Strange Love [Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto]
Postwar culture displayed curious and contradictory preoccupations.
The atom – both “friendly” and deadly – appeared across a variety of settings. Visions of conquering space contrasted optimism and faith in scientific progress with the anxiety of the unknown. Television shows, cartoons, novels and films set utopian futures of peace and plenty against the wasteland of nuclear devastation. Photographers conveyed this intensity through vivid imagery, close cropping, unusual angles and extreme lighting.
Drawing upon the National Film Board’s collection of historical documentary photographs held at the National Gallery of Canada and Library and Archives Canada, this exhibition expresses the drama of the period – the propagandistic battle of the cold war and the strange love of technologies, which played out as an eternal struggle between good and evil.
Date
Location
S. Yool, Scientists Pat Holden and Norman Harrison look into the test chamber of the ISIS A Satellite, 1965. Inkjet print. CMCP Archive, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives (NFB 65-2587)
Ted Grant, Technician working with manipulators, 1967. Inkjet print. CMCP Archive, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives (NFB 67-10054)
The National Gallery of Canada wishes to acknowledge the following partners in the realization of this exhibition:
Related Content
