Author: Frédéric T. Muckle

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Arts News

Grease stains, video games and a dépanneur

The Unreliable Narrator by Kyle Purves.

Graduates from Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Arts present the Correlate exhibition

Do you remember your first artistic masterpiece? Maybe it was something like a papier-mâché bird or the classic macaroni and glue creation. Do you remember how proud you were when you presented it to a loved one or to your peers? A feeling of pride with a touch of insecurity and anticipation took over any other sensation at this crucial moment.

This was the same feeling that emanated from Concordia’s design and computation arts graduates presenting and offering to the world their own works of art in the Correlate exhibition, which is taking place this weekend. However, in this case their realizations were far more impressive than a babbling kid’s drawing. In this exhibition, the numerous artists and craftsmen displayed an array of various kinds of works. Ranging from interaction design to game concepts, 3D design such as sculptures and furniture, web design, video and sound installations and more traditional visual arts, Correlate seemed to have something for every art amateur.

According to Victoria Byron, the communications coordinator of the event, this variety is quite illustrative of the school from which the students just graduated. “It highlights Concordia’s diversity and everybody’s talent. It really showcases the program very well, very accurately,” Byron said.

Byron also talked about the way most projects presented in the Correlate exhibition echoed themes such as sustainability, social responsibility and ethical production. “Whether it is the theme, the material or the process, it [is illustrated] trough that.”

“Open Wide” by Andreea Vrabie. Photo by writer.

During the two last days of the exhibition, May 2 and 3, fascinating projects will be displayed such as sound and video installations and game design projects.

When uncovering what those talented artists had to offer, looking, interacting and reacting with some cleverly imaginative project, you sometimes felt like you were in a dream. Other times you did not know exactly what you had to deal with, like with the spooky interactive statue that welcomed you on the fourth floor of the Phi Center. At one point, you even had to discover by yourself the beauty and ingenuity of an installation. In all cases, Correlate and the numerous graduates that took part in this exhibition made you sense and understand ideas in peculiar and unique ways. That is why this exposition is perfect for everybody, even people who do not usually attend art exhibits. Correlate is an exhibition that you can experience, not just look at. Children and adults alike will find something to see, to interact with and to like among the about 90 projects displayed in the exhibition.

That is why Correlate should be the exhibition to go to this weekend. You can be sure that you simply never saw and experienced arts like this.

The Correlate exhibition will be on display at the PHI Centre from May 1 to May 3. For more information, visit www.correlate2014.com. You can also visit their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/correlatecorreler2014, or follow them on Twitter @Correlate2014.

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Arts

Indie queen — geek goddesses do burlesque

The Suicide Girls' Blackheart Burlesque returns to a packed house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Suicide Girls pay tribute to pop culture in their Blackheart Burlesque show

If you wish to titillate your spring-produced, nature-driven, fertility-related desires, there is an upcoming show you do not want to miss: Suicide Girls’ Blackheart Burlesque show, set to pass through town this Sunday.

The Suicide Girls’ Blackheart Burlesque returns to a packed house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

For those of you who have never encountered these stunning tattooed goddesses during a purposeless Internet escapade, Suicide Girls is a community of models that celebrates  alternative beauty. With their empowered attitude, these women clash wonderfully with the typical soulless Barbies that serve as beauty standards in our normative society.

These contemporary amazons, with the help of renowned choreographer Manwe Sauls-Addison, decided to come back as a burlesque troupe after a six-year hiatus. If you have been avoiding the alternative scene of the past decade or so, you may have missed the welcomed revival of the burlesque movement, now renamed neo-burlesque.

“It is all about the art of the tease, being sexy [and] having fun with [your] sexuality,” explained Missy Suicide, co-founder of Suicide Girls.

The show is choreographed by Manwe Sauls-Addison, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga.

Burlesque is a moment of humorous, elegant, flirtatious strip-tease during which the women performing are meant to be enjoying themselves as much as their audience is.

Now imagine this kind of show, but with rock-n-roll and electro rhythms, an electrified crowd and references to pop culture such as Kill Bill, Dr. Who and Game of Thrones, all enacted by the fringe beauties of Suicides Girls — the sum of it all is more than enticing, especially for a Sunday night.

Yet, Suicide Girls’ community and their burlesque show enthusiasts are not composed, like some people would expect, of Cro-Magnon men looking for cheap entertainment; actually it is quite the contrary.

“The girls on stage are having fun being sexy, exuding this joie de vivre and that is attractive to women. It is rare that you get to see … a women that is, not in a dirty or graphic way, having fun with her sexuality,” said Missy Suicide.

This explains why the majority of the Suicide Girls participants, and the audience of the burlesque show, are women.

The Blackheart Burlesque tour recently had a successful run in the United States and Australia, and decided to end their journey in our — still — cold and white country.

“[The Blackheart Burlesque show] is a super fun, sexy night that everybody will enjoy, [whether as] a couple or a single person, it is fun for everybody,” Missy Suicide said.  Maybe that ought to finally bring us the spring we all have been waiting for, heating up our beloved Montreal.

Suicide Girls’ Blackheart Burlesque tour will be performing on April 13 at Cabaret La Tulipe.

 

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Arts

A new Brooklyn, for a new generation

My Brooklyn shows viewers the neighbourhood’s changes in the face of gentrification and commercialization, while its residents face the consequences. Press photo

Kelly Anderson’s My Brooklyn gives us the history of New York’s famous district

Everyone has heard of or seen Brooklyn one way or the other. Some consider it the kingdom of Goodfellas’ infamous protagonist, or as the home of the enticing main character of Spike Lee’s first film, She’s Gotta Have It. Many remember the epic car chase of The French Connection as well. One thing is sure though, most of us won’t ever truly know this neighbourhood as closely as the people in this documentary.

My Brooklyn is a love testimony to one of most culturally diverse neighbourhoods of North America. It also shows an infuriating display of what could be described as brutal gentrification. Kelly Anderson, a Canadian documentary director and New York resident for many years, analyzes for us the contemporary metamorphosis that Brooklyn went through. She explains to us how and why iconic Brooklyn became — notably because of urban-policy gurus (the Bloomberg administration and a few wealthy real estate developers) — another bourgeois-friendly downtown area.

My Brooklyn shows viewers the neighbourhood’s changes in the face of gentrification and commercialization, while its residents face the consequences. Press photo

More precisely, My Brooklyn focuses on the transformation of the previously effervescent shopping district and traditional meeting place for Brooklynites: Fulton Street Mall. Small businesses that were an integral part of a strongly rooted community were ordered to desist and vacate the spot they occupied for 20 years. The proliferation of generic multinational shops replaced the different and more personal businesses that gave its personality to the area. All this for the purpose of “diversifying the range of users” of this shopping area.The possibility for affordable housing was tossed aside to give place to high luxury condos.

Sadly, these transformations made Brooklyn an unfamiliar and harsh new environment. Those who gave Brooklyn its distinctive soul and heart could not live their day-to-day lives anymore.

In this documentary, Anderson shares with us the various reasons for her profound dedication to what her family likes to call home. She also follows the money trail of this major reappropriation of her neighbourhood by the prosperous who left this area during a shameful past of segregation. The result is a thoughtful essay on a vibrant community trying to defend a place they cherish. It is an example of why change is not always for the best. It is also a study of serious economic and social problems portraying the clash of two groups belonging to different classes and races.

The plethora of characters that Anderson makes us meet gives us an outlook of their Brooklyn and the special connections that they have with this neighbourhood.

Anderson gives viewers a detailed but comprehensive amount of information on their history and allows us to understand not only why those people want to keep their Brooklyn like it’s always been, but also how this metamorphosis is mostly the result of greediness.

Another interesting feature of the movie is that it is transparent: the director is on the side of the oppressed. Nonetheless she admits that some of the changes might actually appeal to a part of her and that she was of the first wave of “gentrifiers” in Brooklyn.

Anderson also tries to show us that for some regular people, this neighbourhood needs to be modernized and gentrified — especially if the neighbourhood is expecting to attract another type of customer (by selling higher-end goods). However, sometimes you cannot help but feel awkward listening to those slightly or greatly snobbish interviewees and wonder if they ever went to this area in the first place or if they could ever understand what Brooklyn is really about. What we can be sure of though is that Anderson clearly belongs in this neighbourhood. Her affection for the area transpires throughout the whole movie and almost makes you want to move to this now-extraordinarily overpriced region of New York City. In the end this movie will make you see all those condo projects in a different light, like those that appeared around our own city in the last few years. Are those standardized, unvarying, new buildings better than the old, slightly shady and kitschy commercial edifices from before? Thoughts like these are erected in the movie, and bring the issue surprisingly close to home. We can only hope, though, that gentrification advocates won’t sell the soul of our beloved Montreal.

My Brooklyn premieres in Quebec as part of Cinema Politica on Monday, March 17 at 7 p.m., where director Kelly Anderson will be present. For more information visit cinemapolitica.org.

 

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Arts

Breaking news: Fictional characters are hooking up

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

Since Valentine’s Day is at our doorsteps, The Concordian has put together a team of very serious and very real “cultural scientists” that has cogitated for a week to deliver to you a list of especially peculiar couples. More precisely, this article is a complex experiment trying to put some of our favorite fictional characters together — crossing them over from literature, television and the big screen. Keep in mind that the results presented below are not some average “best couples” from People magazine — instead, you will be reading about original duos that would make sense (or not) in the fictional melting pot that is our collective imagination. Also, there may (probably will) be spoilers.

A very logical couple

One is a favorite methamphetamine producer with a wife that does not respect or support his ambitions and a brother-in-law that wants him gone from future family reunions. The other is the mother of a king, has a particular talent for exploiting and manipulating the people around her, seems to have some daddy issues, and becomes a widow of her own accord. We are talking here of Walter White and Cersei Lannister, characters from two of the most praised television shows of the past few years — Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

When you think about it, it makes absolute sense that those two should end up together: both are unquestionably in ‘empire business’, they both have sons that could bond and become friends over breakfast and, let’s face it, it would be beneficial for both of them to get out of their present, unhealthy relationships. If it were to happen, Heisenberg could expand his market shares by selling his Blue Sky all over the seven kingdoms of Westeros, and Cersei could easily orchestrate a sophisticated stratagem to assassinate and corrupt the whole establishment of Albuquerque. Logical, wouldn’t you say?

A most sexy/badass couple

Sexy characters, especially women, are usually only depicted as eye candy and not much else. Still, isn’t it more sexy when said attractive character has some kind of specific skill, a taste for adventure or any other unusual but spicy habit? That is exactly what we would have by coupling famous archeologist/teacher/explorer/hero, Indiana Jones, and the vengeful and beautiful Angel of Death, as represented by The Bride from Tarantino’s classic Kill Bill movies.

It may seem like a weird match at first but if you really think about it you will realize that they belong together. First, they love to travel around the world. OK, it is true that Indiana Jones is trying to find ancient artifacts and fight Nazis and The Bride travels around the globe to find and annihilate her ex-coworkers but still, we could easily picture them together in an all-inclusive resort holding hands and sipping on some piña coladas. Also, they would both benefit from each other’s personality traits. The Bride could learn to relax a little with Mr. Jones’ laid-back attitude, and Indy could finally break his pattern of rescuing women and dumping them after each adventure by choosing to be with the independent and fierce blonde assassin that would not be afraid of snakes.

Finally, the simple fact that this couple could kick the ass, both figuratively and literally, of Brangelina or any other celebrity supercouple demonstrates that they deserve the title above.

 

While we’re at it…

A most necessary couple

In a perfect world, Justin Bieber would be dating the Queen of Hearts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is true that Justin Bieber is not a fictional character — but sometimes it feels like he is.

A woman like the Queen of Hearts is needed in this young man’s life because sincerely, this boy needs some discipline. A dictatorial girlfriend like this would probably do the trick.

A most dysfunctional couple

Dorian Gray (The Portrait of Dorian Gray), one of literature’s most egocentric aristocratic characters, and Dennis Reynolds (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), one of television’s most self-centered white-trash characters.

One cannot help thinking that they would form the most unpleasant double date partners of all time. Still, they would probably understand each other perfectly.

 

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Arts

Deals are not meant to be broken

Press photo

Parents and their children against riot squads; a collapsing nation fighting for their land; a government denying and trampling fundamental rights to its people. One would assume that we are talking here of a repressive regime. Sadly, it is a description of what goes on in our collective Canadian backyard.

In 1991, Canada and Quebec governments negotiated a historic agreement with the 450-person community of Algonquins of Barriere Lake. The deal has yet to be honoured by the two governments. Press photo

Honour Your Word, a documentary made by Canadian filmmaker Martha Stiegman, tackles the particular situation of the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake. In 1991, a trilateral conservation deal was made between the Algonquins, and the Quebec and Canadian governments, to oversee the land. The agreement remains unhonoured by the governments, resulting in the struggle of the land’s inhabitants to keep their culture alive.

By following two prominent leaders of this small community fighting for what they believe is just, Stiegman makes us share in the everyday life of a family committed to the survival of their traditions.

Pictures of joyful children playing and proud parents fishing or hunting clash drastically with the vision of them facing, without blinking, police forces brought straight from our worst Maple Spring collective memories.

Using cinematography composed of serene images of nature and intimate familial scenes, we come to understand why the Algonquins have been fighting all their life as children, adults and elders for their ancestral lands and customs.

In this film, the director’s approach gives us what we could define more as a collection of profound and heartfelt testimonies rather than a strongly narrated and condemning documentary — such as we have gotten used to those thanks to the Michael Moores of this world.

When compared to today’s high-octane documentaries, Honour Your Word can seem a little monotonous at times. However, its sober style and slow pace fits perfectly the veiled emotions and calm attitudes of its protagonists.

You cannot help but feel empathy for these proud people, but it would have been profitable for both the viewers and the movie itself to balance the documentary with interviews of people on the other side of the barricade. This would have avoided the simple black-and-white dichotomy, in which too many engaged documentaries find themselves entrenched in, for a more nuanced point of view of this sensitive subject.

Nonetheless, the composed and peaceful state of mind emanating from the Algonquin people, even when constantly facing adversity, successfully differentiates this movie from others that usually carry crude depictions of a violent and hysterical First Nation community. Ultimately, Honour your Word is a poetic yet sad story of a powerless but ever-fighting David at war with a merciless Goliath.

Honour Your Word will have its Canadian premiere as part of Cinema Politica. Director Martha Stiegman will be in attendance. The screening will take place on Feb. 10, 7pm in the D. B. Clarke Theatre — 1455 de Maisonneuve W.

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