Contacting Toronto: What's Your Revolution?

Revolutions aren't a one-man, DIY, weekend warrior affair. It takes bands of people, guts, dedication and mob mentality. Contacting Toronto: What's Your Revolution, using the TTC as an all-city public stage, should give their Contact Photography Festival entry an appropriate platform for the kind of mobilized change they're showcasing.

Throughout the exhibition, What's Your Revolution will cycle on over 270 screens every 10 minutes on the Onestop network and according to Onestop Media Group, their screens that hang throughout the city's subways reach over one million people per day.

The prospect of empowering some of those millions is what really turns on the curator, Sharon Switzer of Art 4 Commuters.

"This theme, of personal revolutions, is a bit risky for the public realm and I'm excited by what might happen when the audience encounters the work. Of course, I think that the results will, for the most part, be private ones - with viewers rethinking their own relationship to 'change' and 'revolution'. On a basic level I hope that they are open to the work and take the time to experience and appreciate it, as they go about their day. On a higher level, I hope they might reconsider what they can accomplish in their own lives."

Sharon credits the unorthodox placement of art in the public commuter's eye with helping explore a shared urban identity but also identifies some obvious pitfalls for the artists involved.

"Not having an opening means there is a lack of community, which artists have come to expect and enjoy. I'm on the board of an Gallery TPW, and Artist Run Centre and my own work is represented by Corkin Gallery in the Distillery, so I know and appreciate the experience of showing and viewing work in traditional spaces."

Speaking of artists, FASTWURMS, John Marriott, Darren O'Donnell, and Carolyn Tripp have already been name-dropped as contributors for the project but proposals are still being collected until the 27th of March. Instructions are available through the Contacting Toronto site.

Image on screen in photos: "Obama Fever" by FASTWURMS (2009)