INDOOR FIREWORKS DEBUT

You’re invited to my first-ever installation, Indoor Fireworks, at Mon Ton Window Gallery, 61a Bellevue Avenue – at  the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Nassau Street – Kensington Market, Toronto!

Andrew Ooi, Indoor Fireworks Debut and Reception, Mon Ton Window Gallery, Kensington Market, Toronto ON 2024

The installation is inspired by the themes and ideas presented in Bernardo Bertolucci’s cinematic classic, The Last Emperor.

First watching this movie as a child, I was struck by the similarities I shared of the young Emperor’s character whose story is told through a series of flashbacks made as an adult, by actor John Lone. The conflict to supposedly have everything and do anything, yet be prepared for nothing except failure, was literally, too close to home – the place we hope to feel the safest. As the pretense around me often made for celebration, like fireworks lit indoors, I would withdraw to my bedroom, where I began to discover myself through art; imagining what life would be not as a pawn or puppet, but potential to be realized. This installation is in part a realization and commemoration of that potential – figures and places featured in Bertolucci’s film, with the gallery nearly mimicking the orientation of my childhood bedroom – where fantasy and reality do, really, exist: as art!

The exhibition runs from September 5, 2024 to October 6, 2024, and can be viewed anytime, day or night.

Opening reception is this week: September 5, 2024, from 6pm – 8pm!

Andrew Ooi, Indoor Fireworks Debut and Reception, Mon Ton Window Gallery, Kensington Market, Toronto ON 2024

The same time as artist Eileen Kwan’s exhibition opens next door at Samara Contemporary, 88 Nassau Street; September 5 to 28, 2024! Through a selection of fine, embroidered tapestries, Kwan will transform the iconic representation of the Canadian landscape from past, painting, to present, couture: fashion and textiles being the expression for today’s youth, current events and culture.

See you there!