'Transactions With History' at The McCord Museum

Tuesday, 01 August 2006 16:11

Montréal — This summer, the McCord Museum has taken to the streets! Visitors strolling along McGill College Avenue in downtown Montréal will witness some intriguing Transactions.  To take advantage of the fine weather, the McCord Museum is delighted to present its first outdoor photographic exhibition.  “The chance to show our collections to such a large audience, on such a grand scale, is a very exciting opportunity for the McCord,” says the Museum’s Executive Director, Victoria Dickenson.

Through October 16^th, along the west side of McGill College Avenue, the exhibition Transactions plays with the idea of the transaction – the basis of trade and commerce – but also at the root of social, cultural, and personal life.  The poignant, often playful pairings of photographs present stunning color images of objects from the Museum’s renowned collections, as well as black and white historic photographs from the Notman Photographic Archives.

As you look south along McGill College Avenue, colour close-ups of artifacts parade down the street.  Looking north, the morning light illuminates historic black and white depictions of the city, many from the studios of William Notman.  To see a Notman photograph on such a grand scale is to really see it for the first time.  The tiny details that emerge in these large reproductions are truly impressive.  The viewer is drawn into the photo and immersed in the scene.

The artifacts photographed for this exhibition were chosen not only for their significance in relation to the historic photographs on display, but also for their individual beauty and power.  The warm and battered detail of an old suitcase reflects the long voyage that many immigrants have made to the streets of Montréal, captured in a turn-of-the-century street scene.  The Canadian Pacific Railway’s vast Angus factories, located in the city’s east end and symbolic of Montréal’s booming industrial era, are embodied in a toy train car.  Exquisite beading on an Edwardian evening gown, similar to that on the gowns displayed in an upscale storefront, speaks to the elegance of that time.  The peaceful, luminous quality of a stained-glass temple window, juxtaposed with a vista of Montreal’s steeple-dotted skyline, underline a transaction of a more spiritual nature.

These Transactions, encompassed in the twinning of historic photographs and objects, constitute the fabric of our daily lives.  Transactions are all around us.  The connections may be surprising, and are certainly thought-provoking.  Transactions inspires new insights into Montréal’s past, present, and future.  And these images remind us that transacting with history may happen when we least expect it.

Vist The McCord Museum at : http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/