Keynote speaker Kent Monkman is the artist behind this video installation, composed of five large projections, which offers a contemporary re-interpretation of a traditional Aboriginal ritual featuring the Berdashe, that special male figure whose gender-bending behaviour and very existence astonished and appalled many explorers of the American West. Photo: Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Christine Guest. Photo: Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Christine Guest
Who says there is nowhere to go in January on a cold, Montreal evening?
The third annual Concordia University Undergraduate Art History Conference will be held this week, and this year’s title is “Art and the Digital.” The conference promises to identify, discuss and refer to the marriage of anything technological to everything artistic. The theme addresses modern-day issues and tackles head-scratching questions such as authorship, the impact of social networking on the dissemination of images and the ever-changing role of the contemporary artist.
Keynote speaker Kent Monkman is the artist behind this video installation, composed of five large projections, which offers a contemporary re-interpretation of a traditional Aboriginal ritual featuring the Berdashe, that special male figure whose gender-bending behaviour and very existence astonished and appalled many explorers of the American West. Photo: Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Christine Guest. Photo: Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Christine Guest
The Concordian spoke to Clinton Glenn, the external coordinator of the conference. Glenn pinpointed the importance of technology.
“Technology is increasingly playing a role in our everyday lives,” said Glenn. “We are connected from the time we wake up until we go to sleep. The theme of “Art and the Digital” looks at the ways that artists are informed by technology and its impact on subjective experience.”
Glenn argued that technology has left a deep footprint on art and the way art is created.
“For example, photography has in a sense been democratized — we all have a camera and we can all be photographers. Previously one would have had to have money and training to work in a dark room,” added Glenn.
Attendees will be treated to a variety of shows with projects such as “Ecology: Recycled Landscapes,” “The Robotic Action Painter as Artist” and “Problems with Digitizing Propaganda: Memory, Experience, and Power.”
Having started three years ago, the goal of the event is to present students with the opportunity to showcase their art as well as for academics to voice their insights on the subject.
“As an art historian, I am used to writing in a sort of solitary bubble, and very few people get to read what I produce,” explained Glenn. “This conference is a great way to break out of that solitariness that comes with being an academic. It is also a great experience for art history students applying to graduate schools.”
Another reason to get out the mitts and boots and head over to the conference is the keynote speech. This year, the keynote speech will be given by Kent Monkman. The prominent artist, of Cree ancestry, dabbles in painting, film,video, performance and installation art. Well represented in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Monkman can only be described as fresh wind stirring the art world. His paintings, bright in colours such as royal purples, harlequin greens and Crayola yellows, are emotionally stirring.
In much of Monkman’s work, art mirrors emotions, such as in “Struggle for Balance” which depicts an inflamed, damaged car, people in a fight, and an archangel coming to the rescue.
Additionally, Monkman’s films are political, with social commentaries that never shy away from criticism and introspection.
The conference will feature lectures and presentations from leading art historians and students from universities across Canada and the U.S.. It promises to be a valuable educational event for all students.
“Art and the Digital” will be held on Jan. 24 – 25 in the York Amphitheatre of the EV building (EV 1.605). For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit cujah.org/conference.
In the world of expressive art forms, painting is one of the longest standing practices used to showcase the beauty of nature, humans, architecture and religious ideology.
Photo by Jocelyn Beaudet
The concept of body modification, while not new by any means, has garnered a significant degree of popularity as the new millennium unfolded.
No longer was the generation gap between those seeking to become a canvas for their artistic venture stuck in the single digits. The young, the old, men and women have all begun participating in this tribal rite, giving the culture of body modification a new medium through which to display its endearing, exotic allure.
But what happens when old practice meets new? When painting and body art fuse together?
One of the answers to this can be found at Jennie Philpott’s art exhibit titled Modified. With canvas renditions of various people and parts donning unconventional and controversial tattoos and piercings, some may be shocked at the lengths that some individuals would go to in order to reach a sense of satisfaction with their body image.
One thing that Modified does particularly well, is go beyond the notion that beauty is skin deep.
The 10-part exhibit covers piercings from facial to labial, and illustrates beautiful, vivid colours that evoke the emotion and power that these acts of modification mean to their owners.
These bright depictions help captivate the eye and focus on the finer details that each brushstroke has provided to these canvases.
What sets Modified apart is how boldly it approaches the subject, foregoing subtle touches to ease the viewer into the sight of these new depictions.
What remains is a raw, unchained presentation that begs to be recognized, but also distanced from its modern peers. It challenges the notion of beauty through traditional agendas and discards the normative stereotype associated with external charm.
When stepping into the gallery, you are greeted by three smaller paintings, two that are re-renditions of a larger, more prominently displayed painting at the end of the room. These harbour a different colour scheme and are portrayed with different textures and brush styles.
When reaching the open, brightly lit center of the room, one is greeted with several, much larger canvases.
These give context to the gradual evolution of the art form and help create a timeline to guide oneself by.
The large canvases at the center present a varied selection of colours and palettes and showcase a spectrum of styles, from the realistic, proportionate, painting of a man with several plugs, piercings and a pair of goggles, to a closeup of an earlobe adorned with an eyelet and several captive bead earrings.
Philpott’s centerpiece, though, is the closeup of a model wearing a mask, and sporting bright green plugs in her earlobes.
While one may think that this is the representation of the exotic, the piece represents a piercer, wearing her trademarked protective mask.The choice of cool colours and sharp edges help bring out the details of the piercer’s beautiful features, and ties the exhibit together in one thematic display.
Regardless of your stance on body modification, or whether or not you harbour any of them yourself, Modified is an exhibit that sends a very strong message – it will reset your standards on the topic of beauty, and dispel prejudice you may have had about piercings and tattoos. You can check out the exhibit, Modified at the Rats 9 Gallery – 372 St. Catherine W. Suite #530 until Nov. 23.
An attempt at a Zentagle creation. Photo (and Zentage masterpiece, pictured) by Sara Baron-Goodman.
At first glance, Zentangle looks exactly like the DoodleArt that every child born between 1970 and 2000 surely spent hours toiling over. Zentangle, however, claims to be much more than simple doodling. It is an easy and relaxing way to create images through drawing structured patterns. It is, in fact, a school of art, a sensation that is sweeping the nation. There are hundreds of Certified Zentangle Teachers (CZTs) in more than 10 countries worldwide.
Apparently, Zentangle can bring one to a state of religious experience and deep meditation. Zentangle is like the tantric sex of the art world – the goal is to achieve a spiritual awakening, it’s not about the end results. For tanglers, the pretty art is just an incidental bonus. Because aesthetics are not important to Zentangle, even the most artistically handicapped among us can become tanglers.
Tangles, as the patterns are called, are meant to represent life’s problems, helping to deconstruct them into zigs and zags, dots and squiggles so that they are easier to overcome. As the Zentangle mantra states, “anything is possible, one stroke at a time.” Disclaimer: compulsively drawing lines and shapes will not help you erase your debt, mend a broken heart or pass an exam.
Armed with a copy of The Joy of Zentangle, a black fine-tip Sharpie, a pencil, and a small sketchpad, I was ready. It should be noted that “true” tanglers are supposed to use special tiles to draw on, made from fine Italian paper. I, however, had no desire to spend $20 on said tiles when my highschool sketching paper would suffice. For beginners, it is recommended to only use black ink and a pencil, so that our feeble minds aren’t distracted by too many colour options.
The cardinal rule of Zentangle is never to erase – there are no mistakes in tangling. Already this made me anxious. The thought that there was nothing I could do if I messed up my pattern had me in a cold sweat before I even put pen to paper.
Finally, I took the plunge. Following the guidelines in my book, I marked off each corner of the paper with a dot. The next step was to connect the dots to make a frame in which to tangle. Then, tracing an imaginary string with a pencil, I followed the instructions to divide my frame into sections. Each section is meant to represent an aspect of life.
The next part was the fun part, where I got to doodle (sorry, tangle) for an hour under the pretence of self-betterment. After meticulously drawing filigrees and shapes in the first section, I was starting to feel exasperated rather than zen. I can only employ acute concentration for so long, I am a millennial after all. Like a trooper, I persevered and filled the rest of my sections with intricate-ish tangles.
The end result is no Picasso but it is interesting-looking. Was my mind clear and focused on the task at hand? Yes, for about an hour, my raison-d’être was trying to make paisleys fit together like a puzzle. Did this help me to achieve spiritual awakening and solve my problems? Not so much.
The Joy of Zentangle retails for $15.74 at Amazon.ca
Every spring, thousands of Montrealers step out of their homes, where they’ve been hiding since November, surviving on chicken soup and repeats of their favourite sitcoms. But they don’t just sleep in the park all day. Instead, they get to enjoy the myriad of festivals, films, plays and unique events that the city has to offer. It’s hard to confidently argue that Montreal doesn’t offer one of the best summer experiences. So whether this is your first summer in the city, or you’re a Tam Tams veteran, check out our picks for the best arts events around town.
FESTIVALS
Kick off the end of exams with Elektra, which celebrates the best of music and art made with the latest technologies. Last year’s festival saw performances featuring robot dancers and an installation with pods that responded to changes in light by opening and closing like flowers. You can pretty much bet that they’ll top that this year when the festival starts up again from May 2 to 6. Visit www.elektrafestival.ca for more details.
Ste-Catherine Street is subject to many protests and parades, so it’s nice to see art laying its claim for space. This year, the Festival international Montreal en arts (FIMA) will take over a portion of Ste-Cats for its 13th edition, turning it into a BoulevArt. Last year saw nearly 140 artists display their work to over 250,000 passersby. This year, check out the self-proclaimed “greatest open air art gallery in Eastern Canada” between June 27 and July 1. Visitwww.festivaldesarts.org for updates on this year’s edition.
Did you know that laughing is a great way to work your abs? Get your beach body ready with Just for Laughs Festival. Celebrating its 30th anniversary from July 12 to 29, Just for Laughs promises to have you rolling on the floor with their comedic star lineup including Bo Burnham, Caroline Rhea, Daniel Tosh, Debra DiGiovanni and many, many more. To see the full lineup of comics or to book your tickets, visit www.hahaha.com.
Montreal is proud of its LGBT community and even more so of the annual Divers/Cite Festival. This event promotes the value of diversity with mostly outdoor events from all walks of art. The festival will showcase modern dance, blues, jazz, pop, Latin, rock, world, funk, ambient, techno and electronic concerts, drag queen performances and an outdoor cinema. The festival is in its 20th edition and will run from July 30 to Aug. 5. For more information visit www.diverscite.org.
Hot air balloons are usually reserved for family films (see Up and Around the World in 80 Days), which may be why hundreds of thousands of people flock far out to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu for its balloon festival. You can book a flight, or if you’d rather stay on the ground, you can enjoy the view (last year they had a balloon shaped like Spider Pig!) from their beer terrace. It goes down on Aug. 11 to 19, and you can check out www.ballooncanada.com for more details.
FILM
Fantasia is a true underdog story. Started by alternative film fanatics in 1996 (way before the “turn-all-comics-into-films” great geek revolution of the past few years), it has become the ultimate summer event for anyone who likes their films dark, subversive and shocking. Details on this year’s edition will be released closer to Fantasia’s run from July 19 to Aug. 7, but you can keep your eye out for them over atwww.festivalfantasia.com.
For a little cultural diversity in your movie-going experience this summer, don’t miss the World Film Festival, Aug. 23 to Sept. 3. The goal of this festival is to promote cultural diversity internationally by promoting films from around the globe. To find out what films will be showing, visit www.ffm-montreal.org.
VISUAL ARTS
Everyone knows of Warhol and Lichtenstein, but how often do you hear someone name-drop Tom Wesselmann? Following last summer’s Gaultier extravaganza, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is keeping in the pop culture tune by putting on the first major Canadian exhibition on Wesselmann, the third major pop artist. The exhibit runs from May 18 to Oct. 7. You can check out more details over at www.mbam.qc.ca.
You don’t have to drive to Granby or put up with the questionable smell at the Biodôme to celebrate the animal kingdom this summer. Zoo is an exhibition featuring art from Quebec, Canadian and international artists that explores the way animals are perceived nowadays, through filters such as mythology, natural science and even the economy. And, of course, it’s contemporary art so it will be done in a way that will leave you turning your head. It’s being shown at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal from May 24 to Sept. 3. Visit www.macm.org for more details.
BOOKS “No gods, no masters, no bosses, no borders,” proclaims the poster for this year’s Anarchist Bookfair. Taking place on May 19 and 20, the fair will feature authors and booksellers offering zines, books and all other kinds of print works that you just won’t find at Chapters. But it doesn’t stop there—there will be film, art and workshops that will touch on current issues and reiterate the fair’s mission to fight all forms of oppression. Check out http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca for more information.
Authors love giving their most unfortunate characters ironically bright names, and then cruelly dumping misfortune after misfortune on them while also giving them an optimistic demeanour. Ed the Happy Clown has been put through horrifying ordeals (not the least of which includes his member coming to life and naming itself Ronald Reagan) since Chester Brown first conceived him in the ’80s. This summer, Brown is giving poor Ed a definitive story, after coming up with a new ending and revising past books. The tome, simply called Ed the Happy Clown, will be released by Drawn & Quarterly on May 22.
Another oldie getting the re-release treatment is Chuck Palahniuk’s 1999 novel Invisible Monsters. Written before Fight Club, it was rejected the first time he submitted it to his publisher for being too disturbing. Since then, thousands of people have fallen for the story of Shannon McFarland, a former model whose face is horribly disfigured, and her adventures with Brandy, a transgender woman who is awaiting her last big operation. With added chapters and extended scenes, Invisible Monsters Remix will take this satire even further. It comes out in hardcover on May 29.
THEATRE
One of the best parts about summer is being able to experience art outdoors. This is what makes Repercussion Theatre’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park performances so magical. Travelling from park to park around town, the performances usually take place in the afternoon, meaning you get to see some top-notch Shakespeare as day turns to dusk, while the setting becomes an enchanted forest. Last year they took on Macbeth, but they’re going lighter this summer with the comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Did I mention the best part? It’s absolutely free (though when they pass around the hat, be nice and donate—actors gotta eat!) Check out www.repercussiontheatre.com to see when they’re coming to a park near you.
The St-Ambroise Fringe Festival is one of the most celebrated theatre events in Montreal, because it gives people a chance to see fun, quirky—and sometimes just plain weird—shows for dirt cheap. The participating theatre companies are chosen lottery-style and performed in venues scattered across the Plateau and Mile End. If you can, try to make the shows in smaller venues—it makes the experience super personal and memorable. This year, Fringe Fest runs from June 4 to 24. Visit www.montrealfringe.ca after May 7 to check out this year’s shows.
If Fringe isn’t your thing, then maybe the Infringement Festival is. Started as a response to advertisement-heavy festivals that make it difficult for alternative and controversial shows to get in, Infringement encourages artists and activists of all kinds to participate. Artists don’t have to pay registration fees and most events are pay-what-you-can. This year’s edition runs from June 14 to 24. You can go to www.infringementfestival.com for more information.
Do you remember your childhood imagination? Mine was a vibrant mix of superheroes, nightmares and the stories told by my grandmothers, both Italian immigrants.
From their terrifying narratives of leaving behind a war-torn country to their folktales about wolves that would eat disobedient children, their stories were entertaining, imaginative—and scary.
Personal Mythologies, a new exhibit on at the MAI gallery until Feb. 18, explores exactly that kind of personal, imaginative headspace. Featuring two Montreal-based artists, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, whose work is inspired by his family’s escape from El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s, and Marigold Santos, whose work reflects her family’s emigration experience from the Philippines to Canada, Personal Mythologies is intellectually and emotionally engrossing.
Hanging before the gallery’s windows like haunting dreamcatchers are several installation pieces by Santos featuring braided artificial hair, stapled paper and knotted cords, reflecting her fascination with ‘the woven.’ She says in her artist’s statement: “[The woven] becomes a form of talisman” with the “ability to invite, and repel.” Taking note of the whimsical and eerie elements included in Santos’ pieces—a braid, a jewelled necklace—viewers construct and weave their own stories, connecting the pieces.
“When I was looking into my own culture and paralleling my own experience of history with that of a culture and folklore that existed before me, it was a way to experience this mixing of eastern and western culture,” Santos said of her art. “I came to the idea of an identity based on a combination of different cultures that I could re-create.”
War, death, the afterlife and the lives left behind by war are all themes that Personal Mythologies invites readers to contemplate. In the centre of the room, Monument, an installation work by Castillo, incorporates earth, dolls, shoes, moss and plants to create an organic-looking space paying tribute to those left behind by war. Facing Castillo’s installation, Santos’ HEX (Secret Signals Hands), a series of large, finely-detailed illustrations of hands forming letters spell out: HOW DO WE TALK TO THE DEAD?
Across the room, Castillo’s illustration and painting piece My Tyrant, My Protest, My Myth showcases his finely-detailed drawing and ethereal execution of watercolour-like paints, depicting soldiers, priests, men with tattooed faces, muscled and contorted dogs, beasts and war imagery of all kinds. Bathed occasionally in red and always rendered with the same amazingly precise lines—Castillo cites Albrecht Durer as one of his influences—each individual face invites the viewer to look closer and appreciate all the subtlety those fine lines create.
One of the great triumphs of Personal Mythologies is the mix of intriguing subject matter and spell-binding execution: both Castillo and Santos trained in print-making, and it’s a joy to walk through the exhibit admiring their skillful drawings. From Castillo’s postcard-sized portraits of Canadian soldiers, civilians and bizarre beings, to Santos’ series Secret Signals: 1, 2, and 3, featuring otherworldly-looking women in pastel and acid tones and incorporating string and braiding motifs, most of the artworks in Personal Mythologies are so detailed—and the lines so fine—that it’s almost impossible to believe that someone has drawn them so precisely.
“I draw in a very organic way that really fits my style, and I don’t tend to plan out my pieces,” says Castillo. “Mylar allows me to draw and paint on both sides of the sheet,” he says of his use of the polyester film medium, which seems to make the paper glow with a pearly sheen, “and it creates a different effect than paper does.”
It’s clear that curator Zoë Chan has put together the ideal exhibit: works by Santos and Castillo seem to speak the same visual language, but the viewer is able to see each artist’s style and techniques as distinct and appreciate their uniqueness, creating an exhibit that is both harmonious and dynamic.
I don’t usually write this personally about exhibits, but I left the MAI thinking about Personal Mythologies all day long. If you’ve got love or want to think up your own stories, Personal Mythologies is a must-see exhibition.
Personal Mythologies is at the MAI gallery (3680 Jeanne-Mance St., suite 103) until Feb. 18. Admission is free. For more information, go to www.m-a-i.qc.ca.
The rain didn’t stop camera crews, photographers or residents from attending the inauguration of A’Shop and Prevention NDG’s collaboration mural of “La Notre-Dame-de-Grâce/Our Lady of Grace” on Tuesday afternoon.At 10:30 am, people were already huddled under the eaves of the Couche-Tard on the corner of Sherbrooke Street and Madison Avenue in front of a City of Montreal plexiglass podium for the ceremony.
Roughly 85 people showed up to hear Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor Michael Applebaum, city councillors Richard Deschamps and Susan Clarke, Terri Ste. Marie, director of Prevention NDG, and graffiti artist Fluke, who spoke on behalf of A’Shop, a Montreal artist-run collective with a focus on graffiti culture.
The mural was created using some 400 aerosol spray paint cans rather than paint brushes, and stands six stories tall. It depicts the agricultural roots of NDG as well as points of interest in the city, including Saint-Joseph’s oratory, the two metro stations and the Orange Julep.
Inspired by the work of 19th century Art Nouveau Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha, the mural was created by A’Shop artists Fluke, Antonain Lambert, Dodo and Bruno Rathbone in collaboration with Prevention NDG’s Guillaume Lapointe.
“This magnificent fresco underscores the Ville de Montreal’s preoccupation with matters of cleanliness, beautification, collective participation and alternative solutions to graffiti. Montreal increases its number of murals, year after year, as it invests in its community’s way of life,” Deschamps said in a press release. “Aside from embellishing neighbourhoods, murals garner the respect of residents and passer-by and serve to enhance the feeling of safety in our neighbourhoods. It is definitely an added value.”
