.
Website Articles:
"Exhibitions." Open Studio. Open Studio. 5 Nov. 2008 <http://www.openstudio.on.ca/>.
Hobbs, Susan, comp. "KY Biography." Kevin Yates. Susan Hobbs Gallery. 5 Nov. 2008 <http://www.susanhobbs.com/artists/yates/kybiography.html>.
Pedros, Natasha. "Architectures for Nostalgia." Architectures for Nostalgia. Niagra Artists Centre. 5 Nov. 2008 <http://www.nac.org/content/blogcategory/13/33/>.
Schwartz, Judith. "Pearl Street." FA/VISA F 1000 3.0 Sec A (Fall 2008-09). York University. 5 Nov. 2008 <http://webct.yorku.ca/script/2008_fa_visa_f_1000__3_a_en_a_lect_01/scripts/serve_home>.
