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Three of the four Great War exhibits are object-rich and historical in focus, drawing inspiration and material from the City’s artifact, fine art, and archival collections. “The Great War—In Your Attic, Closet or Storage Locker” delves into the meaning of small objects which reflect Canada’s participation in the war. Cap badges, service medals, sweetheart pins, and other things have long been cherished by individuals and preserved in institutions. What is their significance? “Outfitted for War: Canadian Uniforms and Arms of the First World War” looks at what particular men and women wore on service, and what unknown men used in battle. Lots of khaki, along with a machine gun and a bluebird.
“Art and the Great War: A Toronto Perspective” will challenge those who think that all of Canada’s great wartime art is in the Canadian War Museum. This exhibit teases out some intriguing Toronto stories tied to paintings, photographs, graphic design, and three-dimensional decorative art. The fourth Great War exhibit is An Act of Timing, Nestor Kruger’s site-specific installation in the tunnel leading up to Garrison Common. Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 Fourteen Points speech to Congress is transformed into a large nonrepeating geometric pattern—the backdrop for an audio narration of a card game in progress, inspired by its use in Russian folktales as a strategy to outwit the Devil. The work draws a relationship between the various forces (including luck) that affect the movement of history. The fifth exhibit features Charles Pachter’s fourteen-work painting series, 1812: The Art of War. The bicentennial of the war provided the Toronto artist with another opportunity to explore Canadian history and identity. Pachter’s pop art sensibility tackles Upper Canadian icons of the war, period uniforms, and even some re-enactors. Pachter generously donated the entire series to the City of Toronto in 2013; his gift now appears for the first time, in the Visitor Centre’s theatre.
Wayne Reeves is Chief Curator for City of Toronto Museums & Heritage Services.
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