TIFF Bell Lightbox to host Tim Burton exhibition

At the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, spooky figures are grinning in the gift shop. A multi-eyed balloon boy is bobbing in the lobby. And the limbs of a TIFF-commissioned monster (inspired by a rejected drawing for Disney's animated flop The Black Cauldron) are being assembled for a King Street West window display.

These artifacts are positioned to lure passers-by into Tim Burton, a revamped version of the Museum of Modern Art's blockbuster exhibition exploring the 52-year-old American filmmaker's art and career - and a show with monster-sized expectations.

While the original New York exhibition - curated by Rajendra Roy, Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He of MoMA's film department - drew mixed reviews from art critics when it opened a year ago, it brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors, becoming the museum's third most popular exhibition, behind only its retrospectives on Matisse (1992) and Picasso (1980).

Now Lightbox artistic director Noah Cowan hopes Tim Burton, the film hub's first paid exhibition, will ring in revenues to help sustain its expanded year-round programming and, more importantly, turn Burton fans into Lightbox regulars (among other perks, an annual membership gets you one free Tim Burton admission and discounts on merchandise).

"Film drives the imaginative life of our society, and Tim Burton more so than anyone these days with extremely popular films full of unique ideas about how to see the world," says Cowan, sipping an espresso in the lobby as workers prepare to install Balloon Boy, an inflatable sculpture. "For people only familiar with [the Toronto International Film Festival] the exhibition translates the mainstream appeal of a prominent figure into a museum-like institution and will hopefully give them a better idea of what Lightbox offers."

Cowan learned of Tim Burton, the first film-related exhibition in MoMA's principal galleries, in 2007. The curators, he says, devised it to have greater opportunities for touring than previous MoMA shows. (It has already played Melbourne, Australia.)

"Over the lifetime of this organization we've had a close relationship and, in particular, TIFF Cinematheque and MoMA are perceived as twin curatorial leaders in presenting historical cinema in North America," he says. "They took a chance on a new building because they believed the synergy with TIFF was to MoMA's benefit, which is a tribute to the city and the organization."

The original exhibition included more than 800 items - drawings, paintings, costumes and maquettes from Burton's personal vault, major studios and private collectors, as well as video installations, TV commercials and new sculptural commissions. Most made it into the Lightbox redesign, which has been described as both "radical" and "subtle."

"It's a different journey through the same concepts," Cowan says, adding that Burton was "very hands-on in calibrating the design of our show to his standards." Plans for the redesign, which includes new "didactics" (text cards), were put in front of MoMA and Burton's studio last spring and the reception was generally positive.

The biggest challenge for the designers was the fact that the Lightbox galleries are 1,200 square feet smaller than the MoMA space. "MoMA's show was thematic and ours is chronological, which required us to dismantle some of their curatorial," explains Barr Gilmore, who oversaw the redesign with Michel Arcand. "Our thread is that these drawings of creatures and clowns he's been making all his life may return at some later point to populate another project."

The extensive companion screening program launches next Friday with Burton Blitz, a weekend-long marathon that starts with a double bill of Vincent and Frankenweenie (shorts made during the CalArts grad's career kick-off at Disney) and ends with his most recent movie, Alice in Wonderland.

Burton himself arrives at the Lightbox this Sunday for a first look and will participate in a public book signing on Monday, as well as a special session with university and college film students.

"Our motivation for putting resources behind our gallery space and going after shows like Burton is the growth of exceptional film-related exhibitions in the past five years," comments Cowan, citing successful touring shows on Pixar Animation and Alfred Hitchcock as examples. "Our encounters with MoMA and engagement with an artist of vision like Tim Burton have inspired us to launch our own exhibition, maybe on one of our great Canadian filmmakers, within the next two years and see that travel the world."

Tim Burton opens at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox next Friday and runs to April 17, 2011. Time-entry tickets are available online and at the box office (more information at tiff.net).

Special to The Globe and Mail