Art Metropole

#15045

The Toronto Stock Exchange after Charles Comfort and Lisa Hannaford

Artist

Jay Isaac

Price

$200.00

Date

2022

Publisher

Self-Published

Format

Editions

Size

48.3 × 71 cm

Genre

Prints & Posters

The Toronto Stock Exchange after Charles Comfort and Lisa Hannaford is a silkscreen edition printed by Repetitive Press for the exhibition Neutralizer Suite at Paul Petro Contemporary Art in April of 2022.

In 1937 the Canadian artist Charles Comfort created a stone frieze above the entrance to the Toronto Stock Exchange at 234 Bay St. in Toronto. The frieze depicts workers and businessmen in various activities related to the manufacture and exchange of goods. There are two details of the frieze that align with typical subversive messaging of the time. First, is a businessman with his hand reaching into the pocket of a worker, and second, a worker is holding a jack hammer in such a way that it appears as though a rifle is pointed at a businessman’s head.

Isaac became aware of the frieze through a print found and purchased at auction by the artist Lisa Hannaford titled “The Toronto Stock Exchange 1937-1983” which is an editioned lithograph depicting aspects of the Comfort frieze.

Isaac’s contribution to this already established lineage is a silkscreen edition of 50, combining aspects of the Comfort and Hannaford work.

Isaac’s work overtly positions art and ideas as commodities that can be exchanged amongst artists, and also as a relatively accessible commodity acquired by buyers. The print can be interpreted as a proxy for a stock. Within the image itself the exchange of resources is complicated by an apparent theft (hand in the pocket) which is also mirrored by creating a rendition of pre-existing artworks.