Category: Arts

What does art mean, and why should it matter to non-art students?

By Liz Spinozzi, Contributor

I have always been able to draw. As a matter of fact, I have always been able to look at an image and redraw it identically. I recall getting a perfect grade for my replica of Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. For those unfamiliar with this painting, it’s the one where, as hinted in the name, he has his ear freshly cut off and wrapped in an undoubtedly unsanitary bandage framing his face.

Art class was always taken for boosting my grade point average and never for releasing creativity, which I insisted I lacked. That is, until I realized that the art I was making was not raw and unfiltered like the pieces I encountered at the VAV Gallery, during the Sites of Embodied Silence vernissage on March 14.

As one of the ten exhibits in the Art Matters Festival running until March 26, this was my first experience with artwork and artists who create as a need to function in their everyday lives. Berirouche Feddal, one of the artists in the exhibition, said, “I put all of my imagination into artwork as a way of digesting my emotions and facing what I’m going through, show it to the world, then move on.” He added that without this process, he cannot take his mind off his inner turmoil, as “art is liberation.”

I realized that art is a lot more intimate than that, which is not something that can be taught at school.

Being raised by a hockey coach and playing the sport myself, my coping mechanisms fall to competition, so naturally, I could not grasp this level of vulnerability. I also felt the need to specify that I was not an expert as to justify my ‘incorrect’ interpretations.

However, I recall looking at a particular piece and saying, “that’s an image from American Horror Story,” to which someone behind me replied, “exactly, I didn’t think anyone would see that.” That someone was Dougy Herard, the artist.

The artist’s validation stopped my justifying. I did not associate his piece with his original message, which Herard said was to “convey false representation of Haitian culture as the movies and media does.” However, I did become more comfortable vocalizing my interpretation.

 

 

By Zach Lumbroso, Contributor

As an aspiring comedian, I was taught that seeking new ways to trigger your creativity and discover your mind and body is essential to your growth as an actor. This is why I decided to attend and write about Exploring the Intuitive Creative Process, led by Jacqueline Van de Geer in collaboration with the Art Souterrain and Art Matters festivals on March 16.

When I told Van de Geer that I was writing this piece from the point of view of a non-artist, she answered by quoting German artist Joseph Beuys, “Everyone is an artist.” It is a concept that she lives by: “There is inspiration and creation in everybody.”

The four hour workshop first asked participants to explore their impulses through instinctive movement. This wasn’t anything new to me, as it is most of what I do in my elective theater classes at Concordia… something I usually find quite boring. Only this time, there was one significant difference, I was surrounded by artists. As formerly overweight, I’m still not completely comfortable with my image and work involving the body is super intimidating and challenging for me.

Van de Geer began by saying that this initiative was “to offer an afternoon where the brain is kind off and less important for a change.” After the movement work, she proceeded to a creative writing exercise where she would give us the beginning of a sentence that we would then have to finish, spontaneously. The journalism student in me could not conceive how one could write anything without thinking it through.

As the workshop proceeded, I realized that again, no one was grading me. I was able to give in, particularly in the creative writing portion where I was pleased to see that I could rise to the occasion. A difference remained, however—the other artists seemed to be at ease with showcasing their restless imaginations.

I learned, throughout this event, that art can be as simple as reproducing an image with a pencil. But it is also much more. Art is introspection, as Van de Geer described herself, “It’s a way to discover yourself, your impulses, and your instincts. It aims at opening people’s minds to themselves and others and encourages difference.”

Van de Geer despises a very “result-processed” approach of art. During the workshop, she quoted composer Erik Satie, “All great artists are amateurs.” An amateur is someone who does art or anything else simply for the love of it, which is what makes them so good at it, she explained.

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We believe if more people attempted to understand the deeper meaning of art, or just allowed themselves to be vulnerable and speak without fear of judgement, amateurs like us would not have to question, “does art matter?” It does, plain and simple.

 

Graphic by @sundaemorningcoffee

FIFA Experimental displayed a wide variety of artistic short and feature films

Concordia University has been contributing to one of the most creative aspects of FIFA (Festival International des Films sur l’Art) for years now. Its FIFA Expérimental portion, dedicated to experimental films of all kinds, was held on campus at the J.A. de Sève Cinema, between March 23 and 24.

Nicole Gingras, the programming director of FIFA Expérimental, said the 37th edition of the event “rendered the materiality of images and the ephemeral nature of shared experiences.”

Those elements could be appreciated in the entire two-day selection, but most notably in the program From eye to ear, on Saturday night. The program’s six films either showed the aesthetic effects of the physical manipulation of the filmstrip itself, or deconstructed the viewer’s perception of the materiality of the images before us.

Louise Bourque and Guillaume Vallée, both Canadian experimental film directors who had contributed to each other’s projects, were present at the theatre to discuss their works with the public.

Bourque, a veteran of the experimental film scene in Canada, presented her most recent project, Bye Bye Now. The artist used old black and white photos of her father who had just passed away and brought life to them with sound and colour, giving texture to the film and animating her family history. It emphasized how images can be associated with vivid memories, as if sometimes the photos’ subjects were interacting with the viewer directly.

Also related to family, was Vallée’s mesmerizing Le dernier jour du papillon lune, narrated by his young son, William. The voice of the infant raising questions about death and the meaning of life accompanied the colourful images of a butterfly’s life. Vallée, who studied animation and studio arts at Concordia, said he became inspired by a visit to the Butterflies Go Free exhibition at the Montreal Botanical Garden with his son. That’s where he saw a luna moth, or papillon lune, and wanted to capture it for a movie. “I learned that the luna moth only lives as a butterfly for one day,“ he said. “It inspired me.” The moth then became a metaphor to illustrate his son’s growing insecurities about life and death. “I used 72 photograms and manipulated them, changed their form, their colour,” Vallée added. The butterfly’s constantly changing colour and textures made some of the most beautiful images of the program.

The last guest to be featured that night was Kim Kielhofner, a video, drawing and collage artist from Montreal. She presented the longest film of her career, Whose Language You Don’t Understand, which lasted 62 minutes. It was the only feature film of the program. Kielhofner took the public on an eclectic journey as she narrated her thoughts about language, images, and representation, referencing the book of the same title by Austrian writer Marianne Fritz. She divided her film into 12 sections, based on the 12 sections of the book. Extremely intellectual, the sometimes repetitive and monotone narration, serving the purpose of recontextualizing the book’s ideas, lost some of the audience. Nonetheless, it brilliantly demonstrated the artist’s collage talents and called for an interesting discussion on the limits of language.

Gingras, who teaches in the studio arts department at Concordia, has greatly contributed to the evolution of FIFA Expérimental since she started working at the festival in 2003. Encompassing many techniques, styles and subjects, the selection aims to showcase “works by Québécois, Canadian and international artists, presented in cinemas, but also in exhibition contexts,” she said.

“For every edition of the festival, I also want to highlight the work of one artist, by creating a monographic program specifically for them,” Gingras said. “This year, I wanted to focus on Belgian artist Anouk De Clercq, because her oeuvre touches on architecture, animation, weightlessness, memory, and luminous phenomena, all of that in black and white.”

Many of the experimental films De Clercq had been making since the 1990’s were shown at the J.A. de Sève Cinema prior to From Eye to Ear.

“If I look at the quality of the interactions between the artists and the audience at the screenings, the reception has been very good,” said Gingras, regarding her impressions of the weekend.

“[During the festival], the J.A de Sève Cinema of Concordia offers a diversity of experiences, physical and poetic, and the projectionists who work there are conscious of that,” Gingras added. “The FIFA Expérimental screenings only being held in a few consecutive days in the same room, it creates a sort of microcosm, ideal for meetings and exchanges between the artists and the public.”

As the biggest experimental film event in Montreal, FIFA Expérimental is a unique feature, allowing the public to connect with exclusive and beautiful works. To learn more about FIFA, visit their website: artfifa.com.

Clean Slate shared the significance of support through the complexities of life

Following a close group of six women as they experience one incredibly significant night together, Clean Slate, a play shown at LaChapelle from March 18 to 30, navigated friendship, love, sex, life and death. The Talisman Theatre’s production took the viewer through an emotional journey, witnessing the love and intensity of emotion present in female friendships, and how the women journey through the constant complexities of life.

Clean Slate was written by Catherine Chabot, translated from French to English by Jennie Herbin, and directed by Leslie Baker (a part-time professor in Concordia’s theatre program). Baker incorporated corporeal, visual and aural components within her performances. She chose a physical approach, playing with improvisation and using viewpoints, a technique which focuses on characters’ reactions to one another. This shone through in how the characters interact with one another physically, being seen in several moments of dance, moving in unison with one another.

The six central characters are close friends on stage, and in real life. Played by Gita Miller, Julie Trepanier, Rebecca Gibian, and Concordia alumnis Cleopatra Boudreau, Michelle Langlois-Fequet, and Kathleen Stavert, their characters’ challenged each other, displaying a strong connection and history of their shared pasts.

The relatability of the storyline and the characters’ relationships with one another was contrasted with aspects of surrealism within the production. Other details, such as the set design and lighting, played into this. The design for the stage was minimalist and futuristic; the lighting and use of technical props added to a subtle level of uncertainty as the story progressed and eventually reached its resolution.

As the story progressed through topics of birth, life, sex and death. Serious discussions related to the body, as part of the women’s constant dialogue with each other, included talks of illness and eating disorders, and brought the focus back to the physicality of the self. The concept of the body, it’s autonomy (or lack thereof) appeared as a thematic detail, a central theme throughout the production.

As the women related their lives and experiences, sharing their emotions with one another, the characters attempted to control their respective emotions, and how those emotions affected their lives. They also tried to control one another, fighting over opinions and actions, contemplating how their time together should be spent.

The show, despite having unrealistic elements in certain details, held a relatability in its core, allowing the viewer to see themselves in the positions of the characters, and empathize with their journeys and emotions.