If you want to experience what it was like to live in the last analog generation, an art exhibit in Toronto offers that perspective through a rock star's eyes.
Canadian bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur played bass for the rock bands “Hole” and “The Smashing Pumpkins” throughout the 90s, and she was never without her camera to capture antics on and off stage.
Now, she shares these photos, along with videos and demos recorded during the era, at her visual art exhibit “My ‘90s Rock Photographs,” at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Throughout her days on the road and on Montreal's indie scene, she took pictures and videos with old-school cameras that she showcases in this exhibit. It also includes video displays, ephemera, and a special sound installation of unreleased 1990s demos and experimental tour recordings.
The exhibit spans from 1991 to 2001, offering an insider's view of the decade before smartphones and digital recording.
In an interview with Billboard Magazine, she says she is grateful to have her work on display for everyone to see.
“I am radically grateful for the Art Gallery of Ontario for being the first to embrace my '90s rock archive of photographs. I came with boxes of snapshots, and we engaged immediately. I sent scans upon scans of the thousands and thousands of photos, and we have been digging through them for two years to give you this.”
In addition to the exhibit, Auf Der Maur released a photo book, “Melissa Auf der Maur: My '90s Rock Photographs,” which features many of the photos in the exhibit.
In March, she released her biography “ Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A 90’s Rock Memoir.”
Her art exhibit runs now until June 2027.
Feature Image: From Melissa Auf der Maur via Instagram. Facebook.
