Day 24: CN Tower and Royal Ontario Museum

Today we knocked off a couple of tourist must-sees, but neither of them was as much fun as we had hoped—neither was as much fun as touring an art museum.

There were two schools of thought on when to visit the CN Tower, a structure that looks like the Space Needle in Seattle, and the one in Niagara for that matter. Our first advisor said we should go in the evening after the light has mellowed a little because it is too harsh in the morning. But this morning a friendly waitress told Dan that the CN Tower is next to the baseball field and that a game was scheduled for today; therefore, she recommended we go early to beat the crowd. Adding his own intuition about the best light for photography, Dan decided we should go this morning.

The day was perfect, blue sky with some picturesque clouds; the air was clearer than it could possibly be in any city in the U.S. We got the expensive tickets that took the elevator all the way up to the Skypod. The view was fascinating in every direction. I admired the exciting architectural styles in the city. Dan studied the lake shore and the island airport. The problem was that the windows had frames that tended to cut your photos in half. So we went down to the intermediate level. First we went on an open air viewing ramp, but it was entirely enclosed in a mesh-like fence—forget photos. Then we found a floor that was closed in and offered picture windows, but the glass was tinted and less than clean. The restaurant with nice views had only a gourmet evening type menu, and the cheap restaurant was dreary. Meanwhile the crowd thickened with boisterous children.

View from CN Tower

We were both feeling stressed by the time we escaped. We went back to the hotel, changed our kit a little and caught our breath, then took another cab to the Royal Ontario Museum.

The main reason I wanted to see this museum was that it had an addition designed by Daniel Libeskind, architect of the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and, most successfully, the Denver Art Museum. Libeskind's slashing diagonal forms cut dramatically into the verticality of the surrounding office towers. Much as I wanted to admire it, when we first saw it on the way into town, it seemed drastically out of harmony with its surroundings. When we studied the face of the new wing this morning, I liked the jazzy shape, taken as a free-standing sculpture. Also I see that by having the building project outward from its base, instead of rising vertically, the architect gave pedestrians a shaded gathering place, always a good feature for a city museum

Royal Ontario Museum
Architect: Daniel Libeskind

After spending several hours in the interior, my summary view is that the radical diagonal shapes of halls, stairways and doorways had a negative overall effect, leaving me disoriented, over-stimulated and confused. The lighting was cold, and the materials used were basic and lacking in aesthetic qualities. It contrasted sorely with the welcoming effect of the warm wood details that Gehry used in the Art Gallery of Ontario. The angles in the Jewish Museum in Berlin were appropriate to evoke the experience of disorientation that persecuted Jews must have felt, but I didn't really need to feel persecuted as part of my experience of contemporary textiles, Roman statues, mineral specimens, and Chinese gates.

Interior of Royal Ontario Museum

I have to go on to give the museum a low score on general museum-ship. Their directional signs and descriptive labels were confusing, and there was hardly a guard or guide on any floor to help you find your way around. Most disappointing was the nature of their exhibits. In the U.S. a display of colonial furniture would be gracefully arranged, with appropriate wall-paper and nice lighting. Here, they stuck all their colonial and other antique furniture in glass cases with no setting, as though they couldn't trust visitors not to sit in the chairs. Virtually every display, except major pieces of architecture, was behind glass, which had a suffocating effect.

I should admit that I never do well in these general social and natural history museums. The wide variety of exhibits is confusing, especially since none of them is about stuff that I usually take an interest in. The randomness of it all makes me uneasy.

They have one significant piece of art that they display proudly. This is one of Benjamin West's own copies of his painting The Death of General Wolfe. General Wolfe is an important hero in Canadian history, but an American who had emigrated to England painted this important episode.

Benjamin West, 1738-1820
The Death of General Wolfe, 1776

They also had a little Canadian art; that held my interest for awhile but I didn't take any photos.

I ran across an interesting exhibit of illustration art by Canadians, including several works by an artist named Rex Woods.

Rex Woods, 1902-1987
Advertisement for Arrow shirts and matching ties.

The section on textiles and fashions was colorful. Here's an example of Orientalism in fashion.

Orientalism by Yves Saint Laurent

There was an exhibit of Roman busts that I could relate to.

Busts of Roman Noble Women

Straying outside of art, I finally got stuck into the exhibit of mineral samples. I find it amazing that nature produces such beautiful and unlikely shapes. For one sample, big rough boulders had been sliced open to reveal smooth green malachite inside.

These beauties were hidden in the earth

Copper sheets from mine near Lake Michigan

Dan and I spent most of the afternoon wandering around separately. By the end of the day we were both tired and confused.

Our hotel was bustling on a Saturday night. Tall girls in short skirts and towering heels shifted their weight restlessly while they waited for the elevator in the high-rise building. Young men with spiked hairstyles lounged about. We were too tired to get involved in competitive dining. Dan went back to his Greek place, and I got some grilled fish and fruit at Loblaw's super supermarket.