The Museum of Contemporary Art's Fall Lineup and a Hellraiser Halloween

A piece of Art by Artist Bharti Kher. From the Museum of Contemporary Art's Fall 2026 exhibits. The photo was taken at the exhibit's launch on the evening of Saturday, October 3rd, 2026.

MOCA Toronto's Thought Provoking Fall Art and 2022's Hellraiser remake - a nearly perfect Halloween flick

On Saturday, October 3rd, it was my pleasure to attend the launch of the Museum of Contemporary Art's Fall Exhibits. Located at 158 Sterling Road in Toronto, MOCA has become my favourite Art Museum in the city since I discovered it about a year and a half ago.

Built in the early 1900s, the 10-storey structure was originally the Alcan Aluminum Building. When the Aluminum Company of Canada constructed the building, it was the tallest in the city until the Royal York Hotel opened. Next door to MOCA is the Henderson Brewing Company, which in another life was the Toronto headquarters of Scythes Textiles, a historically important manufacturer that contributed to Canada's D-Day efforts in the Second World War. 

Floors 1 and 3 of MOCA feature Bharti Kher's Bones. These are objects created during the past 15 years. The exhibit's title refers both to human remains, and to a foundation upon which something new can be built. Part of Kher's goal with this show is to draw attention to how shapes organize our systems of belief and perceptions of the world surrounding us.

My personal favourite object is pictured above - a deconstructed Artist's Easel that has been made into a triangle. There's plenty to gaze at and consider here. It's clearly the work of a fertile, inspired imagination.

On MOCA's second floor visitors will find a single installation piece titled Ombligo by Delcy Morelos. The work means 'navel' in Morelos's native language. She was born in Colombia in 1967. The Artist has constructed a very large work made of sisal rope treated with soil and corn roots from Toronto. There is a spicy, earthy smell in the room I couldn't quite place. Pleasant to the senses.

My evening with friends ended at Thirsty and Miserable, a cleverly named bar located just east of Roncesvalles on Dundas Street West. The glasses on the bar looked great in the bar's lighting (memories of Berlin's preferred nightlife colours). So I thought I would snap a couple photos of them.  

A closeup of glasses on the bar at Thirsty and Miserable - a pub located at 2102 Dundas Street West in Toronto.

Hellraiser (2022) a Halloween Movie that pays homage to Clive Barker's source material while serving up scares

"It's really nice. What is it?" - Joey Coscuna (Kit Clarke) to Roland Voight (Goran Visnjic)

"It's a puzzle. The only one of its' kind. Forgotten, until now. And it's almost finished. Keep going." - Voight

"So if I solve it, do I get a prize?" - Joey 

"I do." - Voight 

Since it's Halloween season, I want to devote some space in this entry to review Hellraiser (2022). A film by Director David Brucker that's based on Clive Barker's 1986 novel The Hellbound Heart. 

Barker's novel about hedonistic criminal Frank Cotton's pursuit of sensation has spawned no less than 11 horror films. In Barker's original novel the protagonist buys the LeMarchand Configuration (more commonly known as The Box) in Germany. 

The Box is a puzzle. People who solve it open a doorway to another realm - a version of Hell populated by the Cenobites. These heavily mutilated beings do not distinguish between pain and pleasure. In the famous words of Doug Bradley's Pinhead from the 1987 film: "(We are) explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, Angels to others."

The 2022 re-make opens with a transaction in Belgrade, Serbia, where hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight's (Goran Visnjic) assistant Serena (Hiam Abbass) purchases the box from a shady character seated on a park bench.

From here we transition to Voight's mansion stateside. An opulent party night where sex worker Joey Coscuna (Kit Clarke) is selected by Serena to be Voight's final offering to the Cenobites. In this version of the story The Box has six configurations it progresses through: 

1) Lament - Life

2) Lore - Knowledge

3) Lauderant - Live  

4) Liminal - Sensation 

5) Lazarus - Resurrection

6) Leviathan - Power

Years after the events of the prologue, The Box is recovered from an abandoned warehouse by Riley (Odessa A'Zion), a recovering addict. She is aided in the theft by Trevor (Drew Starkey) her less than on-the-level boyfriend. However, if I was dating someone that hot, I wouldn't ask too many questions either.

Riley embarks on a journey with the box as the Cenobites urge her to proceed with offering human sacrifices so she can claim her 'reward' / audience with God (the Leviathan). 

Through Riley's journey and The Box's 6 different configurations, this re-make of Hellraiser really shines. Both Riley, and the viewer, come to see the different gifts the Cenobites have to offer are really just one - Pain. In this way, Hellraiser is a sophisticated metaphor for the emptiness of alcohol and / or substance addiction.  

Riley's choice to live her life without such a 'gift' at the film's end (the Lament Configuration) is a redemptive one. Our heroine recognizes the false choices on offer. Instead, she walks away from addiction and broken promises, and into a healthier future filled with deeper meaning.