Author: Emma Bell

Categories
Arts and Culture

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students

Graphic by Carleen Looney

Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more!

Discover

Espace Loulou (185 de Louvain O. #402) will be exhibiting the work of Marie Bilodeau and Kali Catterall in a show called Bodies without organs. The vernissage will be held on April 12 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. 

From March 23 through April 20, Espace Maurice (916 Ontario St. #320) will be hosting their final exhibition of the year, entitled The Triumph of a Lonely Place. The show was curated by gallerist Marie Ségolène C. Brault and features the surreal work of Genevieve Goffman. Learn more about the show at the gallery’s website.

Be sure to check out the VAV gallery’s current exhibition, entitled Komorebi, on view from April 1 through April 12. The title is a Japanese word that, according to the gallery’s recent promotional post on Instagram, “embodies the very essence of nature’s tender embrace.” 

Open Calls

ESSE, a Montreal-based arts and opinions magazine, has put out an open call for papers for their next issue, “Plastics.” Writers are encouraged to consider how artists are thinking about plastic and its impact through their work. The deadline for abstract submissions is Sept. 1. Learn more about the theme and the guidelines here.

Jobs

Vidéographe, an artist centre that is dedicated to the dissemination of experimental film and the moving image arts, is now hiring a sales and festivals coordinator. This position involves assisting the team develop distribution strategies, managing submission platforms and more. Deadline to apply is April 15. Learn more about the requirements for the role here. 

Concordia’s Leonard and Bina Ellen gallery is looking for part-time gallery attendants. As part of the university’s work-study program, bilingual students who are enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts are welcome to apply. There is no deadline to apply, but it is first come, first serve. Read the guidelines here.

The FoFA gallery is hiring summer gallery attendants for bilingual students in the work-study program. The gallery is particularly interested in candidates who have a strong interest in anti-racist and anti-oppressive ways of working. The application deadline is April 15, so be sure to check here for the guidelines.

Categories
Arts and Culture

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students

Graphic by Carleen Looney

Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more!

Discover

Be sure not to miss Toronto-based artist Shary Boyle’s current exhibition “Vesselling” at Patel Brown gallery (372 Rue Ste-Catherine O, #410). Boyle’s idiosyncratic works combine painting and sculpture to create surreal and fantastical compositions. Each piece is full of color, texture and curiosity. The show will be on view from Feb. 29 through April 20. Learn more at the gallery’s website here.

Articule (6282 Rue St-Hubert) is now exhibiting the work of Montréal-based artist Yen-Chao Lin and Concordia alumnus Justine Skahan in a show entitled “Host.” According to the gallery’s website, their work explores  “notions of home and displacement.” The show will be on view from March 8 to April 20.

It is not too late to catch the group show “Catalog of Ruins,” currently on view at Centre des arts actuels Skol (372 Rue Ste-Catherine O, #314). This show features works from Samuel Bernier Cormier, Lauren Chipeur, Kuh Del Rosario, Xavier Orssaud and Elise Rasmussen. This group of artists draws on notions of the archive and found materials. Learn more about the show here. “Catalog of Ruins” will be on view from Jan. 18 through March 30.  

Concordia’s 4th Space will be hosting a one-day symposium entitled “Expanded Practices: Composition in the post-secondary fine arts classroom” on March 25 from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m. Learn more about this writing-focused symposium and register at their website here.

Open Calls 

The bilingual lecture series by and for art history graduate students, Hypotheses, is looking for applicants for its new team for the 2024/2025 academic year. This is a volunteer opportunity for students from Concordia, McGill, UdeM and UQÀM. Members will be responsible for organising six conferences each year as a team. Learn more and apply at this link by April 15!

Concordia’s Art Education Graduate Student Association (ARTEGS) is looking for researchers, educators and artists for their upcoming exhibition for graduate students, entitled “Bold, Italic, Underlined.” The exhibition will take place at Galerie Popop from May 13 through 20. Submit images of your work and a description of your practice to artegsconcordia@gmail.com before April 1. Learn more about the exhibition’s theme on ARTEGS’ Instagram.

Orangepeel literary magazine has put out an open call for forward-thinking prose, poetry, visual art and comics for their upcoming issue that focuses on the future. Learn more about the submission process and guidelines here.

Room magazine has put out a call for submissions for issue 47.4! Their recent post on Instagram reads, “Room 47.4 is open for unthemed submissions! Send us your dreamiest & most daring & everything in between.” Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and will close when full, so the earlier, the better! Learn more about the submission guidelines for art and writing here. 

Concordia Photo Collective has released a call-out for their five-day exhibition at Tiers Lieu Montreal from May 12 through May 16, entitled “Despite the noise I see.” They are looking for photographic works that speak to moments of lucidity amid chaos, and urge photographers to consider keywords such as grief, liberation, contemplation, noticing, longing and connectivity. Complete your application here by April 15!

Opportunities at The Concordian

As the semester comes to an end, we are still on the lookout for artwork submissions for our final digital issues of the academic year! 

Our Artist Spotlight series provides a space for Concordia’s fine arts students to showcase their recent artwork. Send your poetry, short story, photography, digital art, film, documentation of physical works, or performance along with a brief biography (100 words) and an artist’s statement (250 words) to artsculture@theconcordian.com.


Email our Arts & Culture Editor Emma Bell for more information at artsculture@theconcordian.com.

Categories
Arts and Culture Student Life

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students

Graphic by Carleen Looney

Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more! 

Discover

From March 7 through May 2, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse (4296 St-Laurent Blvd.) will be hosting Ghinwa Yassine’s new exhibition, When you pour something, it carries the memory of its mold. Yassine is a Lebanese-Canadian “anti-disciplinary” artist who, according to the exhibition text, “searches for a freedom that is a right to carry oneself safely in the world, as one is, in their own truth.” Learn more about the artist and her work at her website here.

Espace Maurice (916 Ontario St.) is currently showing Hypnos, curated by gallerist and Concordia alumnus Marie Ségolène C. Brault. The show features work from Liza Jo Eilers, Caroline Douville, and Maxwell Volkman, which is on view until March 16. Read the exhibition text, by Jeanne Randolph, at this link.

Galerie B-312 (372 Ste-Catherine West St., Space 403) will be showing Danielle Cormier’s latest exhibition Ephemerides. Learn more at the gallery’s website here.

Be sure to check out Centre PHI’s current augmented reality experience entitled Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin. From Feb. 7 through April 28, witness the under-told story of Colvin, a 15-year-old Black teenager in the southern United States in 1955. Learn more at the centre’s website here.

Concordia alumnus Valmont “Ignite” Harnois will be presented by Tangente from March 28 through 31 as part of the line-up for their event La soirée dont vous êtes les héros, which will be hosted at Édifice Wilder (1435 Bleury St.). Harnois is a Montréal-based contemporary dance artist. Visit the event’s website here to learn more and buy tickets.

Open calls

The call for the Fibres Student Association annual fibres exhibition is open! This call is open to anyone in Concordia’s Fine Arts program. The deadline to apply will be April 2. Learn more on their instagram page and apply at the link in their bio!

Café chez Téta (227 Rachel St.) is looking for local artists to submit their work to be exhibited as part of their artist-of-the-month series! If you are interested in showcasing your work at this quaint Lebanese café in the Plateau, email melodie@cafechezteta.com. 

Montréal-based arts magazine SUKO has opened their artist call-out for their third volume! Writers, photographers, stylists, designers, activists and artists are encouraged to submit their work that speaks to the theme of “frontiers” to sukomagazine@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions will be April 1. 

Concordi’ART is looking for artists to sell their work at their upcoming student-led conference scheduled for April 2024! For Concordia students, the entrance fee to sell your work is only $10, so be sure to DM Concordi’ART on their instagram account here for more information. 

It’s not too late to submit to the FASA x ASFA x ECA Community Arts Exhibit! Apply at this link by March 12!

Opportunities at The Concordian

As always, artists who want to see their work featured in the paper are encouraged to submit to The Concordian’s Arts & Culture section! 

Our artist spotlight series provides a space for Concordia’s fine arts students to showcase their recent artwork. Send your poetry, short story, photography, digital art, film, documentation of physical works, or performance along with a brief biography (100 words) and an artist’s statement (250 words) to artsculture@theconcordian.com for a chance to be featured in print! 

Email our Arts & Culture Editor Emma Bell for more information at artsculture@theconcordian.com.

Categories
Arts Arts and Culture Community Student Life

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students

Graphic by Olivia Shan

Looking to start building up your CV? Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more!

Discover

Sex and Self Concordia  has announced their upcoming Paint Night on Feb. 9 at Le Frigo Vert (1440 rue Mackay)! The event will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This live model painting session will be guided by art educator Zoe Dedes. Each participant will be given one canvas, once easel, one palette and access to brushes and paint. Visit the link here for tickets.

Be sure not to miss the incredible exhibits on view at Pangée (1305, avenue des Pins O.), including Concordia alumnus Trevor Baird’s Sunkissed, Concordia Fine Arts/Studio Arts Assistant Professor Delphine Hennelly’s Behind the Scenes, and Brandon Morris’s Cathedral Junkie. Read all about these shows at Pangée’s website here.

The Centre communautaire LGBTQ de Montréal (2075 rue Plessis) will be hosting a winter art market on Saturday, Feb. 10 from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. The market will feature paintings, ceramics, textiles and more for sale from local queer and trans artists. Visit the event page for more information.

Artist and curator Didier Morelli, a FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Art History at Concordia University, recently curated the show Artletics, currently on view at Artexte (2, Sainte-Catherine East, room 301) from Jan. 18 through March 30. The show brings together works from a selection of artists who “examine the world of sports through a variety of approaches: by showing bodies in action, by discussing performance and competition, by sharing skills, by creating a link to the community, by revisiting memories, by moving from the collective to the individual, or by evoking the clan, group, or family.” Read the full exhibition text here.  

From Feb. 1 through Feb. 18, multimedia artist Deline Huguet will be exhibiting her show Les corps complexes at Projet Casa (4351 Esplanade Ave). According to the gallery’s announcement of the exhibition, Huguet’s soft-sculptures, works on paper and installations reveal “the discomfort conveyed by relations of domination based on gender identities in contemporary and past space-time.”

On Feb. 16, be sure to visit the Chaos Market at the Hive Cafe from 7 to 11 p.m! There will be unique items of clothing for sale as well as prints and visuals on display. You will be able to buy some drinks at a low cost and listen to some music from underground Montréal artists. For more information, check out the Chaos Market’s Instagram.

Open Calls

Concordia’s Fine Arts Reading Room (FARR) has put out a call for submissions and jurors for their Winter 2024 publication grants. These grants are meant to fund students who would like to publish artist books, zines, exhibition catalogues, creative writing, essays and more! Any kind of book-based project is encouraged. Selected applicants will receive a stipend of $250 for materials, as well as an honorarium of $750. The submission deadline is Feb. 19. For more information, visit this link.

FARR is also accepting applications for their Winter 2024 residency, entitled “Resilient Imaginings.” Undergraduate students that identify as BIPOC and are enrolled in at least one studio arts course are welcome to submit proposals that are rooted in resistance and resilience and thoughtfully engage with the community. The chosen applicant will receive a $100 project stipend, in addition to a $1000 honorarium. The deadline to apply is Feb. 19. Details are available here.

Chouette, a Montréal-based literary magazine, is open for submissions! Send in your fiction, non-fiction, poetry and artwork by March 1. Learn more at their website here. 

Centre PHI launched a call for project proposals as part of their monthly Espaces Incarnés series. Both established and emerging performance artists and collectives whose work involves theatre, music, sound, dance, visual and performing arts are encouraged to submit before Feb. 15 at 11:59 p.m. Follow this link for more information.

Concordia’s Art Volt is now accepting applications for their annual collection! Graduating students who have applied to graduate in the Spring of 2024 and recent alumni—those who have graduated in the last five years—are eligible to submit their work for sale and rental. The submission deadline is Feb. 11 at 11:59 p.m. Visit this link to learn more about eligibility and submission requirements.

Students in Concordia’s MFA Studio Arts and the PhD Humanities programs are encouraged to submit their project proposals for the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s annual exhibition, IGNITION. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 18. Learn more about the submission requirements here.

The city of Montréal is accepting applications for their subsidy program for artists in visual arts and crafts! Professional artists who are actively creating new work in a studio space are able to access financial assistance to support their practice. The deadline to apply is March 31. Learn more about the program here.

Concordia’s FOFA Gallery has put out a call for artwork for their annual Undergraduate Student Exhibition, which is scheduled to open in early 2025. Applicants are encouraged to consider the following themes: disillusion, empathy, aspiration, taking action, resources, revolution, growth, evolution, and interconnectedness. Selected artists will receive a $200 honorarium. See the submission guidelines here.

Jobs

Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy (CGA) is now hiring! They are currently looking to fill their Administrative Coordinator position, a role responsible for the general organization and smooth running of the CGA’s operations. Applicants must be fluent in both French and English in order to be eligible, have at least one year of administrative experience and ideally have lived experiences of the issues faced by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada. Visit this link for more information on eligibility criteria, job responsibilities, and the application process.

Art Volt is also hiring for two positions! Recent graduates are welcome to apply for their Web & Communication Assistant and Advisor & Sales Coordinator positions before Feb. 19.

Concordia’s Art Education Graduate Student Association (ARTEGS) is seeking workshop facilitators for their May-June 2024 edition of Les ateliers ArtEDU Workshops. Current PhD and MA students in art education are encouraged to submit their ideas for workshops that are designed to inspire established and emerging art educators. This is a paid opportunity, where selected proposals will be compensated for 50 hours at TRAC rates. For more information, visit their website here. 

Opportunities at The Concordian

As always, artists who want to see their work featured in the paper are encouraged to submit to The Concordian’s Arts & Culture section! Our artist spotlight series provides a space for Concordia’s fine arts students to showcase their recent artwork. Send your poetry, photography, digital art, films, or documentation of physical works or performances along with a brief biography (100 words) and an artist’s statement (250 words) to artsculture@theconcordian.com for a chance to be featured in print! 

Email our Arts & Culture Editor Emma Bell for more information at artsculture@theconcordian.com.

Categories
Arts Arts and Culture Community Student Life

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students

Graphic by Olivia Shan

Looking to start building up your CV? Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more!

Discover

Éric Lamontagne’s “The nature of silent things” is currently on view at Art Mûr (5826, rue St-Hubert), and will be ongoing until Feb. 24. Lamontagne’s careful interventions into the surface of his landscape paintings raise some interesting questions regarding the nature of a painting as a mutable object.

OBORO gallery is currently showing “Disobedient Matter” as part of the second edition of Af-flux, Biennale transnationale noire. The group show was curated by Olivier Marboeuf and will be installed until March 16.

On Saturday, Feb. 17, the McCord Stewart museum will be hosting a fashion show, co-curated by Armando Perla, chief curator at the Textile Museum of Canada, and Jason Baerg, multidisciplinary Métis artist and Indigenous futurist, titled “kisewâtisiw myootootow—S/he is Mercifully.” The show will take place throughout the museum’s galleries and will highlight and celebrate Indigenous creativity. Tickets are only $5 for students and free for members of Indigenous communities! 

Open Calls

The Mile End’s Gallery Diagonale is inviting curators, artists and theorists to submit their work for the gallery’s 2025-2026 programming. They are particularly interested in projects concerned with fibres. Submissions will be open until Feb. 29. Learn more about their guidelines on their website here. 

C Magazine has issued an invitation for its readers to submit 100-400-word letters to the editor in response to their most recent publication, issue 156 “CRAFT.” Letters that are selected will be published in the next issue coming out in the spring, and will earn a $100 honorarium. Send your letters to pitch@cmagazine.com by Feb. 25.

The call for applications for the Summer 2024 Concordia Undergraduate Student Research Awards (CUSRA) has been announced! The award, worth $8,120 for 15 weeks of full-time research, is meant to provide students with the opportunity to spend their summer working on a project supervised by a full-time faculty member. The deadline to submit your application materials is Feb. 26, and you can find more information here.

Opportunities at The Concordian!

Want to see your artwork featured in the paper? Submit to the Concordian Arts & Culture section! Our artist spotlight series provides a space for Concordia’s fine arts students to showcase their recent artwork. Send your poetry, photography, digital art, films, or documentation of physical works or performances along with a brief biography (100 words) and an artist’s statement (250 words) to artsculture@theconcordian.com for a chance to be featured in print! 

Are you a graphic designer or illustrator? We are looking for artists to create original illustrations to accompany our creative writing submissions. If you are interested in illustrating poetry, prose, short fiction and creative nonfiction, please submit up to five examples of your work to artsculture@theconcordian.com to be considered for assignments.

Email our Arts & Culture Editor Emma Bell for more information at artsculture@theconcordian.com. 

Categories
Arts Arts and Culture Community Student Life

This week’s opportunities for fine arts students!

Graphic by Olivia Shan

Looking to start building up your CV? Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events, and more!

Discover

First and foremost, be sure not to miss “Datura,” now on view at Espace Maurice (916 Ontario St E Suite 320) until Feb. 17! Curated by Concordia alumni Marie Ségolène C. Brault in her apartment gallery, “Datura” brings together a selection of idiosyncratic works that were created by an eclectic group of artists during a brief residency in Youngstown, Ohio in the fall of 2023. A catalog of the exhibition, beautifully designed by Brault, is now available for presale online.

Window exhibition alert! La Centrale galerie Powerhouse (4296  St Laurent Blvd) is hosting Métis artist Maria-Margaretta’s window display exhibition titled “she makes all things good;” an autobiographical exploration of motherhood and cultural identity. The installation will be on view from Dec. 15 through Jan. 28.

Emma-Kate Guimond, a performance and video artist who earned her BFA in contemporary dance from Concordia University in 2011, is currently exhibiting her show “The Plot” at Centre Clark (5455 Ave. de Gaspé, #114). Guimond’s exhibition neighbours Hédy Gobaa’s show “le devenir pizza” in the adjacent gallery space. Both exhibitions will be on view until Feb. 17.

Concordia’s FoFa gallery (Concordia EV building, ground floor)  has opened its first exhibition of 2024. Their undergraduate student exhibition, “embodied urgencies,” features the work of twelve brilliant artists from Concordia’s fine arts programs. The show will be on view until Feb. 17.   

Open Calls

Carte Blanche, an online literary magazine based in Montréal, is open for submissions for their upcoming Issue 48 until Feb. 15! The theme is open, so submit your poetry, creative nonfiction, comics, photography and more! Read more on their website here.

La Centrale galerie Powerhouse has put out a call to its members for workshop proposals as part of the gallery’s June festivities. Members are encouraged to consider the needs of Montréal’s creative community and propose workshops that will contribute both their practical and creative skills. Workshop facilitators will receive an honorarium of $350 to go toward their project! The deadline is Feb. 29 at midnight. Learn more about the open call here, and if you aren’t a member already, sign up here!

Concordia’s InARTE Journal has put out a call for submissions for their 14th issue, “Enter Play,” which poses the question of how the notion of play informs an artist’s practice or visual language. Artists are invited to submit their playfully creative work by Jan. 30. Learn more on their instagram here.  

The call for proposals for the 11th Emerging Scholars Symposium, organized by Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), now has an extended deadline! Graduate students and recent alumni now have until Jan. 26 to submit their proposals to present their research at any stage at the conference, which will take place on March 21–22. The theme for this year is “Enacting social change through storytelling.”

The Concordia Film Festival (CFF) is a student-run, non-profit festival partnered with Concordia’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (MHSoC). They are looking for submissions for the festival’s 51st edition, due by Jan. 31. The films submitted need to have been made between May 2022 and April 2024, and cannot be longer than 15 minutes. 

Black artists from all of Concordia’s fine arts departments are encouraged to apply for the ASAC x FASA pop-up shop, which will take place in Concordia’s Webster Library  (LB Atrium) on Feb. 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The deadline to apply for a table is Jan. 26.

Contest

The Writers Union of Canada is accepting submissions for its 31st annual Short Prose Competition for emerging writers. The winner will be awarded a $2500 prize! The deadline to submit is Feb. 19, 2024. Visit their website to learn more.

Opportunities at The Concordian!

Want to see your artwork featured in a newspaper paper? Submit to The Concordian’s Arts & Culture section! Our artist spotlight series will be providing a space for Concordia’s fine arts students to showcase their recent artwork. Send your poetry, photography, or documentation of physical works or performances along with a brief biography (100 words) and an artist’s statement (250 words) to artsculture@theconcordian.com for a chance to be featured in print! If you are a digital artist or filmmaker, submit your work to be featured on our website! 

Are you a graphic designer or illustrator? We are looking for artists to create original illustrations to accompany our creative writing submissions. If you are interested in illustrating poetry, prose, short fiction, and creative nonfiction, please submit up to five examples of your work to be considered for assignments, or email our Arts & Culture Editor Emma Bell for more information at artsculture@theconcordian.com.

Categories
Arts Arts and Culture Exhibit Student Life

Artist spotlight: Princex Naveed

View of the gallery, Princex Naveed’s “Jarring Lots,” Concordia MFA sub gallery. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

Artist, poet, and “critical pedagogue”, Princex Naveed’s recent showcase “Jarring Lots” exhibited four multimedia installations that constituted the creation component of their MA thesis in Concordia’s INDI program.

Between Jan. 17 and Jan. 19, “Jarring Lots” was exhibited in Concordia’s MFA basement gallery in the Visual Arts building. Upon entering the gallery space during the opening night, visitors were met with a warm welcome with wine and refreshments from the artist, whose clear intention was to create a comfortable and open environment. Galleries are notoriously stuffy, quiet, and riddled with unspoken rules for proper behaviour, however, it was integral to Princex Naveed’s showcase that care was taken to resist these norms. 

View of the gallery, Princex Naveed’s “Jarring Lots,” Concordia MFA sub gallery. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

The gallery was filled with rich, ambient sound—an untitled, immersive soundscape work by Ghent-based filmmaker and poet, Helle Monne Huisman. The white-noise quality of the sound was a welcome rupture in the more familiar radio-silence of an exhibition space.

The central work in the gallery was their mixed-media installation titled “Tea, Sis!” A rectangular table was set up in the middle of the space, and was filled with red Solo cups—each with an individual tea bag. A small pile of didactic handouts were laid on the table for visitors, on which the artist had printed a statement about the work and the scholarly research that informed it, notably, the work of French writer and poet named Édouard Glissant. 

Detail of Princex Naveed’s “Tea, Sis!” 2024, mixed-media installation. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

“Tea, Sis! intends to counteract the sterility of the white cube by offering you a hospitable space, creating the potentiality for care_ful encounters between visitors and me,” the handout read. “The white cube” is a direct reference to Brian O’Doherty’s highly influential essay, “Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space,” which offers criticism of the aesthetic of the gallery space as a pristine white void, and how this space impacts the viewing and value of art. 

Lining the gallery walls were 9 printed photographs which documented a performance inspired by Canadian performance artist Sin Wai Kin. According to Princex Naveed, the performance “calls into question mainstream definitions of nationality and culture as well as their underlying gender norms.” Born to a Polish mother and an Irani father in northern Germany, and now based in Canada, Princex Naveed’s own personal history traverses numerous nations and identities, and this performance celebrates that state of flux. 

Lastly, a cozy video installation titled “but i’d rather be a pickle than a cyborg-goddess” was situated in the corner of the gallery. The short video offered an intimate glimpse into the artist’s performative transformation into a dill pickle. 

Princex Naveed, “but i’d rather be a pickle than a cyborg-goddess,” Concordia MFA sub gallery. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

“It was both mundane and highly meaningful to me, as it has emerged convergently in multiple ecologies I call home (Turtle Island, Eastern Europe, the Middle East),” Naveed said.

Categories
Arts Arts and Culture Student Life

Concordia art history research highlight: Hysteric: femininity and pain in Paula Rego’s “Possession” series.

Charlotte Koch presenting her MA thesis research at La Guide. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

An interview with Concordia Art History student Charlotte Koch on her MA thesis research.

On Nov. 29, the Hypothèses conference series hosted their third session of the 2023-2024 season, titled “Femmes modèles et artistes: bodily experience in the painting of Bronzino and Paula Rego,” at La Guilde’s gallery space. The session featured two presentations, including a talk from Concordia MA student Charlotte Koch on her ongoing thesis research, “Hysteric: Femininity and Pain in Paula Rego’s “Possession”.” 

Koch discussed the scope of her project, offering a glimpse into the history of depictions of women’s illnesses and the women who fell prey to exploitation in asylums as early as the 18th century. The plight of these women is remembered through the vivid and dynamic pastel drawings by Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego in her larger-than-life “Possession” series. This series was part of the largest retrospective ever of Rego’s work at London’s Tate Britain art gallery in 2021, only a year before the artist’s passing.

Emma Bell:  What is the ultimate goal of this research? 

Charlotte Koch: What I really want to do is take a closer look at what it means to quote other images and reuse or recycle them into new work. I think work like “Possession” can raise really interesting and important questions about authorship and historical authority, particularly as they relate to ideas we have around the archive or the canon. What I want to do by looking at the history of hysteria is take a more critical look at who has had the power to record the lives and experiences of other people, and how they approached this process.

EB: What inspired you to embark on this project? 

CK: I was very lucky to see Paula Rego’s retrospective in the summer of 2022 right after I finished my undergrad. Originally, I wanted to write about something completely different for my thesis, but after hanging out with Rego’s work for a while, I was so enthralled and my brain was firing in so many different directions, I realized that she would be a great topic for my MA thesis. I knew I wanted to write about historical authorship in some way, and I had, weirdly enough, taken quite a few classes on psychoanalytic theory (my minors in undergrad were philosophy and French studies). It was hard to escape in philosophy, and a lot of French feminist literature from the ‘70s deals a lot with psychoanalysis, so I ran into it a lot then (since that’s what I was most interested in).So when I saw “Possession”, a lot of things clicked for me and I came up with the ideal of approaching historical authorship from a medical/intellectual history perspective. I thought I could put together a really fun, and kind of interdisciplinary thesis that could really utilise all the work I had done in undergrad. 

EB: How do you feel your discussion of the history that informed Rego’s work will impact the way we read media today? 

CK: I hope it can change the way we approach discussions of women’s health as to help take their pain more seriously. A lot of what exists in the archive around hysteria is very trivializing, but in dismissing hysteria outright, you fail to fully see and understand the pain of the women that suffered from it (or suffered from conditions that were labelled as hysteria like PTSD, depression, epilepsy, and more). I think Rego is very good at making the experiences of the women she depicts very confrontational and real. I hope that in highlighting her work and how exactly she accomplishes this, we can gain a new perspective on what it means to treat women’s experiences with the sympathy and severity that they deserve.

EB: How are you practising care as you work on your project?

CK: In my project, I discuss the very difficult lives of three women named Marie, Augustine, and Dora in quite a bit of detail. The only records that exist about them are medical records, and case notes largely only consist of rehashing their traumas. In only focusing on those, the archive continues to enact that same violence on their memory. What I want to avoid is reducing Marie, Augustine, and Dora to their suffering, without dismissing or ignoring their pain either. What I hope I am able to accomplish in my research is to present a balanced, nuanced, sympathetic and careful view of what it is for them to have their lives and stories recorded in this way. The three of them have been reduced to medical cases in the records that exist of them thus far. I hope to create a fuller picture of them as they exist as agents with their own thoughts, feelings, and histories.

EB: What was one of your largest takeaways from presenting at a conference like Hypothèses? How did you feel about the conversation? Was the feedback useful?

CK: It was terrific, and really helpful. What I find most useful when sharing my research is to see what things people latch onto and where they see gaps in logic or information. Conferences like Hypothèses are so great because it lets you test your project. What I learned, for instance, is that there’s a lot more I could say about the actual formal qualities of Rego’s work. I had really neglected my formal analysis of “Possession previously, but after getting some questions and speaking to the folks who attended, I was reminded about how much effect things like scale, perspective, and medium can have on the impact of a work. It let me really zoom out so that I didn’t get lost in my rabbit hole, and now I think my project is a lot more complete.

EB: What scholarship do you recommend for those who want to learn more about your topic?

CK: For folks who are interested in the history of hysteria, Asti Hustvedt’s book Medical Muses can be heart-wrenching at times but is very accessible and paints a beautiful picture of the lives of women who were diagnosed with hysteria at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris in the 1870s.

For folks who are interested in historical authority and history creation, Mark Salber Phillips has two great books on this topic: On Historical Distance and What was History Painting and What is it now? with Jordan Bear. 

I, of course, urge anyone and everyone to check out Paula Rego’s work. Since her Tate retrospective there is thankfully so much more being written about her. She was so prolific, within her massive body of work, you are bound to find something you connect with. Her Dog Women series, I think, is brilliant and a good place to start if you want to dive into her figurative work. And of course, I think Venus in Two Acts by Saidiya Hartman should be required reading for everyone who deals with people and archives their research and writing.  It is a short but deeply impactful read that will make you think harder and more carefully about how you write and who you write about.

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Arts Arts and Culture

The origin story of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

Volume Two of The memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle by Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Cree artist Kent Monkman and his long-time collaborator Gisèle Gordon discussed the process behind their recent book project recollecting the memoirs of Monkman’s time-traveling, supernatural and gender-fluid alter ego.

On Nov. 20 at the Grande Bibliothèque de BAnQ, an audience of primarily Concordia students and alumni were treated to a rare performance by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle herself. Donning a glittering transparent robe and sharp stiletto heels, Miss Chief orated an excerpt from her fantastical memoir, beginning with her eye-witness account of the creation of the universe when she was only a young elemental being. 

This was followed by her recounting of  her turbulent yet thrilling descent to earth, her erotic discovery of her new human body, and her horror at the brutal and neglectful treatment of the sacred belongings of the Indigenous people of Turtle Island (aka North America) she had come to know and love. 

Artist Monkman and writer Gordan’s new book weaves the origin story of Miss Chief into the intertwining histories of the Cree people and the colonization of Canada. True stories of real historical figures are told through the perspective of the imaginary protagonist—a familiar intervention to those already well-versed in Monkman’s prolific painting career. 

Miss Chief has long been a staple in Monkman’s body of work that seeks to challenge canonical representations of North America in the history paintings of 19th-century artists such as George Catlin and Paul Kane. Miss Chief interrupts the reductive colonial gaze through asserting a queer Indigenous subjectivity into Monkman’s historical scenes. 

Monkman and Gordan’s approach to writing Miss Chief’s memoir was largely informed by both of their backgrounds in performance art and film, and the text certainly lends itself to live oration. Listening to Miss Chief verbally recount anecdotal encounters filled with tension and rich, witty dialogue brought Monkman’s paintings to life and tied them all together into a fully developed narrative. 

After Miss Chief’s performance, Monkman sat down with Gordan to discuss the inception of the book project and the enduring process of piecing it all together. The collaborators had spread out prints of all of Monkman’s dynamic paintings and began sorting them into chapters of what would constitute the story of his central character. Monkman remarked how “the memoir became an exercise in filling in the gaps of her story,” and that he hopes to continue developing the life cycle of Miss Chief in future endeavours—perhaps a project inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’ series on the life of Marie de’ Médici at the Louvre Museum.

Volume two of The memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A true and exact accounting of the history of Turtle Island is now available in bookstores starting today, Nov. 28!

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Arts Arts and Culture Community

Bar Milton-Parc hosts their second film screening in solidarity with Gaza

Screening of films by Palestinian women at Bar Milton-Parc. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Less than a day following Cinéma du Parc’s abrupt cancellation of their film screening event, BMP presented five films by Palestinian women to a full house.

This fall, Bar Milton-Parc (BMP) Co-op has hosted two Palestinian film screening fundraisers for Gaza. Most recently, on Nov. 7, they collaborated with Another Gaze Journal and Another Screen to present a selection of experimental films directed by Palestinian women. The proceeds were divided between Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and local organizational efforts, including mutual aid for a Palestinian refugee living in Montréal who is in need of stable housing. The space was filled with supportive attendees—the venue notably ran out of chairs. 

This event was less than 24 hours after Cinéma du Parc’s abrupt and controversial cancellation of their participation in Regards Palestiniens and Hors Champ’s Gaza solidarity fundraiser screening series, From the River to the Sea, which was scheduled to take place on Nov. 6. According to a joint statement from ten cultural organizations in Montréal, the decision was made to cancel the event due to “security concerns” and the “political nature of the screening.” 

The joint statement explains: “We learned from our own research that these issues were the result of a petition claiming to represent the Montréal and Canada Jewish Community, falsely accusing the title of the screening series of being antisemitic. We see this deliberate conflation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism everywhere in Canada and in the West in general, and we’re unfazed by it. These false accusations are launched at Palestinian Solidarity events regardless of the content of the event, with the objective of suppressing any expression of solidarity with Palestine.” Read the full joint statement here. 

On Nov. 14, Cinéma du Parc issued a statement on their instagram story, stating that “the meaning of the slogan used for the title of the event, From the River to the Sea, varies amongst communities, bringing a sense of insecurity for some, while being a call for liberation to others.” The statement continued; “We were worried for the security of the participants, our clients, and our employees. We would like to apologize for cancelling the event without conferring with the organizers, and for the lack of communication with our public once our decision was made.” 

From the River to the Sea fundraiser screenings have continued to be held at other venues. The next few will be held at Cinéma Public on Nov. 28, 29,  30, and Dec. 3.

BMP’s screening event began with Layaly Badr’s 1985 animation The Road to Palestine, which centres the experience of a young girl whose father is killed in an air raid. This heart-wrenching short film imagines a free Palestine through the hopeful eyes of a child living in a refugee camp. This was followed by Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind’s eerie science fiction film In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2015), which speaks to the role of archeology in the construction of national identity.

After a brief intermission, BMP screened Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba (2018), directed by Razan AlSalah of Concordia University’s communication studies department. This liminal film captures the invisible protagonist’s meanderings through the city of Haifa via Google Street View. Her disembodied voice cries out for a loved one who may have been inside one of the buildings shown in the street view—buildings that no longer exist.

Basma Alsharif’s artful and layered 2009 film We Began by Measuring Distance and Larissa Sansour’s surreal Nation Estate (2013) drew the evening to a close. 

The popularity of the event makes it likely that more screenings will be held in the near future. Learn about these films and more by Palestinian women at Another Screen’s website here. Stay tuned for more of Bar Milton-Parc Co-op’s programming on their instagram.

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Arts Arts and Culture Exhibit

Vendu-Sold: Concordia highlights

Projet Casa Façade, Vendu-Sold VIP opening night. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Bilingual contemporary art magazine ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction, Vendu-Sold, was recently on view at Projet Casa from Nov. 9 through Nov. 19. The opening event was attended by ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, along with many other ESSE administrators and several of the artists. Here is a list of all the works produced by Concordia alumni that were included in the auction—be sure to check them out and support their work!

ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, speaking at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Having earned her BFA in photography at Concordia, Clara Lacasse balances the industrial with the ethereal in her bright and airy work, Trame, 2020.

Clara Lacasse’s piece Trame, 2020 at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Trevor Baird, who earned his BFA in ceramics at Concordia, is showing his work The Gates of Ishtar, 2021. This curious work blends the new and the old, incorporating graphic design elements into a ceramic facade. 

Lorna Bauer is currently Concordia’s studio arts program’s artist in residence. Her hand-blown glass work Sítio Bottle (Millefiori) #2, 2021, is one of a series of over fifty individual pieces that she began in 2018.

Ari Bayuaji studied fine arts at Concordia after moving to Canada from Indonesia in 2005. His woven plastic work The Rock Islands, 2022, speaks to the relationship between community and the environment. 

Concordia’s MFA graduate program director in studio arts Kelly Jazvac’s work Time Scale (Granite #1), 2022, makes use of manufactured materials in order to comment on the longevity of humanity’s environmental footprint.     

Jeanette Johns holds an MFA in print media from Concordia. Her work Plain Hunt on Four: 1234, 2023, combines the hand-made with the digital to create vibrating imagery that challenges our perception of space.

Élise Lafontaine earned her BFA from Concordia in 2015 before going on to complete her master’s at UQÁM. Her synesthetic work Rib of Sound, 2022, seeks to mystically translate sound itself into a visible gesture. 

Jean-Michel Leclerc holds an MFA in fine arts from Concordia. His untitled work is part of a series that examines the crisis of the 1930s—rearticulating found imagery through analog photographic processes and digital fragmentation. 

Staff writer Shaghayegh Naderolasli observing Jean-Michel Leclerc’s work at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Former Concordia professor François Morelli’s rosy and surreal work Les aurevoirs, 2022, offers an illustrative and dynamic scene of sensual figures entangled in space.

Bea Parsons is a full-time professor at Concordia who previously studied fine arts at the university. Her monotype print Sun Dog, 2023, has a soothing, painterly quality that demonstrates how the possibilities of printmaking techniques can illustrate incredible natural phenomenons.

Alexandre Pépin earned his BFA in studio arts from Concordia in 2018 before recently receiving his MFA from the University of Texas in Austin. In Fish, 2021, employs a textured blend of painting and drawing techniques with a pastel colour palette to render the image of a fish out of water. 

Multidisciplinary artist Fatine-Violette Sabiri holds a BFA in studio arts from Concordia. Her work Majdouline, 2019, draws its visual language from her Moroccan heritage. 

Eve Tagny earned a BFA in film production from Concordia in 2011. Her xerox impression Poppies field print, 2022, is a dark and mysterious image of a poppy field that captures a moment which speaks to humanity’s desire to capture nature.

Lan “Florence” Yee’s bright and self-aware oil painting Cantonese Still Life, 2018, is a commentary on the dominance of European traditions within the art historical canon as defined by “Western” academia. Yee earned her BFA from Concordia and her MFA from OCAD University.

Visit ESSE’s website here to see all of these artworks and more!

Categories
Arts and Culture Community

A celebration of the English language in Montréal

Award winners on stage at the QWF award gala. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

The Quebec Writers Federation’s recent events have been a testament to the thriving anglophone literary community in Quebec.

The Read Quebec book fair, held between Nov. 3–4 in Concordia’s J.W. McConnell atrium, was a glorious demonstration of the anglophone literary community’s integral value to Montréal’s culture and economy. 

Entrance to the Read Quebec book fair’s opening cocktail. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

The space was shoulder-to-shoulder with lovers of literature who had gathered to highlight the work of English-language publishers in and around Montréal, including the Montréal Review of Books, Maisonneuve Magazine, Drawn & Quarterly publishers, Concordia University Press and more. Each organization brought along a selection of their recent publications to show the incredible range of anglophone literature being produced in Quebec. From art history to science fiction, every genre was represented. 

Representatives from Concordia University Press selling copies of their recent publications at the Read Quebec book fair’s opening cocktail. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

The event was collaboratively hosted by the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF), the Association of English-Language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ) and Read Quebec with a shared mission to promote the brilliance and celebrate the continued presence of anglophone authors in Montréal.

Publisher from the Montreal Review of Books, Rebecca West, speaks at the Read Quebec book fair’s opening cocktail. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

As an American student studying art history at Concordia, the proposed tuition hikes for traditionally anglophone universities in Quebec was particularly personal. As a writer and researcher, what opportunities are left for me after graduation if I choose to stay here? Sometimes I can’t help but think it might be wiser to move back home. This would mean leaving behind my partner, my friends and the network I worked so hard to build here. But if the only thing standing in the way of my career is a language barrier, it almost seems like I would be doing myself a disservice by staying. 

As I navigate these difficult and emotional decisions, I realize I am not alone. Out-of-province and international students are equally concerned for their futures in Montréal—we’re experiencing the dim feeling of being unwelcome in the city we have come to know and love. However, we are more determined than ever to assert our value in the province. This jovial evening brought me and my fellow aspiring writers a great glimmer of hope and a strong sense of community.

Further strengthening the anglophone writing community’s sense of camaraderie and celebration, on Nov. 13, QWF hosted their 25-year anniversary gala at Cabaret Lion d’Or. This event honoured the brilliant work of both emerging and established writers with awards for a number of categories.

Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson giving their acceptance speech at the QWF award gala. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Katherine Li’s Efflorescence won the QWF College Writers Award for students; H Felix Chau Bradley’s fiction work Three Disorientations won the Carte Blanche Award; the Janet Savage Blanchford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature went to Edeet Ravel for her book A Boy is Not a Ghost; Erin Robinsong’s Wet Dream won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry; Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction; and finally, Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson’s Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation won both the Concordia University First Book Prize and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction. 

Many of the winners spoke to the urgency of writing as a means to bring about truth, justice and solidarity. The atmosphere of the event was one of gratitude to each other and our growing community, to those who came before us and mentored us, and to the art of writing in the English language as a tool of uninhibited expression.

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