Toronto’s Pink Floyd exhibition needs an asterisk

A 350-artifact exhibition on Pink Floyd is opening in Toronto, despite Roger Waters’ most recent Antisemitic incident.

Photo by Beatriz Miller on Unsplash

Rogers Waters made headlines the first week of June for wearing what resembled a Nazi SS uniform on stage at a concert in Berlin. There are strict prohibitions against Nazi uniforms, gestures, and iconography in Germany, and Berlin police began an investigation into Waters as a result of the costume which the 79-year-old singer argues was a satirical gesture. Media coverage of this incident in major outlets has been a mixture of shock and awe that Waters would do something so overtly offensive in a country that is working so hard to prevent repeating its history. 

When the news of the incident broke, I honestly didn’t have much to say about it. Waters has a long history of engaging in Antisemitic activity. In 2013, Waters’ set decor included a Star of David emblazoned on the flying pig that is a call back to Pink Floyd’s 1977 album cover for Animals. This gesture was a double-edged sword of Antisemitism, placing a Jewish symbol on a not-kosher animal, and alluding to an imagined Jewish connection with ‘bloated capitalist pigs.’ Waters has also been one of the most prominent and vocal supporters of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, going so far as to send letters to artists with tour dates in Israel urging them not to perform in the country. While the SS uniform was perhaps more overtly problematic and visibly Antisemitic to those who are less familiar with the nuances of the flying pig incident or his involvement with BDS movement, it revealed nothing we haven’t known about Waters for a long time. He is an individual with firmly held beliefs, and no amount of explanation, education, or invitations to visit Holocaust museums are going to change them. 

Then an advertisement popped up for a Pink Floyd exhibit opening in Toronto tomorrow, June 16, 2023. 

Roger Waters - and Pink Floyd - are absolutely an important part of the British Invasion and of rock and roll history. Pink Floyd and their impact on music is not necessarily connect to Waters’ opinions in terms of the literal artistic output of the band, but he also cannot be severed from the history of the band. In a moment when we are discussing whether to take down monuments to former slave owners and renaming universities whose namesakes were associated with Residential Schools, it seems like an odd moment to be erecting a monument to a singer who has consistently professed Antisemitic beliefs. 

What we do with the likes of Roger Waters, Mel Gibson, John Cusak, Rob Schneider, Kanye West, and any number of other actors and musicians who have repeatedly engaged in Antisemitism is not an easy question to answer. Their work still exists, and still remains, in some cases, culturally relevant - I certainly hear Lethal Weapon quoted all the time. I can’t say if this is right or wrong, or that I haven’t been guilty of it myself, but I also know that if a new John Cusak movie was coming out, I wouldn’t buy a ticket. I can acknowledge the historical significance of an individual or their work, without continuing to support them.

To immense their credit, Waters’ former band-mates and songwriter, have called him out for his behaviour and made efforts to break ties with the singer. They find themselves in the horrible position of having their musical legacy tied to someone who has professed increasingly problematic positions as years have passed, and who has continued to use the imagery of their band, such as the flying pig, and link it to expressions of Antisemitism in particular. This is to say nothing of his professed support for Putin during the current war in Ukraine. How we are to navigate recalling and giving due acknowledgement to the impact of the other members of Pink Floyd is a challenging query, I wish I had an answer to.

The exhibition, which received 85,000 visitors in Montreal, features artifacts, props, and instruments telling the story of Pink Floyd’s impact on music. There’s no way they can avoid mentioning Waters in doing this. If the exhibition were happening before Waters had made his feelings public, it would be one thing. But we have known for the last decade that Waters not only holds Antisemitic views, but actively engages in attempts to further that agenda. No matter how important Pink Floyd may be in the history of music, he is not an individual deserving of the pedestal that this exhibition erects for him. 

The decision to proceed with opening the exhibition in Toronto despite the current investigation into Waters in Germany can be regarded as, at the very least, a profound lack of awareness. Yes, it is a sizeable exhibit, with expensive tickets that have been on pre-sale for some time, and canceling it now would come with significant financial burdens. And while one could, perhaps, excuse a lapse in memory over the flying pig scenario from a decade ago, it was not one time or one action. Antisemitic incidents are on the rise. Going ahead with this exhibition without acknowledging the issue with Waters is part of a widespread reaction that involves downplaying Antisemitism as a lesser form of racism or as less serious than it is. 

He is an artist with an asterisk. 

When we talk about the legacy of Pink Floyd, it should be contextualized by who Waters is and the ways that his deliberate actions have tainted his and his band’s legacy. But nowhere on the website for the exhibition is there that asterisk. There is nothing that says it is going forward in spite of Waters’ actions. 

I’m not about to tell anyone not to listen to Pink Floyd or not go to the exhibition. But it must be understood that this exhibition, is taking an individual who has for more than a decade expressed and promoted conspiracy theories and engaged in hatred of the most persecuted group of people in history, and throwing him a party he does not deserve.