Work impressed by the lyrics of the Tragically Hip

Fast: decide your favorite Tragically Hip lyric.

Go together with what instantly involves thoughts. I’ll offer you a second to suppose whereas I blast the primary three Gord Downie gems that come to my very own thoughts onto the web page within the second: “And the vacationers take their T-shirts off …” from “Yawning or Snarling”; “It was good-looking on the public sale / Oh, however once we bought it house / It grew up into one thing we may / Now not comprise” from “Pigeon Digital camera”; and “Porn speaks to its splintered legions / To the pink amid the withered cornstalks in them winter areas” from “Poets.”

I simply yelled the identical query to my associate and the response was speedy from the following room: “My lady don’t simply stroll, she unfurls,” a line from the early Hip deep reduce “Everytime You Go.”

So, yeah, consider your favorite Tragically Hip lyric. Now? Paint it.

Such was the duty set to 18 totally different artists from world wide — 75 per cent of them Canadian, as mandated by the Hip itself — by the nifty new exhibition “Echoes of the Flame: Artwork Impressed by the Lyrics of the Tragically Hip,” at Gallery 1313 in Parkdale. 1 / 4 of the proceeds from the sale of the unique paintings will go towards constructing the Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na language and cultural centre on a Mohawk reservation in Tyendinaga.

Lead singer Gordon Edgar Downie, who died from mind most cancers at 53 5 years in the past, is not with us and the Tragically Hip, in flip, now exists primarily as a type of collective sentry guarding its personal musical and cultural legacy from a respectful distance while lacking a vital limb. However “Echoes of the Flame” is proof optimistic that Downie’s phrases and the Kingston quintet’s music will outlive us all, particularly if it continues to seek out new life within the ears — and eyes — of its beholders.

“Effectively, that’s good to suppose, however we’ll by no means be forgotten till we are. You possibly can by no means get replaced till another person comes alongside,” joked Hip guitarist Rob Baker, a painter himself (albeit privately), on the invite-only opening of the exhibition at Gallery 1313 final week. “However that is extremely gratifying to see. We’re kinda finished, nevertheless it kinda continues on and it continues to occur, and no matter occurs tomorrow from the ripples shifting outward, no matter it’s, I don’t know. However it’s nice to see music taken into a distinct medium, y’know?”

Downie himself would have loved the breadth of creative imaginative and prescient on show in “Echoes of the Flame,” affirmed Baker, exactly as a result of he at all times left his oft-inscrutable wordplay completely open to particular person interpretation — though Baker did concede his late buddy would most likely have been a tad embarrassed by all the eye.

“Elements of it, sure, however not by seeing the artists interpret his concepts or his lyrics, and make them their very own and do one thing with it,” he stated. “He would suppose that’s incredible. He’d hate the accolades and all of the s— that goes with it, however he would like to see what folks do with it.

“Gord would by no means, ever say ‘This track is about this.’ It’s poetry. You place it on the market and folks both decide it up or they don’t, and in the event that they decide it up they put their very own spin on it. They put themselves into it. That’s the best way it’s presupposed to work together. Individuals discover their manner into the track after which the track turns into their track after which it comes out once more in new type. He would love that. I really like that.”

As was the case with different exhibitions presided over by Los Angeles-based Track-Phrase Artwork Home — which has finished thematic exhibits dedicated to such genres as punk rock and the blues, in addition to to the songwriting of John Lennon, prior to now — the one actual rule utilized to the worldwide artists chosen for “Echoes of the Flame” was that Downie’s lyrics themselves needed to function someplace within the work.

In some items, such because the multicoloured wall of textual content that’s Brigitta Kocsis’s “Blow at Excessive Dough #1” or the {photograph} of a remodelled New Orleans road signal that Toronto’s Rob Croxford constructed in honour of “New Orleans Is Sinking,” the phrases are entrance and centre. Others, similar to Kingston painter Simon Andrew’s attractive “Bobcaygeon” — whereby the phrases, to borrow a phrase from Downie, “reveal themselves one star at a time” amidst a lakeside panorama bathed in violet mild — or the sneaky cityscape homage to lyrical particulars present in “Grace, Too” conjured by Canadian artist Jeff Bartels take a extra delicate method.

All the works, which additionally embody contributions by fellow musicians Daniel Lanois and Tom Wilson — who’s created a surprising testimonial to Canada’s shameful therapy of its Indigenous Peoples within the type of an unlimited nun’s behavior bedecked with the names of kids discovered buried at residential colleges nationwide — are equally compelling exactly as a result of they converse to the profoundly private relationship all of us have with totally different items of music. No two folks would ever create the identical piece of artwork in response to the identical piece of music.

This is the reason expat-Canadian curator Joe Woolf, who’s been itching to do a Hip-inspired exhibition since he co-founded Track-Phrase Artwork Home, wasn’t troubled by the daunting prospect of treading on hallowed Canadian musical floor with “Echoes of the Flame.” Ultimately, it’s not a lot concerning the lyrics and the music themselves, however the artists’ relationship with them.

“There’s at all times a whole lot of stress to do proper by these legendary songwriters, however I’m not the one making the artwork so I’m not gonna f— it up,” laughed Woolf. “I’m simply kidding, however the reality of the matter is we take it very critically and once we select the artists, we’re selecting people who find themselves internationally acclaimed, they usually’re trustworthy they usually’re at all times coming in entrance of it from a extremely real place.

“And when somebody involves one thing creatively and genuinely, they usually’re not making an attempt to do one thing that’s commercialized or for the fallacious causes, we’ve at all times discovered that the artists are actually, actually real of their intentions, they usually’re at all times trustworthy and good, and we’ve by no means f—ed up one exhibition.”

The artists themselves approached the duty of deciphering the Hip with various levels of familiarity, too.

Some, like Kai McCall — who painted a portrait of a younger girl strolling mysteriously by the phrases “Rain fell by the night time” in homage to “Forward by a Century” — merely went with their hearts. He selected “Forward by a Century,” he stated, “as a result of it’s at all times been my favorite Hip track” and is without end “anchored in my thoughts as a reminiscence in my 20s,” as a result of he and his buddies listened to it continuous whereas planting bushes in northern Ontario in the course of the early Nineties.

Others weren’t actually acquainted with the Hip’s music in any respect, approaching the topic with an absolute purity of imaginative and prescient.

“I actually don’t know a whole lot of their music and I didn’t know their historical past that a lot. I’m being fully trustworthy,” confessed Toronto-via-Siberia-via-Kazakhstan-via-Israel painter Dina Roudman, who painted a garish whorl of color in response to “Drained As F—.”

“However then I went on a journey to hearken to a whole lot of their music and ‘Drained as F—’ linked to my life-style on the time: we have been nonetheless within the pandemic, I felt actually f—ing drained and I used to be exhausted from a whole lot of change. That’s why I selected that track. It was actually laborious for me, although, to imitate that track as a result of I’m an summary painter and at first I used to be actually making an attempt to deal with the phrases … however I forgot it’s not concerning the phrases, ultimately, it’s about my emotions. And this sense of being ‘Drained as F—’ got here out within the portray. The phrases didn’t must be the principle focus.”

Ben Rayner is a Toronto-based journalist and a frequent contributor to the Star’s Culture section. Follow him on Twitter: @ihatebenrayner

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