We were away for the weekend so that I could speak at a United Church in Ancaster, Ontario for their 63rd anniversary. 1954 is a very good year for births.
On our way we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the Guillermo Del Toro: At Home With Monsters exhibit. Del Toro is a master of the fantastical on film with Pan's Labyrinth as his greatest accomplishment to date, at least in the minds of many.
At Home with Monsters is his stuff, from his place in Los Angeles called Bleak House, an homage to Charles Dickens. It is a bizarre, spooky, creative collection of art, artifacts, books, and props. As Del Toro puts it “To find beauty in the profane. To elevate the banal. To be moved by genre. These things are vital for my storytelling. This exhibition presents a small fraction of the things that have moved me, inspired me, and consoled me as I transit through life.”
A small fraction?! There are rooms and rooms of his stuff, including thousands of comic books, mock ups for the weird creatures in his films, and art work galore.
The exhibit notes Del Toro's fascination with childhood, it's blossoming and it's wounds. Pan's Labyrinth is set in the years following the Spanish Civil War and depicts the horrors of war infiltrating a child’s imagination and threatening the innocence of youth. Del Toro is convinced that we are diminished when we see unusual others as outsiders and monsters.
The exhibit also highlights the themes of crucifixion and resurrection which recur in his work. There are paintings with crosses in them and an interesting set of graphic comic panels depicting scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke's gospel.
I would recommend visiting the exhibit and will probably get there again, even though I had one of my worst nightmares ever the following night!
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