As part of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) DisOrientation series, the Slāv Resistance Collective will be discussing the cancellation of Slāv, created and produced by Betty Bonifassi and Robert Lepage. The theatre production was cancelled in June in response to the demands of protestors and critics, who argued that Slāv was created out of cultural appropriation. The discussion will expand on why the show was cancelled, what it meant for the production team and what can be done to avoid similar instances in the future.
When: Tuesday, Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m.
Where: QPIRG-Concordia, 2100 Guy St., Suite 204
Admission is free.
CULTURE
TOPO, a digital arts and technology laboratory in the Plateau, will be showcasing the work of art duo Et tu, Machine in their vitrine until Oct. 13. CULTURE celebrates the legalisation of the recreational use of cannabis and aims to foster a discussion about the social stigma surrounding cannabis use. According to TOPO, “Et tu, Machine is concerned about the opportunism of corporate production and distribution companies in collisions with the state.”
When: Now until Oct. 13
Where: TOPO, 5445 Gaspé Ave., Suite 107-B
Admission is free.
Darling
Toronto artists Keight MacLean and Moira Ness combine their interdisciplinary backgrounds in Darling. MacLean’s modern take on historical portraiture is juxtaposed with Ness’s handwritten text to express notions of love, loss and longing.
When: Now until Oct. 14
Where: BBAM! Gallery, 808 Atwater Ave.
Admission is free.
What we all knew but couldn’t articulate
Featuring Marcela Armas, Daniel Monroy Cuevas, Lorena Mal, Armando Rosales,
and Rogelio Sosa, What we all knew but couldn’t articulate marks the closing of a year-long curatorial internship between the FOFA Gallery and SOMA México. The project aimed to foster cultural exchange between Mexico City and Montreal, and the exhibition showcases the engaging artworks of the five artists that explore this [lack of] connection. According to FOFA, “What we all knew but couldn’t articulate seeks to bridge the space between the gallery, the university, and the city, while also weaving connections and blurring the boundaries between Mexico, Canada, and the neighbour these two political entities share.”
New release falls short, despite stellar performances by Matthew McConaughey and Richie Merritt
White Boy Rick, a riveting film set in 1980s Detroit, is stylized and well-acted, but was dampened by its uneven pacing and convoluted storyline.
WhiteBoyRick tells the true story of Richard “Rick” Wershe Jr., a 14-year-old FBI informant-turned-drug dealer. Rick, played by newcomer Richie Merritt, lives in a completely dysfunctional family. His father, Richard Wershe Sr. (played by Matthew McConaughey), is an arms dealer who dreams of opening a video store; his sister (played by Bel Powley) wrestles with drug addiction. Rick is no stranger to crime, so the FBI decides to use him as an informant in their war on drugs. With such a premise, things can only go wrong—and boy do they.
What really makes the film is its colourful main characters. For one, Rick’s father is completely erratic. Less than five minutes into the movie, he chases his daughter’s boyfriend at gunpoint while fighting with his parents who live across the street. However, there is nuance to his character. Yes, he sells guns out of the trunk of his car, but Wershe Sr. isn’t just another lowly outlaw. He does what he does so his children can have a better life than he did. He is a father first, a hustler second. McConaughey is perfect for the role. Rocking a mullet, he impeccably juggles the comical dialogue and emotional scenes.
Wershe Sr.’s son and the titular character is just as interesting. Rick tackles everything that life throws at him head-on and with the nonchalant confidence—or stupidity, depending on who you ask—of a teenager who’s on top of his world. Merritt delivers a compelling first performance. He matches McConaughey in some hilarious back-and-forth dialogue which is no easy feat.
Max Richter’s soundtrack is also worth mentioning. The music—or lack thereof in some dramatic scenes—really helps set the atmosphere and compliments whatever is on screen.
Where the movie ultimately falls short is in its screenplay. The film is dense, too dense. There are so many things happening that the story becomes too convoluted for its own good. The audience doesn’t have time to truly appreciate an event before it’s on to the next act. This problem may stem from the fact that the story is about true events, limiting the director’s choice.
Regardless, the movie ends up seeming more like a succession of events rather than a testament to the intricate storyline. Everything happens too quickly; the audience doesn’t have the chance to get invested in the story. Overall, the movie is entertaining, but it fails to really connect with the viewer.
In the end, White Boy Rick is perhaps a bit too ambitious in terms of what it can cram into its runtime, but the performances and aesthetics make it worth the asking price. It balances humour and drama, and it makes for a good time at the theatre.
White Boy Rick is currently screening at the Cineplex Odeon Forum and other select theatres.
Kiernander curates his exhibitions so no two are ever alike.
Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
“When a collapse opens a new direction”
Trevor Kiernander has studied art his whole life.
“I’ve always been hungry for drawing,” he said when describing his background in painting and drawing. At a young age, Kiernander’s parents picked up on his artistic talent and enrolled him in a specialized fine arts program. Since then, he has dabbled in figurative realism, photography and, now, abstraction.
Each of the artist’s solo exhibitions are specially curated to the gallery space he is showing in. InFreeFall is no different. Exhibited at the Maison de la Culture in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Kiernander’s paintings are not only hung in such a way as to be read cohesively throughout the room, but also to encourage mixed perceptions. This style is very different from the traditional, horizontal placement of paintings and drawings in art galleries.
The artwork in InFreeFall spreads across the gallery’s walls, taking up space that may be otherwise overlooked. Small panels painted in flat, primary and secondary colours—pieces Kiernander classifies as supplementary to his body of work rather than part of it—hang between larger paintings, creating a dialogue between seemingly unrelated pieces. However, all of the artist’s paintings are related to others. In fact, Kiernander often works on several pieces at the same time. He hangs the paintings side by side in his studio and works across both canvases, often juxtaposing raw canvas and linen. When he encounters a creative block, he’ll take the paintings down and work on others in the meantime.
Photographing his surroundings is essential to Kiernander’s body of work. Here, Trevor takes a quick snap of the corner of the gallery, interested in how the light affected the mood of the paintings there.
Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
When A Collapse Opens A New Direction (left), The Stranger (middle) and The Subtle Escape (right).
Paintings by Trevor Kiernander
Photos by Mackenzie Lad
Small panels painted in flat, primary and secondary colours—pieces Kiernander classifies as supplementary to his body of work rather than part of it—hang between larger paintings, creating a dialogue between seemingly unrelated pieces.
Paintings by Trevor Kiernander.
Photos b Mackenzie Lad.
The Edge of the Map, Oil, acrylic, oil pastel, and chalk pastel, on canvas and linen.
Painting by Trevor Kiernander.
Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
At times, Kiernander will return to these paintings he took down to find he has finished them—he just didn’t know it yet.
Some pieces began as photographs and have since been abstracted to minimum recognition. Photographing his surroundings is essential to Kiernander’s body of work. The act of taking a photograph captures an image in the artist’s mind, that fades over time and allows him to break away from realism and introduce alien textures and colours.
The artist’s final product has travelled through time and space. Interested in the formal and material aspects of painting, Kiernander flips and rotates his canvases to achieve his desired forms and to unite lines and colours throughout a series.
His underpaintings may not take up the entire canvas, but are crucial to the mapping of the final product.
There is a duality within his paintings. The artist layers coats of oil paint in various degrees of opacity to suggest depth, often overlapping these methods to create a unique image. He is interested by the unpredictability of a watery paint, yet often finds himself painting in controlled, intuitive strokes. Nonetheless, Kiernander enjoys the lack of control he has over these elements. A watery paint will spill and bleed on raw canvas in ways paint straight from a tube would not.
The artist’s paintings are unique to each exhibition. In March, Kiernander will have completed a new batch of work prepared for another solo exhibition at the Outremont Art Gallery. In Free Fall will be at Maison de la Culture in N.D.G. until Oct. 21.
Find WE ARE WHERE | WHERE ARE WE on the corner of St-André and Généreux Sts. on display until Sept. 14.
Photo courtesy of FEAT Management
How two art curators showcased three artists’ work in a garage
On the corner of St-André and Genereux Sts., just off the graffiti-filled Mont-Royal Ave., you will find FEAT Management’s latest art exhibit, WE ARE WHERE | WHERE ARE WE, set up in a garage.
FEAT, short for Featuring Emerging Artists Today, is a Montreal-based brother-sister artistic partnership, aiming to broaden people’s horizons and cast light on hidden artists by curating and showcasing their work.
Rafaël and Max Hart-Barnwell are both Concordia alumni. Rafaël graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s in communications, and Max majored in photography. They have been working together since July 2017.
As Max likes to put it, FEAT combines his eye for art and Rafaël’s social skills.
“I wasn’t showing my art to a lot of people. I wasn’t being outgoing with my art. I wasn’t really applying to art galleries,” he said. “My sister was like, ‘Oh you have this beautiful studio in Little Italy, let’s convert it into a gallery and invite all of our friends and see what happens.’”
FEAT does not limit itself to the generic white-wall gallery, and prides itself on using all the nooks and crannies Montreal has to offer—be it boroughs, restaurants or, as with their latest exposition, garages.
The siblings’ relationships with artists rely on mutual understanding. Their main objective is always to showcase an artist’s work and get their names out into the world, which is something that also helped broaden the Hart-Barnwells’ own horizons.
“Once you start scratching beneath the surface” Max said, “you start to realize that there is so much hidden talent in Montreal.”
In their latest exhibition, the hidden talent is that of Concordia fine arts graduates Alex Coma and Justine Skahan, as well as Université de Montréal student Guillaume Huguet.
The exhibit is eclectic and engaging, mixing three artists’ work together rather than devoting different spaces to each of them. Small, grey and some would even say a tad rusty, the garage was deemed perfect by the curators.
“We were looking for something grungy to work with the art,” Max explained, “and the garage worked great. There’s no limitations or profiles. Any kind of environment could be a potentially good show for us.”
FEAT ‘s website described WE ARE WHERE | WHERE ARE WE as an art exhibit showcasing “constructed realities,” and human beings’ desire to identify with others and everything around them.
The Hart-Barnwells were seeking artworks that reflected liminal spaces, Skahan said, which was in line with her recent collection of work.
Justine Skahan’s paintings are interested in domestic space and the way in which people construct themselves through it. Photo courtesy of FEAT Management
Skahan’s work is quite varied. As she is very interested in domestic spaces and suburbia, as well as the way people construct themselves through these aspects of society. Her paintings depict muted close-ups of plants and grass, among other suburban elements. Her art obviously compliments Rafaël and Max’s aim in their exhibit, touching upon constructed realities. WE ARE WHERE | WHERE ARE WE is her first Montreal show of the year.
“Group shows take pressure off of you,” she said. “Normally, the work is curated by someone else, and it could be good and bad.”
She compared the vernissage jitters at a solo exhibit to the anxiety a person might feel at their birthday party when they’re not really sure how many people will turn up. She said the pressure is relieved when it’s a group show, however, because you can count on other artists to bring in people in case your entourage doesn’t make it.
Coma is yet another artist the Hart-Barnwell duo believed fit their theme quite well after seeing his collection titled Wormhole, otherwise known as the theoretical passage through space and time.
“Wormholes are created on a daily in our everyday lives from Earth to space or another planet or anywhere you want in the universe,” Coma explained. “I want people to feel transported. My paintings are very symmetrical, so it allows the viewer to project himself into the space I drew.” Coma is a Concordia alumni as well, having majored in photography.
“My photography is the basis of all my paintings so far. I used them to make a sort of collage on my canvas” he said. “A painting of mine can be a mix of several pictures I took. The tree I painted is on a different photograph than the house that’s next to it. But the more I paint, the more I can start using my own imagination to move away from relying on my photographs.”
Coma has an upcoming solo exhibit on Sept. 26 at Le Livart Gallery on St-Denis St.
In his Wormhole series, Alex Coma paints elements from several photographs on one canvas. Photos courtesy of FEAT Management
Contrary to Coma and Skahan’s more landscape-oriented, dark-coloured works, Huguet’s work is a series of colourful portraits.
Mathematics student Guillaume Huguet paints lively portraits using paint and oil pastel. Kau (left) and Anna (right). Photo courtesy of FEAT Management
French-born Huguet does not have an artistic background, as he is currently finishing up a master’s in mathematics in the Université de Montréal. His artworks, however, do not disappoint.
He focuses mainly on the relationships between human beings and the tension that comes with it. Although not detailed and mostly relying on distinctive brushstrokes, the burst of colour is a refreshing contrast to Coma and Skahan’s dark colour palettes.
“I like Guillaume’s portraits,” Max said. “The use of colours, and also the rough lining, it compliments others’ detailed works. We mixed the canvases together rather than make it seem like one corner is Justine’s, the other is Guillaume and that one’s Alex’s, because each one of them could influence the other and tell a beautiful narrative.”
WE ARE WHERE | WHERE ARE WE will be on display until Sept. 14 on the corner of St-André and Généreux Sts.
Thomas Hamlyn's work sat on the floor in the middle of the VAV Gallery during Smelted.
Photo by Hannah Ewen.
Smelted: An exploration of oneself
To cap off Smelted, VAV’s most recent student-run exhibition, some of the artists spoke about their pieces and the mediums they used to showcase their quest for identity.
The 11 students selected for this exhibition used funky materials such as terracotta, sofa cushions and even candy to express aspects of their individual identities. Using media ranging from acrylic and oil paint to woodworking and photography, the artists explored themes related to materialism, health and sexuality.
Alicia Turgeon designed a flexible, ergonomic table and chair. Photo by Hannah Ewen.
For Alicia Turgeon, a former industrial design student, her quest meant working on her cognitive and sensory particularities by making ergonomic furniture. After 20 tests and three prototypes, she presented Prompt01-02, a wooden chair and coffee table with flexible features.
“To me, this piece was all about showing the process,” Turgeon said. The result is not final, but the chair embodies her idea. “I am still working on finding a way so that someone can actually sit on it.”
Isaac Smeele’s work explores breeding and consumerism. He presented Candyland, a textured, colourful portrait of a teddy bear made of candy, moss and garbage.
Isaac Smeele’s Candyland explores breeding and consumerism. Photo by Hannah Ewen
Since Smeele selected items that decompose, he used large amounts of acrylic to exemplify and capture the hoarding of things. With the acrylic used to set the piece, he estimated it will stay intact for 10 years.
Family also played an important role in Smeele’s personal evolution. “I wanted to show something about how we tend to sugarcoat the hardest parts of ourselves,” he said. “As a father now, I realize the parts of myself that I need to work on.”
On the other hand, Meghan O’Kill-Dearden presented Things I like to Collect, an assemblage of meaningful objects she has accumulated over time. She recreated purses and bags with terracotta, glazes and epoxy. She also integrated elements that were intact such as dried flowers and fruit pits.
“I wanted to show how collecting objects can comfort me,” O’Kill-Dearden said. “[My work] questions their functionality and the enjoyment of these objects.”
Matieu Marin’s photographs explore chronic illness and the impact of medicine on his body. Photo by Hannah Ewen.
All the pieces in the exhibition show some sort of internal reflection and questioning. Some do so with a lighter tone, and others with a darker approach, such as Matthieu Marin’s work. For him, that self-reflection happened using a self-portrait made with a digital camera. He examined his chronic illness and the impact of medicine on his body through photography. In the two pictures he presented, Marin is naked and uses motion blur (with the movement of his arm) to demonstrate the impact of medicine on his body.
“I wanted to show what it means to embody a sick body,” Marin said.
Smelted gave viewers intimate access to the artists’ personal introspection. It immersed the viewer in a world where they found themselves contemplating and questioning their ideas of identity. The exhibition successfully showcased vulnerability, uncertainty and, for some of the artists, finding purpose.
The VAV Gallery holds exhibitions every three weeks and will be accepting submissions for their fall programming until Sept. 14, including their special Black History Month in November exhibition. All submitting artists must be enrolled in at least one fine arts course during the 2018-19 academic year. More information can be found on their website: vavgallery.concordia.ca.
World Press Photo is back in Montreal for its 13th annual exhibition
Nestled in the heart of Old Montreal is a small window into the whole world; one minute you’re gazing down a tree-lined promenade of the Old Port and the next you find yourself confronted with the mountains of garbage piling up on the shores of New York City, Japan and the Netherlands.
The World Press Photo exhibition has a unique way of making the viewer look far beyond their immediate surroundings and into the intimate lives of others. This year, the travelling exhibition returns to Montreal for its 13th edition, showcasing the best documentary photography from around the world under one roof.
Yi Wen Hsia, the exhibition’s manager and curator at World Press Photo, said the contest is one-of-a kind, both in the scope of its subject matter and its reach as an internationally touring exhibition.
“This year, we received over 73,000 images from more than 4,000 photographers from many different countries,” she said. The photos are viewed by an independent jury of photographers, editors and other experts before being narrowed down to first, second and third place winners in each of the eight categories. “We always strive to reflect what is happening in the industry; we saw that the environment and the issue of sustainability is one that has become more and more prominent,” said Hsia of the newly added Environment category.
The World Press Photo exhibition returns to Montreal, showcasing the best documentary photography from around the world. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Present among the winning photographs are recurrent themes pulled from international news headlines over the past year and captured through multiple lenses. Images of right-wing extremism in the United States—including the widely circulated image of the car that drove into a crowd of protestors killing one woman in Charlottesville, Va.,—hang adjacent to photos of riots in Venezuela and a series about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“Another major topic that we saw was the issue of the Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh,” Hsia said. “We have a couple of winners this year dedicated to that topic.” She said this may prevent the touring exhibition from entering Burma due to the heightened political tensions and the government’s refusal to officially recognize the Rohingya as its citizens.
Regardless of the topic, each winning photo shares what is arguably the most important element of documentary photography: a powerful story. According to Hsia, the story behind the image and the context in which it is taken is a significant factor in the selection process.
“We want viewers to have a deeper understanding,” she said, after describing one photographer’s brush with death in the midst of a protest and another’s decade-long commitment to her subjects. This “deeper understanding” lies at the heart of World Press Photo’s mission to give time and space to important visual stories that will resonate with audiences in a world so oversaturated with disposable images.
Anna Boyiazis’ Finding Freedom in the Water, depicts a group of young girls learning how to swim for the first time. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Anna Boyiazis is one of this year’s winning photographers with a story that began long before capturing the images that won her second place in the People category. Her series, Finding Freedom in the Water, depicts a group of young girls clad head to toe in modest swimwear, learning how to swim for the first time off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania in East Africa.
“I had visited the island before, and I was told girls don’t swim. To which I replied, ‘This one does.’
I was being told what I was doing was inappropriate,” Boyiazis said. Time passed, but the experience resonated with her. “Once the idea was planted, it just blossomed as a perfect merging of my interest in humans rights, public health and women’s and girls’ issues.”
Upon learning that an organization called Panje Project was finally providing an aquatic education opportunity to local girls, Boyiazis jumped into action. She reached out to Panje Project asking to come document the organization’s work but received no response. After weeks of waiting, Boyiazis wasn’t ready to give up, so she boarded a plane to Tanzania.
“It was the best way to present my idea face-to-face. After that, it took two months for the idea to be presented to all of the teachers, parents, community leaders and elders to make sure they were comfortable with their girls being photographed,” she recalled. But it didn’t end there.
“After access was secured, I spent two weeks teaching the instructors English and an additional week in the water without my camera.”
Finally, after months of anticipation and preparation, Boyiazis stood waist-deep in brilliant aqua blue water watching young girls leave their conservative cultural restrictions ashore and experience the euphoria of floating for the first time.
Though the majority of her time was spent without a camera in hand, Boyiazis noted that the level of trust established over the course of the project allowed the subjects to be vulnerable with her. This sense of intimacy is reflected in her series of photographs.
“I think after a while of all that, the preconceived ideas that I had needed to be discarded, because I have to be true to the story that is right in front of me,” Boyiazis said. “If I’m looking for all of those other things, I might miss what’s actually going on.”
When asked if she approached her work with a journalist’s consideration for a story or an artist’s eye for aesthetics, Boyiazis didn’t miss a beat. “Emotion. Heart,” she responded.
The age-old saying “good things come to those who wait” is entirely appropriate here and for most of the award-winning photographs that line the walls of the World Press Photo exhibition.
There is something to be said for an extraordinary stroke of luck that creates a striking photograph. For Boyiazis, though, a real connection between the photographer and the story is more than a guiding principle of documentary photography; it is the philosophy of her practice.
“Do stories that matter to you, and don’t care if anyone might not be interested,” Boyiazis said. “I mean, it makes me want to cry; I didn’t think anyone would ever resonate with this. But here it is.”
The 13th annual World Press Photo exhibition runs from Aug. 29 to Sept. 30 at 325 Rue de la Commune E. The exhibition is open seven days a week, and students get a discount on admission prices.
Surfaces will be on display at the Promenade des Artistes in the Quartier des Spectacles until Oct. 28. The exhibition is outdoors and open to the public.
Photo by Mackenzie Lad.
Redefining Montreal’s urban landscape in Surfaces
Montreal is alive with street art, from huge murals and intricate details, to vibrant colours and distinct graffiti. In artworks across the city, there is a re-understanding of the landscape and surrounding environment. Traditional ways of viewing and accessing art are challenged.
Surfaces, on display from Aug. 23 to Oct. 28 at the Promenade des Artistes in Quartier des Spectacles, is a multidisciplinary urban exhibition showcasing works
from some of Montreal’s most successful street artists. Displaying 14 works by 16 artists and collectives—including Miss Me, Omen, Zek One and Shalak Attack—the exhibition features distinctive and varied works.
The exhibition’s pieces are primarily displayed on large, individual panels, paired with signs that provide information about the respective artists and their practices. Two sculptural works are also displayed; one made of individually detailed concrete cubes and the other is a car, decorated with writing. There is diversity and variety in the distinct style of each artist, which showcases the versatility of the street art format and provides something for every viewer.
Miss Me, a prominent figure in Montreal’s urban art scene, is known for her explicitly political and feminist art. At Surfaces, the artist’s panel consists of five mostly nude female figures, all with their faces covered by a ski mask with cartoon-style mouse ears. The bodies are adorned with drawings and statements, including “IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU” and “Stop blaming women for the misbehaviours of men.”
Cedar Eve is an Anishinaabe artist and a Concordia fine arts alumna, having graduated in 2012. Her piece in Surfaces depicts brightly coloured, surrealist figures in spaces of transformation and metamorphosis. The work is connected to her First Nations identity and is inspired by stories shared with her as a child.
In the case of both these artists, the political and the personal are explored and shared through their work. Taking up space in a city and displaying these powerful messages is also arguably a political move.
Accessibility is a regularly discussed and dissected issue within the art world. Who can access art? How does privilege and class influence accessibility? Institutions, such as art galleries and museums, often appear as exclusive spaces for select communities, and are not always physically accessible for all. Further boundaries can be found in the realms of academia. Art is often not accessible in this way either, as many viewers often feel discouraged by the potential condescension within the artistic community.
Street art explores and challenges these questions and the normative institutions of viewing art. Painting on structures and areas within the city also fights the concept of ownership and select viewing, heightening accessibility for all. This aspect was clearly considered by the curators of Surfaces, who aptly display the 16 works in a public, outdoor space rather than inside a gallery.
Surfaces will be on display at the Promenade des Artistes in the Quartier des Spectacles until Oct. 28. The exhibition is outdoors and open to the public.
From Sept. 3 to 9, Ladyfest will highlight female, femme-identifying and non-binary comedians across Montreal. For more details on showtimes and locations, go to www.facebook.com/ladyfestMTL/.
Graphic by Ana Bilokin.
“One love, no jerks”
Comedy is an art, one that LadyFest has been highlighting through the performances of female, femme-identifying and non-binary comedians for four years.
Co-producers Emma Wilkie, Sara Meleika, Lar Simms and Deirdre Trudeau created the festival to give comedians like Stacy Gagnidze the platform they need to share their funniest selves with the world. The festival includes a wide range of talent, from stand-up and storytelling, to improv and sketch comedy.
Gagnidze is a Concordia alumna from the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) and has been a comedian since she was a teenager. Today, she performs with Mess Hall and Colour Outside the Lines. Mess Hall, an impov-based comedy club, is dedicated to performing the Harold structure known for its specific and difficult format. The Harold structure consists of three unrelated, yet overlapping scenes and typically lasts between 25 and 40 minutes. Colour Outside the Lines is an improv team that’s all about diversity and uplifting voices from different racial, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. Gagnidze has also performed at Just For Laughs, and she identified the difference between the two festivals in their creative mission. LadyFest was created with a social mission, to uplift women’s voices in comedy, while Just for Laughs is just what the name suggests.
“Today, Just For Laughs is playing catch-up in this space,” she said. “LadyFest audiences who attend have made a conscious decision to come out and support female and female-identifying performers. As a performer, this offers me a safe space onstage where I can take risks and explore boundaries.”
LadyFest co-producer, Lar Simms also broke into comedy as a teenager in Winnipeg, taking improv classes and performing in plays. “When I moved to Montreal, taking improv classes at Montreal Improv in 2012 really helped me to build confidence and trust my comedic sensibilities, as well as develop a sense of group mind when collaborating with the imaginations of others,” Simms said.
Since then, she has added stand-up, sketch, clown, and other character performances to her theatre background.
“Performing, speaking your truth onstage or just being absurdly silly and having that resonate with a large crowd can be an empowering experience,”
she said, for both the audience and the performer. According to Simms, collective laughter can be cathartic and healing, making it important to strive for the space to do so, especially in an industry where comics have long been underrepresented in local and mainstream comedy.
That being so, attending comedy shows that are increasingly accessible to these kinds of audiences encourages funding for the creation and development of such spaces. A personal blog post by award winning stand-up comic, actor and writer, Sandra Battaglini, criticizes Canada for hosting Just For Laughs, the world’s largest comedy festival, when the Canadian Council for the Arts still refuses to fund stand-up because it is recognized as entertainment, rather than art.
“We create art by stringing together words in such a way that culminates in laughter,” Battaglini writes. “It releases so many endorphins, you could say it saves lives. It certainly saved mine.”
Gagnidze will be performing with Colour Outside the Lines at Théâtre Ste-Catherine on Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. The troupe will be sharing the stage with Yas Kween, an ensemble of women of colour brought together by Nelu Handa, who stars on CBC’s Workin’ Moms.
Discover the ebb and flow of the everyday reflected in Resonance
Resonance dove into the depths of its artists’ identities so profoundly, it encouraged further exploration. Being Concordia’s Visual Arts Visuels (VAV) gallery’s last summer show, ending Aug. 17, the exhibition showcased the work of 10 student artists including Carlo Polidoro Lopez, Dexter Barker-Glenn, Tina Lê and The Concordian’s own Mackenzie Lad.
A highlight of the exhibition was a speaker event, Voiceless Utterance, presented by artist and researcher-in-resident Chelsy Monie of Concordia’s Ethnocultural Art Histories Research (EAHR) group. Monie brought together four contemporary African artists and curators to speak about their work in ways Western institutions neglect to.
EAHR’s research residency, Diversifying Academia, was established last year by Kim Glassman in collaboration with the Concordia Library. The residency gave Monie a chance to bring her research and photographs to life by exploring how African art is placed in Euro-American institutions as an object of consumption rather than for critical engagement.
The visual segment of Voiceless Utterance, which is comprised of nude, intimate photographs of several women of colour, is now installed on the second floor of the EV building in the vitrine display where it will remain for a few months.
The gallery was filled with listeners during Chelsy Monie’s presentation of Voiceless Utterance. Photo courtesy of VAV Gallery.
“While both the visual series and speaker event can live without the other,” Monie explained, “together they are able to pinpoint the problem with many institutions today and provide a solution as well as a new way to engage with the works of African artists.”
Polidoro Lopez’s installation, En Limbo, expresses his feeling of duality between life in Ecuador and in Canada. The installation of found objects, fabric scraps and papers is based on conversations the artist had with those who experience similar dualities.
There are many stories embedded in the final product. Polidoro Lopez describes his studio as a personal interaction with the viewer. Working the way he does, spread out over a lot of space, the process he uses allows him to create life.
Barker-Glenn’s work shares similar themes, namely exploring his identity as a male artist and relating his art-making to the birthing process.
“At the time of its creation, I recognized that I strive to create objects that have a life of their own and that many of my art-making practices mirror elements in nature,” Barker-Glenn said.
Figure 1. (Icarus) is an installation inspired by the myth of Icarus, the story of a man whose father makes him a pair of wings. According to the story, Icarus flies too close to the sun, and the wax holding his wings together melts. Icarus falls into the ocean and drowns. It is a tale of aspiring to do impossible things, an idea that resonates throughout Barker-Glenn’s installation.
Barker-Glenn describes his piece as a “cabinet of curiosities.” Footage of birds, molds of eggs as well as fabric bird heads and wings are found throughout. Nestled in the centre of the structure, a bird mask sits, representing both the artist’s interest in the creation of life and his imitation of it.
“I see the mask in the centre of this piece as an attempt to become what you are not, and it too is in a process of destruction,” the artist explained. The mask, made from cheesecloth and hardened with sugar, is dipped in black ink, which is slowly absorbed by the fabric, blackening its surface and destroying its structure.
Lines Turn into Time is one of two of Lê’s recent explorations with textile that have been exhibited at Resonance. Lê usually favours performance art, but found that the wear and tear of fabric better encompassed her goal with these two works.
Fabric allows for a multifaceted inquiry,” Lê said, because they are “rife with cultural, religious or even personal significance.”
Her pieces touch upon themes of gender, mental illness, whiteness, [de]colonisation, power and violence reflected in the artist’s personal experience and inspired by Lois Martin’s article in the SurfaceDesignJournal titled “The Direction of Cloth: the Horizontal Dimension” and Kathleen Connellan’s article in Textile, “White, the Colour of Whispers: Revealing and Concealing Cloth.” Martin is a fashion design professor at the Art Institute of New York City, and is concerned with how fabric can transform spaces from mundane to ceremonial. Connellan is a professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia, whose studies focus on critical race studies in design.
Lines Turn into Time framed Tina Lê’s second installation, Lucid not Dreaming. Photo courtesy of VAV Gallery.
Lê scribbled her most private thoughts and feelings onto sheets of bleached white cotton using Batik, a resist-dye technique, and tore them into strips to make Lines Turn into Time. Her text, now hidden by both the dying and tearing process, remains internalised.
The strips, representing her thoughts and feelings, “overlap with one another, intersecting and blurring each other out, often finding ways to revisit under various forms of (micro)aggressions whether simultaneously and/or intermittently,” Lê added.
The VAV Gallery holds exhibitions every three weeks and will be accepting submissions for their fall programming until Sept. 14, including work for their special Black History Month in November exhibition. All submitting artists must be enrolled in at least one fine arts course during the 2018-19 academic year. More information can be found on their website: vavgallery.concordia.ca.
Bianca Del Rio, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6, hosted this year’s Fierté Montréal Drag Superstars at Parc des Faubourgs.
Among this year’s Montreal Pride events were a variety of drag shows, including a highly attended Drag Superstars, featuring famed queens from the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race reality television show.
Through the reality TV nature of Drag Race, viewers get an inside look and understanding of the talent, effort and significance within the art of drag, yet arguably through a selective lens. While the names and success of the show’s stars remained evident at Pride’s Drag Superstars, the event also provided a clear representation of the performing queens’ talent. The event showcased the core nature of the of the art of drag and its significance within the LGBTQ+ community—sharing the true art, spirit and meaning of drag.
The three-hour-long show took place on the TD Stage at Parc des Faubourgs on Aug. 16. Hosted by Bianca Del Rio, the winning queen from season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the show consisted of individual lip sync and musical performances by a large number of queens from the television show, along with local Montrealers. The show was a fun, poignant event, due to the artistic individuality, the encouragement of local queens and the open discussion of serious subjects related to the queer community, such as the stigma surrounding HIV.
The show was opened by Ongina, a contestant on season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race. During her time on the show, Ongina shared with her fellow contestants and the judges that she was HIV positive. Since becoming the first queen to publicly announce her status on TV, Ongina has gone on to be an HIV activist, and other queens in later seasons have followed her path by sharing their experiences and diagnoses with the illness. As Ongina spoke to the Montreal crowd, she shared this story and spoke about how Drag Race helped her openly discuss her status and the illness. Ongina used the platform of Drag Superstars to share her experience, and used the art of drag and performance as a form of activism; a way to spread awareness on important matters prominent to the queer community and its history.
The distinctiveness and creativity within the realm of drag was showcased through the individual performances by the various queens at Drag Superstars. This individuality was shown through their painstakingly crafted visual appearances — with details distinct and individual to each queen — along with their performances and interactions with the crowd.
Miz Cracker performed a mash-up of pop songs interspersed with movie and advertisement clips, creating a surprising, comedic performance.
Highlights of the night were found in the short lip sync performances by the queens — a performance form long connected to the art of drag. Miz Cracker, a New York queen who placed fifth in the most recent season of Drag Race, performed a mash-up of pop songs interspersed with movie and advertisement clips, creating a surprising, comedic performance.
Adore Delano threw herself into the audience, creating a deep and loving connection between herself and the crowd.
Adore Delano, runner up on season six of the show (and also previously a contestant on American Idol), performed her own songs live and threw herself into the audience to crowd surf while singing her song “I Adore U.” This further created a deep and loving connection between herself and the crowd.
Aja, a New York queen from both season nine and All Stars 3 of Drag Race, also performed her own work, coming out with a fiery performance of a multitude of her successful rap songs. Other queens added their unique spin to the performances through impersonating famous musicians. Kameron Michaels, a top four contestant on Season 10, lip synced “Believe” by Cher.
Shangela, a contestant on season two and three as well as All Stars 3, closed the show with a mix of Beyonce songs. While dressed and made up in the singer’s likeness, the queen performed the singer’s famous dance moves which showcased her immense talent as a performer.
Drag Superstars also included local queens, furthering the concept of community, acceptance and diversity. In the middle of the show, queens Rita Baga, Miss Butterfly, Manny, Michel Dorion, and Franky Dee — all Montreal performers — each took the stage for their own lip sync set. Bianca Del Rio, spoke about this, encouraging support for local and up-and-coming queens and reminding everyone that all Drag Race queens were at this place once too and needed local support to help get them to where they are now.
In showcasing the diversity of styles, talents, focuses, and the diverse representation and intense range of creativity and styles, this brought a greater theme and consideration of the meaning of Pride in the first place. These aspects of the event showed a celebration of the queer community, and messages of acceptance for all, especially in this community that faces bigotry, exclusion and violence.
The differences within the queens’ styles and performances promote messages of acceptance and support. Looking at the significance of representation, especially in media, these messages can provide reassurance and encouragement for future generations to pursue true authenticity of the self. This representation provides access to explore ideas of gender, identity, presentation, sexuality and the complexities and fluidities within.
Zoé Pelchat-Ouellet’s series, Dominos, was filmed over the course of eight days. Photo courtesy of Zoé Pelchat-Ouellet.
Concordia alumna’s web series nominated in CANNESERIES
When Zoé Pelchat-Ouellet first started working as a director, several of her more experienced friends and colleagues in the film industry recommended she start off as an assistant director. “I said no, I don’t want to be an assistant. I want to be a director. I am going to direct,” Pelchat-Ouellet recalled.
A few years later, Pelchat-Ouellet’s web series, Dominos—which she wrote, cast and directed—was nominated for Best Digital Series at CANNESERIES, the Cannes International Series Festival. Shot in only eight days, the web series is composed of five short episodes and is Pelchat-Ouellet’s largest fiction project to date.
Yet, the up-and-coming director wasn’t always interested in the arts, let alone being a director. Pelchat-Ouellet described herself in high school as shy and insecure. When she moved from Quebec City back to her birth city of Montreal to enroll in Concordia’s communications studies program, she developed an interest in photography. The program gave her the chance to explore her artistic talents as she played around with film, editing and sound design.
Each episode of the web series is centred around a different character, each of them linked to one another in the overarching theme. Photo courtesy of Zoé Pelchat-Ouellet.
While on a trip to London, a year after she finished her bachelor’s degree, Pelchat-Ouellet received a call from a friend that helped guide her toward a directing career. The friend had just broken up with her boyfriend, and suggested she and Pelchat-Ouellet collaborate and create short films together.
“I made this classic list of my qualities and flaws, and what I wanted in life,” Pelchat-Ouellet said. “The conclusion, really, was to be a director. I really liked writing and photography, and I think directing is a mix of both. It made sense. When my friend called, she put it in play for me.”
Pelchat-Ouellet decided to pursue a career in filmmaking, and graduated from L’inis, a private film institute, in 2016. Her first projects were experimental photography, poetry and short films, which she often collaborated with friends to create. Shortly after graduating, Pelchat-Ouellet started getting contracts to make music videos for artists such as Fanny Bloom, Kroy, Heartstreets and Di Astronauts.
In 2015, her first fictional web series, Les Presqu’histoires, aired on Urbania, a cultural multiplatform media producer. Pelchat-Ouellet has also produced commercial advertising content for Énergie 94.3, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Keurig, Bell Media and Fondation Québec Jeunes, among other companies.
“I took a bigger risk in the beginning that spinned off pretty well,” said Pelchat-Ouellet, attributing this success to her determination to start out as a director rather than an assistant.
The filmmaker was inspired by the youth of Montreal, as well as each actor’s individual personality. Photo courtesy of Zoé Pelchat-Ouellet.
Dominos tells the story of two brothers, Toto and Adib, as they cope with their mother’s sudden death. The drama series also follows the intertwining stories of a group of teenagers whose paths cross with the brothers’. Pelchat-Ouellet said the show reminded her of Skins, a British drama which gained attention for its cutting edge and raw portrayal of youth. Although every episode of Dominos is centred around a different character, the two shows share similar themes.
Showcasing the hazards of life, Dominos explores personal issues with touching, poetic and comedic tones. Pelchat-Ouellet said she was not only inspired by the youth in Montreal, but by each actor’s individual “vibe” and personality while shooting. This led to a fresh, in-the-moment experience on set.
As the character Toto describes in the series: “We’re like little dominoes that fall on each other; we just have to learn how to fall right.”
Lucy Stamler (right) poses with a friend in an image reminiscent of Thelma and Louise. Photo courtesy of Lucy Stamler.
Concordia photography student Lucy Stamler discusses her artistic inspiration
Concordia photography student Lucy Stamler combines elements of fear, humour and feminine prowess in her series titled Femme Fatale.
Drawing inspiration from the elusive divas of film noir, Stamler bridges the gap between reality and total whimsy. Many of her photographs feature young women dressed in neo-noir attire yielding weapons and other destructive objects.
“I want to explore the connection between femininity and violence, something often overlooked by mainstream media,” said the 20-year-old Toronto native.
Alluring and mysterious, Stamler appears to be something of a femme fatale herself. She is petite, with ivory skin and enormous blue-green eyes. Her face is framed by a roughly chopped fringe of jet-black hair, and her torso and stomach are decorated with black tattoos. Often the subject of her own work, Stamler emulates a delicate combination of fragility and danger.
Despite her bold and gritty appearance, Stamler is sweet, shy and gentle. At social events, she often lingers in the background, observing the scene around her through the lens of her camera. Although the majority of her work is staged, Stamler still enjoys producing candid photography inspired by her day-to-day life.
Stamler is somewhat of a femme fatale herself. Photo courtesy of Lucy Stamler.
“Wherever I go with my camera becomes my studio, whether that be the top of a mountain or my own bedroom,” Stamler said.
Much of Stamler’s work is created using her favourite 35mm camera, and she develops all of her film in Concordia’s darkrooms. When she does choose to stage her photographs, Stamler creates makeshift scenes and extravagant costumes, pulling much of her inspiration from film and television.
“I think mainstream media and pop culture play a huge role in our lives, which is something I very much want to embrace,” she explained.
Stamler gives topics such as femininity and Hollywood a surrealist twist, often with an unnerving and sometimes humorous finish. In one image of the Femme Fatale series, she and a friend pose Thelma-and-Louise-style, complete with a desert background and plastic guns. In another, Stamler poses with a black studded belt clenched between her teeth. A third image shows a model posing in black and white, with a steak knife pressed against her lips.
“I love how, through image-making, I can create alternate worlds that could never exist in the realm of reality,” Stamler said. “Self-representation and perceptions of gender and identity are themes I tend to focus on in my work.”
An avid sketcher and painter since the age of five, Stamler has long expressed a keen interest in art. Her relationship with photography and film began while making short movies with her sister. Later, in high school, Stamler took a black-and-white photography class, and said she truly fell in love with the medium.
“[I] became so enchanted with the camera,” she said. “Pursuing art just felt natural.”
Stamler also draws inspiration from artist Cindy Sherman, known for her conceptual and often politically charged self-portraits.
“After viewing her series,Untitled Film Stills, I came to realize photography is about more than just creating a pretty picture,” Stamler said. “[It’s] a tool to change perceptions of how we view the world.”
The living, breathing femme fatale can be found on Instagram at @helpimbleeding.
