AGO - Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix, and Memories Unearthed

I always see this picture of my Grandpa when I go to visit Grandma.

I asked Mom about why he was in uniform. I found out that he was in the Royal Air Force in Jamaica. (Jamaica was a colony of Britain at the time.) I wanted to find out about what was going on in the world at that time and why he would choose to join the army.

I finally started getting some answers. Mom let me read Art Spiegelman's Maus. It was about what Art Spiegelman's Dad experienced while living in Nazi Occupied Poland.

I could finally understand why my Grandpa joined the army.

Even though Poland and Jamaica were far away from each other, World War 2 affected everybody. Britain declared war on Germany when Poland was invaded in 1939. And people from all over the British Empire wanted to do their part to fight for Britain.

I also saw this picture of Dad's Grandfather.

He fought in World War 2 with the Royal Winnepeg Rifles in Normandy. One of my Great-Uncles is buried there.

World War 2 affected everybody!

~~~

Yesterday, we went to the AGO to see Memories Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross and Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix.

Henryk Ross was a very brave Jewish photographer. He was hired to take propaganda photos for the Nazis but he also snuck in some photos that showed what life was really like. He risked his life to take these photos and he had to hide the negatives so that the negatives would survive.

In 1940, the Nazis rounded up 160,000 Jews and forced them to live in Lodz Ghetto. Henryk Ross was one of them.
Lodz had an area of 4.13 sq. kilometres.

German guards standing under a sign saying
"Jews, entry forbidden"

Sign for the Jewish residential area saying
"Residential Area of the Jews, entry forbidden"

Ruins of the synagogue on Wolborska Street destroyed in 1939

But, there were still pictures of hope.

The Torah was saved from the synagogue

They were so separated from everywhere else that they had to use a different currency. All of their money and valuables were confiscated and the Nazis made them use a currency that had no value outside of the Ghetto.

Here you can see the one mark, 2 mark and 5 mark notes.

We saw some of the notices that would have been posted in Lodz.

We learned about the meagre rations that they received. We saw what it was like for the people in the leather factory and the mattress factory.
We saw pictures of hungry people.

It must have been terrible.

The whole exhibit was very moving.

~~~

Before we went on to see Co-Mix, we took a quick stop in the Kids' Gallery.

I really liked these three pieces.
Cabbage, Carton and Cat by Mary Pratt

A video by Joyce Wieland called Catfood.

Cats by Antoine Eugene Lambert

~~~

In Co-Mix we got to see Art Spiegelman's Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages.

But we also saw Maus.

I am glad that I got to read it before we came. It would have been impossible to read it here.

~~~

And of course, we admired the Douglas Fir structures before we left. 

Douglas Firs by Stephen Chatman

I decided to enter the RCM Share the Celebration Countdown competition. I was thinking of doing the grade 5 piece, "Sunset in Rio" by Mike Springer but I am entering the grade 6 piece instead. It is called "Douglas Firs" by Stephen Chatman.

Here is my video entry:

http://youtu.be/HL4CnTTRZ-g

At first I didn't want to play "Douglas Firs" but Mom said I should go out and look for Douglas Firs so I could understand the piece better. 

I wanted to find a living tree but it was harder than I thought. There aren't very many in Toronto.

We found out from  www.CanadianTreeTours.org that there was one at Trinity-Bellwoods Park.

The map showed us where we were supposed to look but there were a lot of trees there. So, we looked for the Douglas-fir cones on the ground. 

Then we looked to see if we could spot any of the Douglas-fir cones still on the tree.

I was so happy when we found it!

Its trunk is very narrow, so I think it must be young. 

But it's still so tall!

I could reach some of the pines though.

I did a bark rubbing so I can remember the texture of the bark.
(Can you spot the CN Tower in the background?)

I also learnt that Douglas-fir trees can grow to over 200 feet tall in their native habitat and they have entire forests in British Columbia.

But, I now know a Douglas-fir tree right here.

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At the Royal Ontario Museum we saw a cross section of a 500 year old Douglas-fir tree that was cut down in the 1890s. It was 2.3m in diameter! That's 7 1/2 feet!

The rings on the tree show how old it is. And we could see that the tree was around from before the invention of the printing press in 1450 until after Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859.

I can't even imagine how tall this tree was!

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We also went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see how they used the wood from the Douglas-firs in the structure of the building. We've been there so many times and we never even thought about it before. The beams and the staircases are made up of Douglas-fir, and the floor is made of Oak.

This is the view from Walker Court. You can see the staircase that can take you all the way up to the 5th floor.

This is where the Art Gallery meets up with The Grange.

We took the elevator up to the 5th floor and walked all the way down.

Mom took lots of pictures...
I loved the lines and the curves.

Sometimes she stretched her hand out so she could get a picture looking down.

And sometimes she took a picture looking up.

And down.

And up.

And down.

Here is a view of Walker Court from the staircase.

And here you can see the support beams for the roof.

It's really amazing what they can do with the wood from the Douglas-fir.

It must be very strong and hard.

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I started working on this song on Boxing Day and now I really like it. I know that it's not 'perfect,' but I only really worked on it for 10 days. Even if I don't win I'm happy that I learnt all about Douglas Firs.  I didn't 'just' play the song, I learnt a lot and had fun too!