Author: John Cairns

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Arts

Nadège Grebmeier Forget puts the viewer on display

New exhibition at Espace Projet brings the audience into the artwork

Like an actor spending time in a psychiatric hospital to authentically prepare for their latest role, people immerse themselves in unfamiliar cultures in an attempt to add richness and complexity to their character.

In her latest exhibition, I, interdisciplinary performance artist Nadège Grebmeier Forget creates a performance space which brings the viewer into sharp focus through its minimalism and austerity. It would be wrong to reveal too much about the exhibition, as the description would disturb the natural response of any reader who may decide to participate in Forget’s work. However, it seems appropriate to give a sense of the response the artist might be trying to provoke from the audience.

The pale, pink-lighted space offers the viewer’s wandering eye so little to rest upon that they are inevitably drawn to the other people standing in the room. In this way, the other viewers become part of the exhibition.

However, in Forget’s work, the viewer is encouraged into a state of communal reflection in which they learn from fellow art lovers through their behaviour. According to the artists’ statement, in doing so, Forget hopes to create an inclusive space where personal revelations may be shared verbally, and perhaps even telepathically.

I is an ambitious project which puts our age of digital surveillance and the commodification of the self under a microscope. It makes the viewer reflect seriously on not only why, but how they consume culture. This exhibition brings us closer to ourselves and others by encouraging the scrutiny of those occupying the space.

Whether what we absorb finds its way into the very sinews of our being, or merely flits temporarily through some scene in the performance of our lives, I suggests human behaviour is comprised of a constantly shifting outer layer of knowledge, and a less receptive, yet more faithful core of wisdom.  I  challenges the viewer to be aware of how this process unfolds in the subjective and objective gestures of the audience.

When we are drawing on the outer layer to inform our actions and interactions, we are performing. Whereas when conduct comes from our inner being, we are expressing ourselves.

If there is a problem with the exhibition, it may lie in the fact that it is almost too minimal. Intellectual fire requires a spark to ignite, but I wanted the viewer to conjure a flame from nowhere. So a vague sense of mystification was perhaps the most palpable reaction in the exhibition space.

Nonetheless, this sense of awkwardness is a genuine human reaction from the inner core, and observing how people attempt to engage and be enthusiastic about nothing was an interesting and informative experience.

I runs at Espace Projet until April 22. The exhibition space is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the exhibition is free. There will be a special presentation from the artist on April 7 from 5p.m. to 7 p.m.

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Arts

The Wild Characters of Alana Barrell’s art

New exhibition gives viewers a peek into the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic

On a wet and windy night in Montreal, a lively gang of 60 have come to bathe themselves in the effervescence of Alana Barrell’s artistic imagination. Upon stepping into her vernissage at the Centre d’Apprentissage Parallèle (CAP) gallery, the viewer is greeted by the rolling-eyed stares of Une Girafe, Un Rhino and Leopard, large multi-coloured paintings which are heartening and slightly disturbing. They act as ideal introductions into Barrell’s world of Wild Characters.

Barrell was diagnosed with a severe form of paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 15. Her sense of self is poignantly displayed in a series of self-portraits which evolve in a way that represents her journey through her treatment and therapy. Each piece focuses on one segment of her life living with Schizophrenia. It begins with her treatment in the Early Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Program at the McGill University Health Centre, followed by her experiences at the Atelier D’Artisan du Centre-Ville and the CAP program, which ended in her presenting her first solo exhibition.

In the first piece, Autoportrait, the artist presents her face as half-masked, half-uncovered, with the whole visage rendered in a very raw and indistinct style. The second piece, a painting, titled Moi, retains the image of the facial split in terms of colour, but presents a more natural expression with the mouth fixed intently in steely confidence, and the eyebrows arched with a certain wry humour. An ink composition, beautifully and confidently executed, stares softly at the viewer with a hand supporting an almost symmetrical face, hair cascading unfettered.

In total, there were roughly 50 pieces included in the exhibition. Finally, in Woman, an ink composition, it’s the viewer who becomes unsettled, as their voyeuristic experience is shattered and the self-possessed artist stares intently into their minds.

The artist herself, clad in an indigo dress and sporting bright pink lipstick, seemed effortlessly at home with her vibrant pieces and unselfconsciously posed for photographs with the press and public alike. Barrell described herself as both “excited” and “proud” to display her first solo exhibition, but was loath to elaborate on more analytical questions regarding her artistic process.

Yvon Lamy, an art therapist at CAP, described such reservation on Barell’s part as typical of an artist who, when her peers were attempting to dissect the underlying significance of her works, would simply say: “I just did it because it was beautiful.”

Barrell was born in South Africa in 1983, and grew up there as well as in Brunei, Ethiopia, Singapore and Canada. The influence of Ethiopian art is particularly apparent in her use of vibrant colours, depictions of religious relics and rendering of large, almond-shaped eyes. The pieces could be described as naïve art, as Barrell received no formal training, relying instead on her raw artistic talent. This makes for a unique style and a powerful artistic identity which remains in the mind long after leaving the exhibition.

Above all else, Wild Characters is a passionate, refreshing and totally unpretentious collection which excites the viewer and leaves the public hungry to see more from this evolving artist. The show runs at CAP gallery, 4865 Saint-Laurent Street, until March 31.

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Arts

Epigram(me): Putting yourself on the map

Concordia artist bends space by using old maps as a medium

Trusting in her artistic instinct, when Audrey “Em” Meubus came across a collection of Montreal maps from the 1980s, she knew she had to do something with them.

“I’ve always liked maps for what they represent—it’s finding yourself, and it’s the comforting feelings they evoke,” she said.

This discovery was the beginning of a project culminating in Epigram(me), Meubus’ first solo exhibition as an illustrator.

Meubus, who completed her BFA in film animation at Concordia in 2013, has worked on stop-motion animation sets for works such as The Little Prince. For her latest project, Meubus drew upon her skills as a writer, illustrator and animator to superimpose her striking, emblematic drawings on carefully-selected and significant sections of the city maps.

These works drew strong positive responses from Meubus’ friends and family.

“I would have groups of people forming around these maps, and I knew I was onto something… people were connecting [with them],” she said.

The strength of Meubus’ work comes from their symbolic meaning. Viewing an illustration superimposed over a map of a familiar area can generate strong personal responses connected to memory and belonging. The dark, graphic lines of Meubus’ illustrations contrast starkly with the sun-faded maps, making for an interesting aesthetic and contrast, engaging both the mind and emotions.

After having experimented with maps as a medium, the next step was teaming up with Studio Beluga, a Montreal-based non-profit organization run by a collective of artists, art professionals and curators. According to their website, the studio was established with the goal of facilitating artistic practices and forming a creative community.

“I know a lot of musicians and people from the theatre world, and that’s how I first came upon Studio Beluga,” she said. “I approached them, time went by until they eventually told me they had a space and I jumped on it.”

The final ingredient in the realization of Meubus’ project was the imposition of a strict two-week time limit on her creative process, in which she created the six pieces that were part of her exhibition.

“I do my best work on a deadline. I have all these ideas and just have to get them out of my head as fast as possible,” she said. “If I hit a wall with one of them, I can just put it aside and work on another one. This speedy and concentrated method allows me to not get bored with what I’m doing.”

Although her backdrops and drawings have particular personal significance, Meubus said she wants the viewer to find their own personal meaning in her work—hence the addition of (me) to Epigram. The name highlights her desire to spark the memory and imagination of the viewer in their own unique and distinctive fashion. In this way, the audience can rediscover something of themselves in these works, between Meubus’ illustrations and the locations the maps portray.

The exhibition runs at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine until April 15.

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Arts

Shining a light on newly-discovered talent

In its latest exhibition, Galerie Youn showcases the work of emerging artists

A tree is represented at the very back of Galerie Youn—it is the tree of paradise on which a gang of defiant “Eves” cavort and gorge upon the fruit. This provocative and beautifully-rendered piece by Robin Crofut-Brittingham is part of the gallery’s NEW WORK exhibition, which showcases new and emerging talent.

It is difficult to fully immerse oneself in the pure aesthetic pleasure of a topically and stylistically diverse exhibition when a space is so steeped in one of the principal philosophic dilemmas of art. This is true particularly during these times of technological and economic predominance. The shredded U.S. flag and photograph of former president Obama, which beckon passing patrons into the gallery, serve to reinforce the current sense that we are entering an age in which anti-intellectualism and retraction of support for creative endeavours will only be intensified.

Youn described a conversation with a nurse in which he attempted to argue the equality of value between what she did and what the artists he represents produce. His main point is that the physical, intellectual and emotional effort put into creating a piece, such as Dan Ivic’s Half a Soul, is as valuable as the work carried out by a health professional. For this reason, it is perfectly appropriate to expect remuneration for the compositions, which range from $275 right up to $8,000. According to Youn, what seems to be the deciding factor is how essential a product or service is to a person’s life—is the correct functioning of our physical being a more valuable asset than the kind of spiritual awakenings or affirmations we might access through art?

The Old Satyr by Mark Liam Smith provides an interesting insight into this dilemma, where the viewer of a work has begun to fuse with it. Art can certainly perform a kind of intellectual surgery, one which will probably never be available in any conventional clinic. With 12 years of experience in the “tough world” of running galleries, Youn certainly is an example of a human totally possessed by his passion.

With its current exhibition, NEW WORK, Galerie Youn has provided a serious and reflective space for what is an aesthetically and politically vibrant company of emerging artists. The array of media is astonishing, and provides a stimulating viewer experience.

The gallery itself will have a table at the prestigious Volta Art Fair in New York at the beginning of March, and Youn states how this would give his artists access to the kind of markets in which patrons were more likely to dig deep in order to acquire their work. The NEW WORK exhibition runs in Montreal until March 11. The gallery is open Wednesday through Friday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

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