Tony Romano: Reimagining Pop and Art
Tony Romano “a fist full of flies” 2010 Installation view Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkensheid
Tony Romano’s fascination with language, culture and the labyrinthine structures of human relationships (to each other and everything in between) informs his latest solo exhibition “a fist full of flies” at Diaz Contemporary. Drawing on a range of sources from philosophy to linguistics to pop culture, Romano’s new works experiment with codes as living cultural forms. In a series of movie-poster collages Romano playfully juxtaposes and reconfigures iconic Hollywood titles and symbols from the 1980s and 1990s. In a similar vein, The Imagine Band has lyrics from John Lennon’s song Imagine translated by 10 professional translation services through 10 different languages and back into English. The revised English version, as performed by Tony Romano with Will Kidman and Matt Dunn, is recorded on a 45-rpm single. The overall effect is beyond the revelations of Semiotics 101—translation is posited in terms of interpretation of ideas, and schisms are rendered as new possibilities for creativity. A series of sepia-toned photographs depicting purported scenes from movie sets contrasts somewhat, but also demonstrates Romano’s ongoing curiosity about narratives and their relationship to reality. Beautiful Monster, a film on Romano’s contemporary and collaborator Jay Isaac, is a playful rumination on the relationship between the medium and its narrative potential as well as being an ironic, tongue-in-cheek homage to an artist friend. The half-hour film is composed of a formal interview between the two artists and scenes of Isaac at work in his studio in Toronto, all without revealing the relationship between the two figures. Overall, this exhibition, a laboratory of sorts, emphasizes Romano’s whimsical, engaging and experimental qualities. (100 Niagara St, Toronto ON)
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Tony Romano Apocalypse Now 2009–10 Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkensheid |
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Tony Romano The Imagine Band 2009 Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkensheid |
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