The Language of Bees

Do Holt Renfrew's Christmas windows rip from David Altmejd's The Index (installed currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario)?

In The Index, displayed in 2007 in the Canadian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, and now at the Art Gallery of Ontario, David Altmejd displays a creepy collection of contrastingly ballsy and decaying man-animal specimens. He refuses to either set out on his work with, or distill from them, a clear 'message', which only adds to the tension conveyed by his sculptures. The curator at the AGO, however, seemed to think The Index put the modern world on display - cataloguing its hybrids, anomalies, and casualties, trying to make sense of them, like efforts to classify and document rare birds and extinct animals before them. Andrea Rosen, Mr. Altmejd's dealer is quoted as saying that, "It's partly about our fear of animal instincts, but transformed into things that are beautiful." I find it hard to describe The Index as anything but haunting and perhaps even hideous.

Walking along Bloor Street yesterday, I was reminded of Altmejd's sculpture in the windows of Holt Renfrew - the elite shopping destination in Canada, like Barney's is to New York. Holt's christmas windows are the most elaborate in Toronto, perhaps even Canada - you can see the attention to detail, and cost, that goes into them in the photos below. I wonder if the designers were taking inspiration from The Index. It wouldn't be that hard to imagine them having visited the AGO and seeing his imposing sculpture. But I'm at loss of pinpointing what they were getting at - not unlike how Altmejd's work leaves its audience guessing. Are we all animals - slaves to our instinctual desires? Were these windows a hopeful vision of harmonious man-animal relations (a theme also explored in this month's Spacing) - (things are alll good, it's Christmas!)? Or were they a basic comment on our destruction of the animal world - pronounced by the use of arctic-dwelling penguins striding nonchalantly along. Maybe the windows are just meant to be creepy yet beautiful - a holiday distraction. But, still, while the animals are portrayed as cool, confident, even decadent - humans were shown as puppets, rising unrelentingly up and down, almost unwillingly. Who is pulling on these puppet strings?

DAVID ALTMEJD'S THE INDEX

HOLT RENFREW'S CHRISTMAS WINDOWS