Category: Arts

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An auto-ethnography to embrace new beginnings

Womanhood. Vulnerability. Healing. Value. Recognition. Seduction.

These words are at the centre of The Parlour Project: Spider, Fly and Web, the first collaborative initiative practiced by The Wolf Lab, founded by Amber Dawn Bellemare.

Bellemare, who studied communications and First Peoples studies at Concordia, is a former sex worker and is currently the program animator for the Truth, Healing and Reconciliation for the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC). The CUC brings together followers of Unitarian Universalism who affirm the worth and dignity of every person. They value justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. They seek peace, respect, and acceptance of one another in a global community, or an “interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”, according to their website.

The Parlour Project stems from these values. Her past documentary work focused on telling others’ stories, and this auto-ethnography will be the first time Bellemare focuses on her own, welcoming viewers into her parlour. The artist documented her health and wellbeing before and after rendez-vous’ with clients, which revealed a full range of emotions.

The Parlour Project, an auto-ethnographic performance-exhibition created by Amber Dawn Bellemare in conjunction with The Wolf Lab. Photo by Lana Nimmons.

Seeking to create an immersive experience, the happening is part normal photography exhibition and part ceremonial performance. Bellemare hopes the project will deepen relationships and connections to the present moment, expanding the view of oneself to include others.

“The project is more profound than I initially thought it would be,” revealed Bellemare. “I was sexualized young, determining my value by my sexuality, a common experience shared among women… I wanted to redefine what dinner and a movie looked like.” Her work distills important aspects of the conversation about female sexuality. She found confidence in her vision and voice to heal and connect with others.

The full name of the project is derived from a poem by Mary Howlitt,

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly. “‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; the way into my parlour is up a winding stair, and I’ve a many curious things to show when you are there.” “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly. “To ask me is in vain, for who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.” (The Spider and the Fly, 1828)

Bellemare said she always thought of herself as either the spider or the fly, depending on the circumstances. The spider, when she was luring or seducing. The fly, when she was submitting to clients or creating individual experiences for them. Only later did she come to recognize that the art of tease and seduction is necessary not only to the spider’s web, but the entirety of the trio; unapologetic, warm, and welcoming, creating sincere and vulnerable experiences throughout her life—not solely in her work.

Opening on Sept 19., you can experience The Parlour Project until Sept. 28 at 4035 St-Ambroise St., studio 206. Tickets are available online and cost $20 for general admission, $15 for students, seniors and sex workers, or $25 at the door. All showings are 18+. Please consult the Eventbrite calendar for opening times. The event will be filmed on weekends for documentation purposes.

 

Feature photo courtesy of the artist

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Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Mesmerizing. Ingenious.

Those two words come to mind when thinking about Ragnar Kjartansson’s A Lot of Sorrow. I’ve visited the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) to see it three times. I’ve never seen the whole thing (it’s six hours long) – so every time I go it’s at a different part. Kjartansson, an Icelandic performance artist, convinced The National, an American band he was obsessed with, to perform their song “Sorrow” for six hours straight at the MoMA PS1 in New York City in 2013. The recorded footage, now property of the MAC, is exhibited every three years or so.

With each repetition, new sounds are heard. Whether it is just you paying attention to different notes or the band experimenting, I couldn’t say for sure. The room is big and dark, walled with black curtains and a long comfy stool, or perhaps it’s a couple of smaller stools pressed together, existing in the centre of the space. People sit and lie there, watching. They also sit or lie on the floor, some for a couple of minutes, others for hours to watch the endless concert.

The song loops perfectly, a consistent light drumming tying it all together. By now I’ve memorized the lyrics too, but they were my own. I know the actual ones too, they just evolve after each listen. “Cover me in ragan balm,” it’s rag and bones, “and sympathy…” “It’s in my honey. It’s in my bed,” it’s in my milk. Everyone in the room hears something different. Some are smiling, laughing quietly to themselves, others look solemn, they feel the sorrow, a whole lot of sorrow.

In an article by The Art Newspaper, Kjartansson is quoted saying, “the notion of melancholia creates something that makes me happy, in creating.” Wallowing in sorrow rarely stays as such, especially when listening to The National on repeat. It’s silly. It’s beautiful. It’s tiring.

The band’s exhaustion sets in, their suits disheveled, sweaty, hungry, and drunk. The stage becomes littered with bottles, water and wine, platters of fruit, candy… I would have stayed all six hours too if I could eat and drink in the exhibition hall.

The concept is simple enough. The song is the right one.

A Lot of Sorrow will continue to loop at the MAC until Oct. 6. Admission is $7 for students, half-price on Wednesday evenings from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m and free on the first Sunday of the month for Quebec residents.

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Midsommar: A Nightmare Bathed in Sunlight

Midsommar, directed by Hereditary’s Ari Aster, is a truly disturbing film, but undeniably beautiful and expertly crafted. Both its beauty and disturbing nature lie in the same vein, a horror film which almost entirely takes place under the bright, white Swedish sunlight. The plot is filled with people who have committed terrible acts, have malicious intentions, and traumatic pasts.

Midsommar takes place in the aftershock of the death of Dani’s family, who were killed in a murder-suicide by her sister. Meanwhile, Dani’s boyfriend Christian doesn’t want to be with her but feels obligated to stay due to her trauma and grief. Out of pity, he invites her to join him and his friends on a trip to Sweden, where they plan to witness the Swedish midsummer tradition for their anthropology PhD theses. A series of events unfold and reveal not only the dark and gruesome traditions of the Swedish commune but also troubling issues within Dani and Christian’s toxic relationship.

There’s a certain type of film that feels completely motivated, as in you can tell the director and filmmakers put thought and effort into every frame. Everything is truly there for a reason. I was lucky enough to have seen Midsommar in its two forms: the theatrical release and the director’s cut. One thing I can say for sure is that Aster uses perfectly planned out and motivated camera movements to lure the viewer into the film. Aster takes advantage of a bright colour palette to lull you into a sense of safety for most of the movie’s runtime.

Plus, nothing can go wrong in the light of day, right? The setting is well-chosen to bring the characters and the audience into a location that feels simultaneously isolated and welcoming as the characters are surrounded by bright green grass and friendly people in bright garments. Along with the stunning cinematography, Aster directs this film with intent, purpose, and a slow but compelling pace. Although the film does feel slow in the middle, especially in the director’s cut version, every second of the footage feels important regardless of the pacing.

Florence Pugh plays the main character, Dani. Her incredible performance is genuine and heartbreaking. Pugh constantly keeps Dani’s grief directly under the surface and you can see it pour out or slowly seep through in every shot. Her strained relationship with Christian, played by Jack Reynor, is also effectively portrayed to show that trust and love have been long gone. The supporting cast, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter and Vilhelm Blomgren also stand up to the challenge. Harper plays a convincingly stressed and defensive PhD student while Poulter acts as the selfish, inconsiderate but funny friend who’s only coming to gawk at Swedish women. Meanwhile, Blomgren remains a kind and mysterious figure who possibly has ulterior intentions for his friends’ trip. However, Reynor’s performance doesn’t match up to Pugh’s in terms of emotional believability and depth. Out of the cast, he feels like the weakest link.

Some have expressed discontent for the film, due to its disturbing, confusing and uncomfortable nature. However, I would argue that these things are what make Midsommar so fascinating. Aster was able to manipulate the audience to feel these emotions in such small but impressive ways. Something as simple as not cutting away from a shot changes a movie from being simply frightening to distressing.

What I have learned from watching Midsommar is this: just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s bad. It means that the filmmakers did a good job of using the medium to make you feel a certain way. It also means that this could be a good time for you as a viewer to reflect on what you saw, think about what made you uncomfortable, and why. Are you distressed by the graphic violence? Or are you distressed by Christian’s treatment of Dani? And why are these different?

Midsommar allows us to examine a relationship from the inside out while also dealing with the disconcerting series of events occurring outside of them. Overall, this film is well-crafted, full of artistic motivation, great performances and sickening feelings. Since both the objective and subjective aspects of Midsommar were of great quality and because of how deeply it fascinates me, I give this film 5/5 stars.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost, feature photo A24 films

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Momenta Biennale takes over Montreal with a critical artistic lens

There’s life in everything

Previously named Mois de la Photo, the Momenta Biennale is an extensive series of themed exhibitions in galleries all over Montreal occurring every other year at the same time as the World Press Photo exhibition. This is done intentionally, to emphasize the power of different images. The theme of this year’s biennale, titled The Life of Things, is materiality, material culture, consumerism, and environmentalism. The theme is interpreted differently by 39 local and international artists, with some focusing on living things, others on objects, oral histories, and movement.

The exhibition at Galerie de l’UQAM, where their biennale launched, is divided into two segments, “Cultural Objects and Material Culture” and “Thingified Beings or Humanized objects.” International artists explore identity and the body, and the legacy left behind by objects in various light-based and time-based mediums. Kader Attia, an artist based in Algeria and France, put forward a striking silent projection that explores the “restoration” of people (specifically severely wounded World War I soldiers) and mended artifacts from museum archives. The restoration methods between two very different subjects are surprisingly similar, sharing basic cross stitch methods, and once healed, leave noticeable patterns in the visible scar tissue. Across the gallery, Victoria Sin (Toronto/London) showcases a four-part series exploring the art of drag and its role in defining “femme” culture.

Every Room is a Waiting Room Part 1, Bridget Moser.

Stepping off from “Cultural Objects and Material Culture” and “Thingified Beings or Humanized objects,” the exhibition at VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine presents “The Absurd as Counter-Narrative of the Object” and “Still Life in an Age of Environmental Crisis.” Among the nine artists at VOX are Concordia alumni Juan Oritz-Apuy, Bridget Moser, and Elisabeth Belliveau.  

Centred around the idea of the still life, Belliveau’s work addresses consumer society, inviting us to look closely at things and choices. Belliveau Works with installation, found objects (both authentic and replicated), video, and stop motion animation, to depict a feminist means of art making.

By analyzing still lives created by women in the 16th century, this painterly subject, separate from that of the body, invited these women to focus on something domestic and hide their own self-portraits in reflections of the objects on the table. Belliveau, drawing from this, is interested in how things came to the table, making connections to the aestheticization of food in the digital world with the rise of “foodie” accounts on Instagram.

Still Life with Fallen Fruit (after A Breath of Life by Clarice Lispector), Elisabeth Belliveau

Her work at Vox, Still life with Fallen Fruit depicts objects collected upon months spent in Japan. Parallel to traditional bronze casting, Belliveau chose to scan fruit, namely apricots and figs, which had fallen from trees in the Japanese countryside, and 3D print them, thus navigating the ultimate decay of her subject. The other objects in her installation are rich with personal memories, and while they may be mundane, she wishes to emphasize the symbolic meaning behind the objects and not their material value.

Her work permits viewers to slow down, analyzing the material hierarchy of things, questioning economical consequences and validating the breath of life that animates objects in question, real or replicated.

Working in tandem,  Oritz-Apuy’s installation poses a striking take on ideas previously set by Belliveau, contextualized by the absurd and the still life in the Anthropocene. His video collage presents select, existing Youtube unboxing videos, overlapping the language and care used to unwrap various products from their packaging. Oritz-Apuy is fascinated by relationships with commodities and the way in which they may replace relationships with people. His work is self-conscious, critically analyzing the absurdity of this unboxing phenomenon and nonetheless, being completely taken by the beauty of objects. Oritz-Apuy’s installation practice is characterized by a bold, intentional use of colour, painted in stripes on the walls, transforming the initial white cube setting. On a wall opposite of the video collage rest his fetishized objects; monuments stripped from their packaging labels to highlight their form, colour, and contour.

The Garden of Earthly Delights, Juan Ortiz-Apuy.

This year’s Momenta Biennale continues to toy with these ideas of things, stuff and what they reveal about our society and consumer culture. MAKING A RELIGION OUT OF ONE’S LONELINESS, by Canada’s Hannah Doerksen at Centre CLARK continues to use objects, this time embedded with the artist’s personal encounters, are used to create a space of “mystical contemplation.” The idea of the altar, a recurring theme within the Biennale, returns in another form with Celia Perrin Sidarous’s work at the McCord Museum titled The Archivist, which traces museological practices tied to archiving images and objects, resulting in inkjet print montages, a different kind of narrative-embedded still life.

For more information regarding Momenta’s many incredible exhibitions, workshops, talks and other activities read more here. Entrance to these various venues is free until mid-October, and there will be a french guided tour of the Biennale’s exhibitions at the Galeries de Gaspe on Sept. 14 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

 

Photos by Cecilia Piga.

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Creating a new world from found objects

Margot Klingender turns archived material into ethereal sculptures

It is not often that one walks into an art space and experiences a collective feeling as a result of a multiplicity of artworks. Staring at a single work may allow you to feel a certain sentiment, however it is rare for an entire exhibition to leave you feeling like you’ve entered a whole new world.

Montreal-based artist and Concordia graduate student Margot Klingender’s The Key to the Fields accomplishes this feat. 

On view at Projet Pangée, situated in downtown Montreal, the series exhibits the use of symbols, line work, and contrasting textures to explore multiple dualities. A polychromatic sculpture garden fills the room. The pieces, cast in tones of blue, silver, and bronze, and scattered at various heights throughout the gallery, are ethereal.

The space, as a whole, feels very much like stepping into a fantastical children’s novel, wherein the plot takes place in a secret garden.

Klingender, who is currently completing her MFA in Painting and Drawing at Concordia, uses the internet as a starting point for her works. The artist uses found images－collected through archived databases and online forums－and draws repeatedly, both by hand and digitally, to recontextualize the objects.

Composed of contrasting elements－such as opulent colourways and gritty textures, and bronze metal and leather－it uncovers a mysterious side of ubiquitous objects found within the everyday world.

While the objects may have been recognizable and held a particular meaning to the viewer in their original state, once recontextualized, they hold the space to create an individualized personal narrative; creating room for a relationship to form between the art and the observer.

The sculptures’ childlike naïveté, in contrast with the luxurious metallic hues, make for an enchanting encounter. Small tree-like objects in various hues of blue sit on the ground, while other larger objects in tones of white and silver hang from the walls. Bronze-toned sculptures of what appear to be mythological creatures, symbols, and hieroglyphs are scattered throughout the room.

At the furthest end of the space, a large window-shaped piece takes up much of the wall. While windows generally create a boundary between what is inside and what is outside, they also function as a place for the gaze and perception. Much like René Magritte’s 1936 work by the same name as the exhibition, the window piece feels like a portal. By simply looking through, the boundary is crossed, and the observer has the power to see what exists outside of themselves.

While each individual object is a work of art in and of itself, as a group the works allow the viewer to enter a surreal experience. The pieces’ autonomy, in contrast with their collectivity, leave the observer reflecting on these dualities and their omnipresence in everyday life.

The Key to the Fields is on display at Projet Pangee, at 372 Ste-Catherine St. W., Suite 412, until Oct. 19. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday, from 12 to 5 p.m.

 

Photos by Cecilia Piga.

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MUTEK: Future of Immersive Spectacle Panel 2019

Immersive technology, visual art and live music performances under a stratosphere at the SAT for MUTEK. Photo by Sébastien Roy

Video by Calvin Cashen

Feature photo by Sébastien Roy

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What kind of lamp are you?

Sightings project turned personality-type indicator

At the heart of the Hall building mezzanine lives a white cube with transparent walls. This cube, a project by the name of Sightings, is a satellite exhibition space belonging to the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery. 

Projects featured inside the cube change periodically, with its most recent being LAMPS,  the 27th version of Sightings.

Within the cube, several images of different neon-coloured lamps hang. The artist, Karine Cossette, is interested in the effects of consumption, both materially and psychologically. She manifests her research using photography, collection, writing, and graphic design.

Having recently completed an MFA in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM, and holding a BFA in Photography from Concordia University (2011), Cosette’s most recent project studies the lamp in its general form. Cossette identifies four elements that are integral to the system; a lampshade, base, lightbulb and a lighting device. Each element can be one of a couple shapes or colours. In essence, LAMPS is a substitution for the 16 primary personalities within the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

In addition to her photographs, Cossette has provided a quiz viewers may take to further interact with the project. I selected the cone lampshade, circle base, yellow light bulb and ‘day close’ state. This reveals, according to Cosette’s quiz, that I am dynamic, curious, and charming, feel excitement, believe there is a lot I don’t know, and shine in the spotlight.

The idea of creating a quiz surrounding such a common object is interesting alone in itself, as this object, the lamp, can exist in many more variations than those indicated by the artist. But for the sake of her work, I think the quiz can be interpreted as the limited options we are given to ‘be ourselves’ when furnishing our homes. Often times, we settle for items that are not exactly those we initially desired, and end up owning very similar ones instead (see that coffee table from Ikea that everyone has, you know the one.) This item does not represent our individual personalities, but perhaps instead our overall budget need for a coffee table. However, limiting our choices urges us to veer away from our individual desires for the lamp and conforming, instead, to the model of consumption laid out before us.

Cosette’s larger body of work is generated from a manual she created, titled Voir des Choses, or Seeing Things. This manual is comprised of a categorized list of items, like a dictionary.

The expression, ‘to see things’ can have two meanings: figurative, seeing things that are not real and literal, and concrete perception of objects. In her artist statement, Cossette explained that based on her practice of photography, the construction of images reveals objects that can be real, imaginary, or both.

Her lamps, as photographed, are real objects as we perceive them; however the quiz puts forward figurative lamps that represent one’s personality. Participants are then left with a symbol that may or may not be similar to the ones hanging within the cube, and their own personalized definition of their symbol, rather unique to them.

Sightings 27: LAMPS will remain in the Hall mezzanine until Sept 8 and will then be followed by Sightings 28: X ) X + [ ( X ) X { X } X X ] { X } +, an installation and performance-based project centered on violence by Suzanne Kite, PhD candidate at Concordia.

 

 

Take the lamp quiz here and share your results with us on Instagram and Twitter @theconcordian !

 

Photo by Laurence B.D

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How Gallery Parfois is changing the way we think about exhibition spaces

Redefining the white cube through a participatory approach

Walking into the space at Gallery Parfois, an immediate sense of welcomeness is harboured. A plastic rose and a mannequin bust are haphazardly placed on a table, a studio light shining down on them and casting their shadow across the bare wall. Chill, lo-fi music plays in the background, and a lean black cat moseys around the room. Despite how often one may be in gallery spaces, this one does not prompt the frigidity that almost always instantly arises when stepping into the white cube.

Gallery Parfois, an artist-run, do-it-yourself space on St-Laurent Blvd. and Duluth Ave., aims to offer an environment for engagement with art. In this context, do-it-yourself refers to a community-driven initiative that differs from most conventional and commercially-based institutions.

Their Tuesday Night Life Drawing sessions were created to fill a space within the industry.

“Outside of an institutional art school setting, the opportunity to draw a model from life is a rarity,” said Brooke Rutner, the director of Gallery Parfois, which also doubles as her photo studio. “Although there is no instruction during our session, practicing drawing from life is said to be the best way to improve one’s drawing.”

Sessions are held Tuesday evenings, in order to accommodate the large majority of people who hold day jobs, and only cost a small participation fee of $5. However, Rutner disclosed that no one would be turned away for lack of funds.

The sessions, which last approximately two and a half hours, consist of a variety of timed intervals wherein the model changes and holds various poses. First two minutes, then five, then 10, and finally 22 minute intervals. While this is how most life drawing sessions occur in both the educational and artistic milieu, the vibe at Gallery Parfois is much more laid back, and emphasizes the idea of art for pleasure. Some participants use pencils, charcoal, pastels, and even electronic tablets. People join halfway through, and others leave.

The ease and comfort of the space reforms the conventional gallery. The traditional white cube is almost always commercially-based and reliant on exhibiting and, oftentimes, selling art.

“The art that is exhibited in these galleries is art that will most likely appeal to the taste of collectors, aka art that will sell,” said Rutner. Gallery Parfois, on the other hand, focuses on creating an alternative environment for artistic engagement. Exhibitions feature experimental and emerging artists; work that fosters a dialogue or addresses social issues.

“The overall goal of the space is to foster a community of like-minded creatives,” said Rutner.

Gallery Parfois’ approach towards engaging and participating with art redefines who gets to be an artist.

“[There is] an interesting diversity among the regular life drawing participants,” said Rutner. “[They] range from absolute beginners to animation industry professionals.”

The different mediums used by participants and the various levels of their talent remind the artist that there is not one ‘type’ of making, and that the commercialization of art is not the ultimate goal, but rather to foster a sense of community around art-making.

“I do not perceive commercial spaces as being inherently lacking or flawed,” said Rutner. “Despite the obvious barriers to entry, they often achieve what they set out to do. [Being] aligned with such institutions can be an amazing opportunity for an artist. I think it’s important to have many different channels for engaging with and pursuing art.

While traditional gallery spaces aid artists in promoting and commercializing their art, Gallery Parfois aims to offer artists a different experience. This is not to undermine the importance of galleries, but rather to provide different types of opportunities for a greater majority of people with an interest in art-making, and to provide representation for a wider group of artists.

In line with their approach of offering a space for artistic engagement and a sense of community within the industry, Gallery Parfois will be launching a new educational initiative this fall, offering affordable workshops on various topics ranging from grant-writing to bookbinding. Upcoming event info will be posted to the space’s official Facebook page, at Gallery Parfois.

Tuesday night life drawing sessions are held every Tuesday, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Gallery Parfois, at 4064 St-Laurent Blvd. 

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Happening in and around the White Cube this week: Our Happy Life 

In May, after school had ended, I spent my time drawing and listening to podcasts, waiting to leave for my long awaited trip to visit a friend in Vienna. One of the very few times I got out of the house was to see Our Happy Life:  Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). The exhibition has stuck in my mind ever since, and after recently revisiting, I’ve decided this is one of the best shows I’ve seen to date.

Categorized into small segments, the exhibition is concerned with the growing international happiness index and the specific factors that influence it. Ranging from ‘Safety,’ ‘Air Quality,’ and ‘Community Belonging’ to ‘Walking Alone At Night,’ ‘Views’ and ‘WELL™’ the categories, backed up with visual findings, express the ways in which they have had an effect on various lives.

Most notably, the impact of accessible housing and location on the happiness index were exemplified by those living in temporary homes on the site of a volcano in Hawaii. In order to live the lifestyle they desire that fits within their budget, they are fully aware the volcanic grounds they live on could be subject to another disaster at any moment.

The ‘Social Life’ category describes how an apartment complex in Brooklyn Cultural District used the promise of a specific social lifestyle to sell homes by partnering with founder of Rookie Magazine, Tavi Gevinson. Although Gevinson announced her disbandment in June 2018, her contribution to the #ApartmentStories hashtag was significant, and gave those seeking such a lifestyle something to idealize.

But how is this Arts Chloë? The White Cube does not need to contain what we traditionally recognize as arts (painting, drawing, sculpture…) – it can be anything. The answer is in the curation. Our Happy Life presents a research project in the most formidable way. Curated by Francesco Garutti, Irene Chin, and Jacqueline Meyer, and designed by OK-RM (London), the exhibition takes visitors through rooms ranging from white and clinically archival, to yellow and fluffy, and finally through a long, comforting blue corridor. Large images hang on the walls accompanied by texts stating things like “OUR SENTIMENTS HAVE BECOME STATISTICS AND DATA,” and “HAPPINESS RULES ARE DEFINING SPATIAL VALUES.” The exhibition itself is designed and curated in such a way that makes viewers feel happy, despite the topics they confront within.

I left (both times) feeling quite pleased and thinking, “they’re not wrong.”

The exhibition ends by exploring various cities, where Vienna is ranked first in the 2018 Quality of Living Survey, according to Mercer and The Economist.

Our Happy Life remains in the main exhibition hall at the CCA until Oct. 13. 

 

Graphic by Ana Bilokin (Archive) 

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A space for cohabitation

  La Friche explores the duality between human and nature

Large pieces of bubble wrap, scattered still life illustrations of flowers, and a desk clad with a variety of guide books about foraging line the walls at articule, an artist-run centre situated in the Mile End. The space resembles a cross between a research lab and an artist’s workshop.

La Friche, the research-based multimedia project by Montreal-based artist Angela Marsh, aims to establish a relationship between human and nature. Through the collection of found objects and foraged plant fragments, the artist has created tapestries in an effort to reconcile the omnipresent duality between the organic and the manmade.

“[The tapestries] consists of all the little pieces of plants I’ve found in friches, in parking lots, in alleyways, in an effort to create a sort of cohabitation between humans and nature,” said Marsh.

“Friche”, the french word from which stems the title of the project, can be translated roughly to “wasteland.” In this context, Marsh uses it to describe a piece of land which was once inhabited by humans, and has since been abandoned and “colonized” by wild plants.

The tapestries consist of wild plants and seeds which have been sewn into the individual pockets in the bubble wrap. This is meant to serve as a form of protection; a method of preserving the plants from “a tension between the wild plants that are trying to survive, and this human controlled system that is always trying to control them,” according to Marsh.

The work tackles socio-political themes surrounding human desire and control, alongside our relationship with nature and the environment. These notions are explored through themes of preservation, which can be seen through the artist’s archival approach to the project.

“Where is our need to always control our environment and our spaces, and where can that cohabitation happen?” asked Marsh. This is considered through her work, wherein she unites the diversity of plants with her sewing and drawings. What she wanted was to have the two aspects living together. 

Marsh identified over 60 varieties of plants throughout the province, foraging them and drew them from observation. “It’s like having a quest for relationship with each plant, a quest for understanding and intimacy,” said Marsh of her still life sketches. “Each fragment of nature that we draw… it’s like we are creating a dialogue.”

The work demonstrates a cohabitation between the organic and the artificial. The plant fragments and weeds, representing the organic; the bubble wrap and the sewing, representing the artificial. Having the two cohabitate creates a conversation, leaving the viewer to question their roles, both individually and together.

“Botanists call [weeds] resilient plants that are able to survive in disturbed land,” explained Marsh. There was once a time when nature was the main disruptor, but the roles have since reversed. “These plants have adapted, the seeds have stayed dormant for years and when there is a disruption that is when they germinate.”

The act of sewing the seeds into the plastic served as a form of reparative gesture, according to Marsh. To sew is to mend what has been broken. In other words, this action served as a means of repairing, seeking responsibility for damage, and allowing for the possibility of a new life.

“Today it will not be the same piece as it will be tomorrow,” said Marsh. “This doesn’t trouble me at all.” She spoke of the constant state of evolution of her work, explaining that the piece has to obey natural laws. “I can’t impose my natural desire to have it preserved, it’s more nature than culture.”

The project is a work-in-progress, one that the artist aims to expand over the course of the next few years, as she collects field notes, sketches, and knowledge of the various flora that she finds throughout the province, and specifically within urban spaces.

“I see it as a source of hope in this age that we live in that I find is increasingly difficult to make sense of, one where we have all sorts of ecological crisis happening around us,” said Marsh, further explaining her interest in wild plants that are managing to survive within the city space. “They are a symbol of this regenerative capacity to be able to adapt and survive in conditions that are unsurvivable.”

Angela Marsh will continue to develop La Friche over the course of the next five to eight years, in an effort to further understand the evolution of wild plants within the city space in parallel with her work.

 

Photos by Laurence B. D.

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Flora takes over the Plateau Mont Royal

RU: MÉTAFLORE draws creative crowds  

Mount Royal is always bustling with people and last weekend was no different. In addition to the weekly tam-tams on Sundays, shops moved onto the streets under gazebos for an end-of-summer sale. By night, musicians, dancers and visual artists claimed their space on the crowded street. 

RU (Réappropriation Urbaine) is a four-day creative hub connecting artists with the public and reclaiming Mont Royal Ave. for pedestrians. Marking the end of summer, RU is followed by the closure of St. Laurent Blvd. for a very similar family-friendly weekend.

Located in the aire commune between Boyer and Mentana streets, several local artists were grouped together for MÉTAFLORE, a multidisciplinary exhibition set among cargo crates, grassy patches and wooden structures, and also the theme of this year’s fair. Clad in turquoise and shaded by giant green and yellow prisms, the artwork below shared a similar biophilic essence.

Genevieve Dagenais’s fuzzy, pink, sea-cucumber-like sculpture was set in the heart of the  space— flanked on either side by two cargo crates featuring the work of several other artists. On one side, Cesar Cruz-Merino’s bright and bristly sculpture complimented Dagenais’ nicely, and, though smaller, invited onlookers to get much closer. The sculpture, titled Euphoria Gloom, is a carnivorous fruit tree with an appetite for fresh flesh, born from their need for nitrogen, which is essential for the growth of the tree and the production of it’s nitrogen-rich Gloom berries.

Hanging on the crate walls surrounding Euphoria Gloom are a couple photographs from Linda Rutenberg’s series, The Garden at Night, depicting  a variety of plants in ominous dark purple and mauve light.

“The project is a foray into the unknown nocturnal world of flora… I become an explorer and witness as photographer,” said the artist, who has a BFA in film and music and an MFA in Photography from Concordia. Rutenberg, who currently works at Dawson College, frequently leads open photography workshops, encouraging others to become explorers as well. 

At the entrance of the site,  a large metallic prism sits on a bed of grass.

“It is a sculpture that was designed to highlight two stages in the evolution of a modernized lily flower… the root, structured and straight which is the base of its development, and its flamboyant heart in full bloom which brings flexibility and life to the work,” explained Or Luminaria. Through this industrial sculpture, her intention was to become aware of the fragile beauty of our environment.

Among all the artwork being created and exhibited, onlookers were given opportunities to participate in collective murals and theatre performances throughout the weekend.

In an opposite crate, several glass bottles of various shapes and sizes containing obscur colourful liquid lined a white table, facing a video touring Montreal with a twist. Digital sculptures interrupted the urban and earthy scenes, transforming biological matter into the robotic.

These bottles were part of a matching game created by Alix Leclerc. The bottles contain olfactory elixirs that correspond to one of six plants and imaginary animals, archived on the walls of the crate. Visitors are invited to sniff, testing their nose’s ability to identify the scents and match them to the artist’s invented animals.

On Friday night several painters took to working on the streets, creating murals with tempera paint, which is easily washable, in line with the floral theme. Freelance illustrators Maylee Keo and Raphaël Dairon had their work screen-printed on RU tote bags by French artist, Léa Mercante, free of charge. While MU facilitated a participatory mural, inviting onlookers to take part of the action, crowds gathered to watch, dance and lounge on large red bean bags with Belle Guelles, completely inhabiting the Avenue.

RU: MÉTAFLORE took place on Mont-Royal Ave. between St. Laurent Blvd. and D’Iberville St. from Aug. 22 to 25. St. Laurent’s rendition of the street fair,  BLVD – Boulevard Piéton, will be taking from from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 between Sherbrooke St. and Mont-Royal Ave. with numerous games to participate, and free skateboard lessons provided by Empire in celebration of their 20th anniversary.

 

Photos by Chloë Lalonde.

Categories
Arts

Making theatre accessible for all

Autodidactic Concordia Theatre challenges typical structures of theatre through total inclusivity

How can the arts become more accessible? The Autodidacts Concordia Theatre (ACT) club works to remove hierarchy in theatre and prove that it is truly for everyone.

ACT was started in 2016, when a group of students arrived at Concordia, and couldn’t find anything doing what the club hoped to do—provide theatre for all, no experience needed. The founders, Alexander Luiz Cruz, Dexter John Lavery-Callender, Matias Rittatore, and Zoë Bujold, met at Dawson College, where they participated in a project similar to ACT. This provided a safe, comfortable and inclusive space for those who were interested in theatre, but not studying it.

The club provides a space for community and connection, promoting shared passions for theatre, regardless of background or experience. ACT provides an alternative space for people to be creative and perform theatrically, unlike more intensive, hierarchical performance environments. Here, the competitive nature sometimes found in the arts is removed, and everyone is given an equal opportunity to perform and participate.

ACT holds performance workshops the fall semester, and works on a production during winter semester. The group funds itself through CSU grants and by holding events like bake sales, to cover costs of location and materials. Participants, however, are not required to pay to take part in ACT—it is truly open to all. As for ticket sales during the run of the annual show, all proceeds go to the Theresa Foundation, a charity based in Montreal, that supports families of AIDS victims in Mnjale, Malawi.

In the workshops, participants practice a variety of styles and techniques, including improv, scene studies and monologues. In the winter production, auditions are open to the public, and not only for acting roles—the club also auditions for writers, directors and people working behind the scenes.

The club is currently working on their annual winter semester production, Only Human. This is ACT’s biggest production yet. Only Human centers around the character of a former child star, now grown up and hosting a talk show. The show is focused on demonic possession, with three guests sharing their respective, alleged experiences with possession. At its core, as Cruz and Rittatore shared, the play navigates themes of desire and how far one would go to get what they want. This production is more within the genre of horror, rather than the comedies and dramas that the club has presented in the past.

As the founding members and executive team graduate from Concordia in coming years, and move on from ACT, they have hopes for the future of the club. “Essentially, our goal is to create a space for people who don’t necessarily have any experience to try theatre. The club provides some sense of community and some experience,” explained Cruz and Rittatore. The founders want this to remain the core of the club, but also hope that in coming years, ACT will continue to grow, through innovating, pushing and challenging itself within the realm of theatre.

Only Human will be showing from May 1 to 4 at the Mainline Theatre, located at 3997 St. Laurent Blvd. The club is open to the public, and will be hosting workshops in fall 2019. Find out more about the club on their Facebook  group, The ACT Club.

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