Those of you in the Hamilton area who haven’t yet seen TH&B at 270 Sherman would be well advised to check it out on its last day of viewing today as part of Open Doors Hamilton - they’re open from 11am-5pm, and even without the benefit of the live performance works of last night’s Closing Reception it makes for plenty worthwhile viewing.

Tor Lukasik-Foss’ This Song is Very Special made for intriguing viewing as an object in its own right on my previous visit to this exhibition - minimally monumental and vaguely threatening - and its capacity as a theatrical platform was fully realized in Tor’s rather tongue-in-cheek performance bridging across various musical genres from yodeling to operetta to blues-inflected guitar. His ascent to sing from within the suspended space of his wooden structure is the primary drama of the piece, prefaced by proud proclamations that are hilariously evocative of Matthew Barney - if Matthew Barney had a sense of irony, of course.

Many of the performances of last night were musical in nature, from Reinhard Reitzenstein and Gayle Young’s atmospheric audio piece to Dave Hind’s self-replicating band of Three Daves, the original performing alongside the projected double and triple image of himself with near-seamless cohesion. Like Tor’s singing, the exercise is infused with a great deal of humour, though the nod to textbook conceptual concerns is never far from mind - the similarity between the real and represented Daves and Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs is too striking to let pass unremarked.

Another favourite of mine from TH&B was Lesley Loksi Chan’s I’m On Break, a profusion of taffeta clouds hovering over a miniscule line of near-invisible sewing machines, and I was equally thrilled by her related projection performance revealing a quirky and dark narrative behind her sculptural evocation of textile factory workers. Her whimsical storytelling is presented with a deft hand guiding images and texts on overhead projector, accompanied by a musical score performed by keyboard and sewing machine. Even a minor hiccough in the order of her transparencies couldn’t detract from the sharply-honed charm of Lesley’s storytelling.

Fact is, there was little that could detract from the celebratory mood of this closing, with the constant flurry of Irene Loughlin’s party decorating and Dave Hind’s bicycle-driven train circuiting through the crowd rounding out the more structured performances of the night. The ready reception of all this dauntless activity by such a large crowd speaks compellingly to the strength of Hamilton as a site for contemporary art that is ambitious, quirky and capable of surpassing the local in a far-reaching relation to the wider Canadian sphere.

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