M O N DAY 7 D E C E M B E R 2 015
T H E VA R S I T Y
ARTS & CULTURE 15
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What we said in 2015 The Varsity weeds through the memes to determine the best Internet slang of the year COREY VAN DEN HOOGENBAND ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
It’s been lit, 2015. You’ve brought us a new Prime Minister, The Pan Am Games, and the redemption of our prodigal son, Justin Bieber. You've been the host of a wonderful epoch in Internet culture, which has graced us with a new, on-fleek lexicon. With the year’s end almost upon us, here at The Varsity we saw it fit to count down our favorite buzzwords and expressions that best capture the U of T student experience in the past year. 10) AF Who needs adverbs like 'very,' 'really,' or even 'hella' to emphasize how drastic something is, when we can simply throw two letters behind the adjective in question? Used in a sentence: Ten buzzwords? That’s excessive af. 9) #COMETOGETHER The mass Jays hysteria that spread through the entire Toronto consciousness earlier this year was complimented by the hashtag that perfectly encapsulated the city’s love for our favourite baseball birds. Used in a sentence: heading down to the SkyDo — err, Rogers Centre. #ComeTogether 8) (STU)DYING A term that U of T students are all too fa-
miliar with. In the height of exam season, it’s hard to tell whether our late night Robarts study sessions are ensuring our bright futures, or accelerating our inevitable, stressinduced demise. Used in a sentence: I’ll be up all night stuDYING for tomorrow’s final… 7) NETFLIX AND CHILL Ah yes — the quintessential booty call in disguise. The best part about this meme-inducing, Halloween-costume-inspiring phenomenon? Everyone knows exactly what you mean by suggesting a Netflix and chill. Used in a sentence: Sup bae, Netflix and chill? 6) DRAKE/NORM KELLY/6IX GODS & GODDESSES Ever since he left the city you, Started saying 6ix and going out more, Retweeting city councilors you’ve never seen before, Used in a sentence: I study at the University of the 6ix 5) "INTERESTED IN GOING" This new Facebook event response option is perfectly suited for the indecisive twentysomething-year-old living in Toronto. Those
ridiculous garden parties and battle re-enactment events you all said you were going to last summer, but when it rolled around you stayed in playing Rocket League with your roommate? Facebook has just the thing. Now you can be a part of the event without being held accountable for actually showing up! Used in a sentence: ‘Eat Chocolate Cake and Listen to Adele for 60 Hours?’ *Interested in Going* 4) #SQUADGOALS This prominent 2015 hashtag helped us articulate our envy. Admittedly, our cliques look a lot less cool than Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman do in the latest Batman v. Superman trailer, or even Taylor Swift's celebrity militia in the video for “Bad Blood” — but a squad can dream, can’t they? Used in a sentence: Suicide Squad? More like Suicide #SquadGoals. 3) CREDIT/NO CREDIT What most students ultimately took away from last winter’s TA strike was the ability to credit/ no credit any courses they saw fit. This meant that you could take a required course, receive the credit, but not have your final grade affect your GPA if you did poorly in that class. It was a wonderful time to be a lazy student.
Used in a sentence: …I can redit/no credit ANY class? 2) #UOFTEARS The final hashtag on our list is a beautiful one. It boils down the despair, anxiety, and sense of hopelessness we’ve all felt the night before an exam, or paper is due into one, tragically relatable saying. Used in a sentence: When your break from studying for exams is spent writing one of your exams #UofTears 1) LISTICLES The list article, or ‘listicle’ as we in the business call it, has become the darling of Internet-based publications. Whether recapping the highlights of the prior night’s award show, or counting down the best episodes of an obscure Canadian television program, your news feed — the ultimate procrastination destination — has been hijacked by these convenient clickholes this year. Used in a sentence: A list? That’s how he ended the article?!
A light in the dark The AGO’s latest exhibit highlight J.M.W. Turner’s obsession with depicting sunlight ELIZAVETA MIRONOVA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR
Turner's paintings are notoriously bleak. COURTESY AGO
J.M.W Turner: Painting Set Free is the latest exhibit to feature at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is a collection of more than fifty pieces of Turner's artwork which showcase his later, experimental works. A talented landscape painter, Turner’s romantic style of painting persisted even as he changed the medium in which he worked. Where he missed the mark, however, was in capturing the attention of his viewers. Turner visited Switzerland, Italy, and France, and created basic watercolor compositions of Lake Geneva and the waterways of Venice. The colors in paintings such as "Fisherman on the Lagoon, Moonlight" and "The Dogano, San Giorgio, Citella from the Steps of the Europa" are calming, but not particularly unique. The exhibit spends a lot of its energy focusing on a very similar kind of painting presented in different color schemes, which unfortunately fails to captivate the audience's interest. However, as you stroll through the exhibition, a gratifying change is revealed at the introduction of Turner’s oil and canvas paintings. In contrast to the watercolor pieces that showcase Turner’s basic depictions of European landscape, the oil paintings are more complex. His obsession with light is intriguing, and the circular motion of the paint brush perfectly complements the faded saintly fig-
ures, noticeable in "The Angel Standing in the Sun." Equally astounding is the "Shade and Darkness — The Evening of the Deluge." At first sight, the painting portrays an abstract source of light; however, as you near the painting and begin to examine the details, you notice the faint outline of human and animal figures swirling around the center of the canvas. Many of Turner’s naval portraits also incorporate this recurring theme of light. His two famous paintings, "Snow Storm" and "Peace – Burial at Sea," are spectacular examples of the balance between tranquility and chaos. The dark scenes of an aggressive sea are interrupted with a gleaming and soft touch of light. The brush strokes are undefined and unpredictable, which makes you wonder what Turner’s intentions were when creating his pieces. While segments of the exhibit can be tedious, Painting Set Free is worth attending for the moments of reward that come with the occasional Turner ‘masterpiece.’ While Turner certainly isn’t for everyone, the representation of light that runs through his paintings showcase a captivating progression of the British painter’s career. J.M.W Turner: Painting Set Free runs until January 31, 2016 at the AGO