Tag: art

Categories
Arts

Sustainable Sound: ecology and the urban soundscape

CESSA’s upcoming series of workshops will explore the relationship between sound, music, and the environment

“How we live, what we consume, and how we interact with our environment has a direct impact on the world of future generations,” said Malte Leander, president of the Concordia Electroacoustic Studies Student Association (CESSA) and head of the club’s board association.

CESSA will be hosting Sustainable Sound, a series of workshops and lectures centred around the relationship between sound, music, and the environment.

CESSA represents students within Concordia’s Music Department, however those in other departments or areas of study are encouraged to apply. They aim to facilitate collaborations with other departments and student associations through initiatives that will benefit students in the program.

The presentations, which will explore acoustic ecology, sustainability, noise, and the interstices of the aforementioned, will take place throughout  April and May and will feature speakers from around the globe.

The positive thing about virtual events is the possibility for people to join in from anywhere,” said Leander, adding that the guest speakers are from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; each bringing their own perspective on the notion of place.

In Jordan Lacey’s lecture, Sonic Rupture: theory and practice in the urban soundscape, the artist and researcher will be discussing the relationship between urbanity and nature via sonic encounters. Lacey is a Melbourne-based sound researcher, curator, and musician. His work explores urban design and sound art.

In Acts of Air: Reshaping the urban sonic, Lisa Hall will be hosting a workshop where viewers will be invited to enact and embody sound-works within the urban environment. After her lecture, participants will be asked to perform one of the discussed artworks within their environment and subsequently share their experience with the group.

Hall is a London-based sound-artist who uses audio and performance to explore urban environments. She does this by using audio and performance to intervene and interrupt, in an effort to raise questions and explore possibilities within a space.

In Pamela Z’s lecture and presentation, the composer and performer will be discussing her work in the artist space. Z works primarily with sampled sound and electronic processing.

Though the artists all work in different capacities, they all aim to uncover the relationship between sound, our environment, and the place we hold in relation to the two.

“An area not nearly spoken enough about is how our sonic environments affect us; our health, concentration levels, and sleep patterns,” said Leander. “In the case for most of us, that sonic environment is the roar that is the urban soundscape of Montreal.”

With environmentalism becoming increasingly popular throughout many aspects of everyday life, Leander notes that there is equally a “green” movement within the topics of acoustic ecology and ecoacoustics, which have been around for quite some time.

The urgency of change for a more sustainable future calls for a bigger integration of reflection upon sustainability and a call for change; both through what means, and in what way that audio is produced and composed, but also how the topics are approached,” said Leander.

Leander added that purposefully producing reflective art around environmentalism can yield deeper reflections within the public and the listener. In turn, potentially contributing to acts of change within other aspects of life.

“We are wanting to raise awareness about these things in an attempt to make more people more conscious of our surroundings, also in the domain of sound,” said Leander. “The sounds around you affect you more than you think.”

For more information about the Concordia Electroacoustic Studies Student Association, follow them on Instagram or visit their Bandcamp. To register for Sustainable Sound, visit their Facebook page.

 

Feature graphic courtesy of Allie Brown.

Categories
Ar(t)chives Arts

Land Art: investigating humanity’s relationship to nature

The 1960s movement popularized taking art outside of the museum

Upon first glance, Richard Long’s A Line Made by Walking (1967) appears to be a simple monochrome photograph of a grassy field with trees in the distance. The photo, however, only serves as a form of documentation of the artwork itself, which is Long’s interaction with the terrain. This avant-garde form of artmaking is classified as Land Art.

Also known as Earth art, Land Art is created with the surrounding landscape, often taking the form of a performance, sculpture, or installation, and serving just as great of a political purpose as one driven by aesthetic.

The genre gained traction in the 1960s as part of the conceptual art movement, characterized by the notion that the concept behind the work takes precedence over the finalized work itself. In the same respect, Land Art holds its significance due to the idea of the artist’s physical intervention with their environment.

Notable figures who contributed to the movement’s popularity include Richard Long, Nancy Holt, Michael Heizer, and Robert Smithson, all of whom used natural elements as a means of investigating and creating a narrative about humanity’s interactions and relationship with the surrounding environment.

One of the most acclaimed works of Land Art is Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970). Situated on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, the installation uses over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth to form a spiral-shaped sculptural installation along the shore. The otherworldly work resembles a galaxy and, according to Art & Place, published by Phaidon, the nearly 460 metre-long spiral was created by bulldozing material from the shore into the lake.

“Built at the mouth of a terminal basin rich in minerals and nearly devoid of life, ​Spiral Jetty ​is a testament to Smithson’s fascination with entropy,” reads a statement on The Holt/Smithson Foundation website, demonstrating the ways in which Smithson was greatly inspired by geology and the natural sciences.

The site on which the installation is located is owned by Dia, an art foundation dedicated to preserving artists’ visions by commissioning and exhibiting site-specific installations. The foundation welcomes visitors to the site and advises them to “leave no trace” behind. In other words, visitors mustn’t interfere with the environment or the art, leaving it exactly how they found it in an effort to preserve it for future generations of viewers.

Aside from the grandeur of Smithson’s work, what makes his collection particularly fascinating is its volatility; being made entirely of natural resources means that the work can dissipate at any given moment, should it be subject to a slight disruption.

Nancy Holt, on the other hand, explored the genre through a different approach. Holt’s series Trail Markers (1969) consists of photographs that document the artist’s journey through Dartmoor National Park in England.

“Holt resists the panoramic, all-encompassing view, offering instead an experience of the landscape that is at once dynamic and myopic,” states the work’s description on The Holt/Smithson Foundation website.

The photographs, which are all focused on very specific parts of the landscape, neglect the vastness of the mountains, instead giving viewers an encounter that is representative of the artist’s experience within the space.

Whether it be through photographs or an expansive installation, Land Art serves as a reminder of nature’s grandiosity and impermanence.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam.

Categories
Arts

Ocelle: connecting the real with the virtual

Vincent Larouche exhibits familiar characters through dynamic paintings

From video games and sci-fi films to cyberpunk, Vincent Larouche found a unique way to reunite contemporary themes in a dynamic exhibition that depicts a generation that grew up surrounded by pop and media culture.

Presented at Fonderie Darling, a visual-arts venue in Montreal’s Old Port, Ocelle is an exhibition that showcases nine paintings in a space where the real and the virtual coexist.

Larouche is a Montreal-based artist who graduated with a BFA from Concordia in 2019. Since then, the artist has built a reputable name for himself, doing several exhibitions both locally and internationally, including his first solo exhibition in Montreal Black-Talk (2017) and another called Bouches de Cendres Actives (2019).

The paintings are placed around the room as if each canvas will present the next sequence of the previous painting. It feels like admiring images that came out of a comic book.

Larouche’s work portrays caricatures. In Ocelle, he included various familiar characters that one may recognize from pop culture.

A Study in Motion (2019-2020), depicts Sonic the Hedgehog, the well-known protagonist of a series of video games published by Sega. In this painting, viewers can observe a female character looking directly at them, as if the character was posing for a picture, surrounded by different poses of Sonic.

Being a Sonic fan myself, seeing this painting brought me back to my childhood, when I would watch the animated series or get dizzy playing a Sonic-themed race game on the GameCube. Good times.

Then, famous Hollywood stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are portrayed side by side in Ontological Fan Fiction (2019). This painting illustrates Reeves in his character from The Matrix (1999) and Bullock as her character from the 2009 movie The Blind Side. Compared to the previous painting, this canvas seems less joyful. Both characters have serious looks on their faces and exude mystery.

Another particular artwork that is fascinating to admire is History Painting (2020). The canvas shows a hacker destroying a computer system, while looking towards those viewing. This painting is an example, among others, that illustrates the concept of evil.

Dante Looking at Phlegyas, (2020) is a piece illustrating a heroic figure being observed by what seems to be devils, illustrated on opposite corners of the painting. While the artwork may seem childish due to its simplicity, it may depict how there’s a desire to possess power in a virtual world.

The painted characters easily capture the audience’s gaze, with the figures looking back in return.

It’s strange, yet bizarre, being observed by fictional beings. Plus, they are placed around a small room, which gives the audience the impression that they are being watched from every corner of the space.

Ocelle presents dynamic and engaging artwork. Many of Larouche’s characters give off several expressions; some may seem more malicious than others, while others may seem more sympathetic or even suspicious.

Walking through the space, it is as if the roles are alternated. Instead of spectators observing the fictional figures, the figures are watching them. Sounds like a sci-fi movie plot.

The feeling of being observed by fictional caricatures is creepy. Though, the exhibition shows the deep relationship between the natural and the supernatural worlds as they cohabit together in reality.

Technology has advanced rapidly, allowing the creation of several virtual worlds that can be explored through video games, television series, books and more. Ocelle represents a new fantasy world, where pop and media culture icons come together and observe another reality; never taking their eyes off the public.

Ocelle is on display at Fonderie Darling, at 745 Ottawa St., until April 4. The art complex is open Thursday to Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. For more information about Fonderie Darling’s current programming, visit their website or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

 

Photos by Ana Lucia Londono Flores.

Categories
Arts

Ecologies pays homage to planet Earth

Olafur Eliasson (born in 1967), Untitled no. 44, from the series “Iceland," 1997, chromogenic print, 1/1, 59.1 x 89.1 cm (sight). MMFA, gift of W. Bruce C. Bailey

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ latest exhibition captures the complexities of global warming

I have rarely left a museum feeling emotional and so deeply invested in the curator’s cause. Walking out onto Sherbrooke Street after leaving Ecologies: A Song for Our Planet, I found myself breathtaken and with a heavy heart; both hopeful and troubled for the future that awaits us.

Curated by Iris Amizlev, curator of intercultural arts, Ecologies features over 90 works from the museum’s collection, all of which interpret the current environmental crisis in a different way. Featured artists include Shuvinai Ashoona, Olafur Eliasson, and Lorraine Gilbert.

Upon walking into the space, viewers can observe Giuseppe Penone’s Path (1983), an almost whimsical sculpture that appears to be at once a human and a flowering tree. Penone’s bronze cast figure serves as a demonstration and connection between humans and nature — a theme which Amizlev has made apparent at various instances throughout the exhibition.

Another example of the relationship between humans and the environment can be observed in Lorraine Gilbert’s Boreal Forest Floor, La Macaza, Quebec (2010). The print, which is only half of a diptych from the series “Once Upon a Forest,” features manipulated photographs of plants that are native to Quebec.

Gilbert manipulated the photographs, creating what is essentially a collage, in an attempt to give viewers a “man-made” view of an already beautiful landscape. By resizing, reorganizing, and essentially recreating the scenery, the work demonstrates society’s inclination towards controlling a natural process.

Further in the space, viewers can admire Osuitok Ipeelee’s Untitled (Walruses) (1977) and Peter Qumaluk Itukalla’s Untitled (Bear and Cub) (2003). Though the works are not directly about the climate crisis, the stone sculptures capture the beauty of the threatened Canadian wilderness.

By referencing Indigenous artists and the impacts of colonization, Amizlev makes the important connection between a longstanding history of environmental injustice and the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples, two issues which fall hand-in-hand.

Olafur Eliasson’s Untitled no. 44 (1997), from his series “Iceland,” is a print featuring a stunning depiction of an Icelandic landscape. The contrast between the grassy plain and snowy field in the distance allows viewers to appreciate the grandiosity and serenity of the vast Nordic region.

Eliasson’s works frequently incorporate science, and specifically more “elemental” materials such as water and air. The Danish-Icelandic artist primarily creates installations, and explores themes such as weather, the environment, and space.

In contrast to Eliasson’s tranquil photograph, Adrian Stimson’s Beyond Redemption (2010) is forthright and provocative. Consisting of a taxidermied bison surrounded by ten bison skins draped across black crosses, Stimson’s installation pays homage to the history and importance of the bison in Indigenous communities.

Stimson, a member of the Siksika nation, sacrificed a bison as a means of honouring the near-eradication of the species, as well as the Indigenous tribes who rely on them for sustenance. He offers a glance at the importance of the bison in Indigenous spirituality, as well as the ramifications of human actions on a group of animals that once dominated the wilderness.

Presented alongside Ecologies, viewers can view Paul Walde’s mesmerizing video installation, Requiem for a Glacier (2013). Performed by over 50 artists on the Farnham Glacier in British Columbia, Walde’s piece serves as an homage to the land.

In addition to being threatened by global warming, the government of British Columbia had announced developing a ski resort on the unceded Indigenous land of the Ktunaxa Nation, causing a series of land disputes which lasted over a decade. Walde’s performance features a choir singing the Latin translation of the press release published by the government authorities.

At once aesthetically gratifying and informational, Ecologies provides the public with a compelling narrative and ode to planet Earth. Amizlev’s selection of works so profoundly captures the intricacies and complexity of the climate crisis, offering viewers an experience that is both alarming and stunning.

Ecologies: A Song for Our Planet is on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, at 1380 Sherbrooke St. W., until Feb. 27, 2022. The museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Reservations must be made in advance. To book a ticket, visit https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/ticket-office/.

 

Photos courtesy of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Categories
Ar(t)chives Arts

Helen Frankenthaler’s abstract climates

A deep-dive into the artist’s influential role on the abstract movement

A practicing artist for over 60 years, Helen Frankenthaler’s collection of works spanned many key moments and transformations in abstract art. The American abstract expressionist has actually been recognized for her contributions to postwar abstract painting.

Frankenthaler has been attributed with the influential shift of abstract expressionism to colour field painting, alongside the likes of other notable figures such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt.

Colour field painting — a genre characterized by compositions containing large, simple fields of colour — emerged in the 1950s and marked a pivotal moment in modern art, marked by the separation of emotion and religion from painterly depictions.

In addition to Frankenthaler’s effect on the transition into a new artistic era, she gained notoriety for further developing the technique of colour-staining. The technique had initially been developed by Jackson Pollock, who earned acclaim for pouring paint and pigments directly onto a canvas.

Opposite Pollock’s bombastic technique, Frankenthaler applied thin washes of paint to unprimed canvases, giving them an almost whimsical appearance. A key example of this technique can be observed in Mountains and Sea (1952), which consists of organic strokes of vibrant blue, green, and pink hues against a pale yellow background.

Contrary to Mountains and Sea, her work Shippan Point: Twilight (1980) features wider, harsher, and darker brushstrokes. The use of black overlayed on turquoise and blue hues gives the viewer the same sense as being by the water at night. And rightly so; a quick Google search about Shippan Points yields hundreds of photos of a Connecticut peninsula featuring a pier, dock, and the deep blues of the Atlantic ocean rising up against the shoreline.

Despite not being a direct rendition of mountains and the sea, or of a dock by the ocean, Frankenthaler’s work somehow manages to elicit the same feeling of looking at a landscape. Vibrant, yet serene and somewhat chaotic, yet dainty, the artist’s canvases capture the calming effects that colour and simplicity can have on the mind, as well as the unpredictability of the elements surrounding us.

“My pictures are full of climates, abstract climates,” said Frankenthaler, in regards to her work. “They’re not nature per se, but a feeling.”

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam.

Categories
Arts

Marie-Claude Marquis presents her solo exhibition Dancing Contradictions

Exposing sincere messages on delicate materials

In her newest solo exhibition Dancing Contradictions, presented at Galerie Robertson Arès, Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Marie-Claude Marquis showcases a collection of 97 vintage plates and eight velvet embroideries.

Everyone is experiencing the pandemic differently; it has proven to be the most unsure time of our lives, as the future remains uncertain. To that end, the series depicts the hardships and successes that the world has gone through during this period of time.

Marquis’ artistic practice revolves around porcelain plates and embroideries. She reuses objects to give them a second life. The vintage plates were objects Marquis recycled, giving them a new meaning. Also, every instance of writing was hand-painted or embroidered by herself.

Dancing Contradictions exposes fragility and strength as the pandemic has shown to be a rollercoaster ride of events and emotions.

The collection is set around the gallery. One wall is dedicated to Marquis’ velvet embroideries. Each piece has a different design and message inscribed. The messages are either written in French or in English, and feature familiar expressions that can easily be recognized. Marquis inserted curse words and Quebec expressions that one may hear once in a while, but also quotes that one may have read on the internet, such as in You’re overthinking again (1/3), (2021). 

At times, some messages may sound cheesy; some may be funny and relatable. Some of them can also bring a sense of comfort as there are words that may reflect one’s state of mind, or may simply be words of encouragement. Still, they are honest and are there for the audience to engage with.

For the velvet embroideries, spectators can admire works such as Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on pense (3/3), (2021), Oh, baby baby it’s a fucking wild world (3/3), (2021), Focus on what you can control (3/3), (2021), and more. These velvet embroideries evoke a vintage aesthetic with the different prints and colours Marquis used in her work.

The embroideries are square shaped, inspired by silk squares, also known as silk scarves, that are mostly worn by women, and became popular during the post-war years. According to  Rampley & Co, a British clothing company, silk scarves became a symbol of glamour, power and independence during that time. Marquis incorporated the styles of silk scarves, as her embroideries are made with vivid and sharp patterns.

As for the vintage plates, they remind the audience of porcelain plates they may have in their homes, hidden in their kitchen cabinets as they are used less frequently.

It could be hard to pick your favourite vintage plate as they vary in shape, structure, pattern and colour. For example, Riding Dirty, (2021) is a plate depicting Off to School (1920), a painting made by Norman Rockwell. Lots of things happen for no reason at all, (2021) is a floral plate, like Osti de mélancolie, (2021). 

Marquis has found a way to bring comfort, humour and honesty to her work. As there are many art pieces, it seems like there is a message for everyone. While there may be some straightforward words, compared to others that may sound softer, they can depict sentences one may not think out loud, or comforting words one needs to hear.

The pandemic brought uncertainty to everyone. It also brought change into our lives. With new hobbies, new life goals, and unexpected events, the pandemic allowed everyone to grow in a certain way. While Marquis’ main concern is the impact of isolation on mental health, she made sure to expose these expressions that people unconsciously carry with themselves.

Dancing Contradictions encourages spectators to engage with the artwork, express their feelings towards them and remind them that everyone is in the same boat. Hopefully, the exhibition can uplift some in these weird times.

Dancing Contradictions is on display at Galerie Robertson Arès, at 1490 Sherbrooke St. W, until March 27. The gallery is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m Monday to Saturday, and Sunday by appointment. Viewers can check out some of her art pieces here.

 

Photos courtesy of Galerie Robertson Arès.

Categories
Arts

Stéphane Crête showcases Jamais Seul

A video installation projecting intimacy, freedom and escape in relation to nature

Created by comedian and actor Stéphane Crête, in collaboration with his son, Philémon Crête, a cinematographer and producer, Jamais Seul (Never Alone) is a video installation exhibited at the Cinémathèque québécoise, located at 335 Boul. de Maisonneuve E.

Jamais Seul explores freedom and escape in different environments visited by Stéphane Crête. The artist aims to create a connection between the body and its environment.

The video installation is composed of three parts: Rouler (ride), Marcher (walk) and Contempler (contemplate). Each part portrays Crête engaging with his environment in a distinctive way.

Rouler consists of a video with three screens, each of which depicts a different aspect. The first screen shows Crête laying on a bed in different environments. Viewers can see Crête either awake or sleeping. He may be in a room or in a tent. Nonetheless, he is never in the same place.

The second screen is footage on the road that the artist filmed while driving. For instance, Crête may be driving on an empty road away from the city, on a bridge, or he may be driving on the highway near an urban area.

The third screen is another compilation of videos that Crête filmed where he shows his surroundings in different places. One can see the sun setting by the sea, a field on a sunny day, and many more locations that Crête has visited.

The second projection is Marcher, a video installation where the audience can observe Crête walking in different environments, sometimes fully clothed, half-clothed or naked. Crête doesn’t make eye contact with the camera; he simply walks in front of the lens. Most of the time, he has his back to the camera.

The artist walks in a variety of climates. Viewers can see Crête walking in cold or hot places. Crête can be seen walking on sand dunes, on a deserted road, or he can also be seen walking in a forest full of snow or even in a rainforest. There is a shot where he is sitting at the beach during sunset, contemplating the view while the waves crash on the shore.

The artist is never in the presence of another human. He is in the company of nature. This forms a bond between human life and non-human life that surrounds Crête.

The third installation of the collection is Contempler, small footage closeups of different textures of nature. The artist is in contact with his environment through touch. The videos show Crête touching moss, a bee on a flower petal and closeups of leaves, dirt and more. This is the way he engages with his environment to depict the deep connection his body has with it.

Jamais Seul gives spectators the opportunity to follow Crête’s path and see the many types of landscapes that exist. The audience can connect with what is being shown on the screen as some of these environments may be reminders of familiar places they have visited while travelling or simply by taking a walk near a field or in a forest. Still, they remain unknown places to spectators.

Like in a movie, Crête has created a relationship between the actor and the spectator. Crête’s solitude makes the audience desire to be this body wandering in the landscapes seen on the screen. This creates the longing of escaping in these places.

The artist is connecting with his environment. Nothing distracts him from the breathtaking sceneries in which he walks. While watching the video installation, one can realize how the world consists of beautiful places. With the current climate emergency, it may remind the audience of the importance of preserving the environment as it is being harmed due to human activities.

As mentioned in the exhibition’s description, the images projected in the exposition can also be interpreted as a dystopic representation of the end of the world. Crête may be presenting what the world would look like if there was only one human remaining on Earth.

Jamais Seul reminds its viewers of the way they are internally connected to nature as they also take part in the creation. Jamais Seul is on display at Cinémathèque québécoise until April 4. The space is open from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day.

Categories
Ar(t)chives Arts

Mathematics and spirituality: decoding Hilma af Klint’s work

A brief overview of the Swedish artist’s esoteric paintings

You may recognize Hilma af Klint’s works from their abstract shapes in bold tones of purple, yellow, orange and blue. Combining distinct floral and geometric elements, the Swedish artist’s paintings were greatly inspired by the stages of life.

Born in Stockholm in 1862, af Klint went on to study at Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, she began to immerse herself in spiritualism and Theosophy, a religious movement established in the late 19th century.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a key characteristic of Theosophy is the belief that there is a “deeper spiritual reality and that direct contact with that reality can be established through intuition, meditation, revelation, or some other state transcending normal human consciousness.”

Af Klint’s inclination towards this system of beliefs greatly led her to founding “The Five.” The group consisted of women artists who gathered on Fridays for spiritual meetings, wherein they would pray, meditate, and conduct séances, which included the practice of automatic writing and mediumistic drawing exercises.

During one of her meetings with The Five, “an otherworldly ‘guide’ instructed af Klint to design a temple connected by a spiral path, and commissioned her to make paintings for this temple,” according to the Guggenheim. This would subsequently lead af Klint to create 193 works, known collectively today as The Paintings for the Temple. Created between 1906 and 1915, the series of works is recognized today as one of the first examples of western abstract art.

In 1907, af Klint painted a series of 10 works titled The Ten Largest, which demonstrate her interpretations of the messages she believed to have been receiving. The works display connection to the universe through recognizable shapes and patterns such as flowers, cells, eggs, and orbs.

The paintings, which resemble both diagrams and art, draw from science, botany, geometry, and colour theory, offering a glimpse at the way in which everything is connected. Af Klint’s contrasting use of holistic and scientific symbols display the artist’s methodical, yet almost “radical” and abstract approach to artmaking.

Aside from af Klint’s revelatory works, what is remarkable about her practice is how contemporary it feels. The works merge spirituality and science in a way that is seamless, aesthetically pleasing, and that manages to feel relevant today.

As stated by artist R.H. Quaytman in the Hilma af Klint catalogue published by the Guggenheim Museum in New York, “If you . . . didn’t know anything, you’d think these paintings were made ten or twenty years ago. You would not know how old they were. And what’s so thrilling about her work, I find, is how contemporary it feels.”

It is outstanding that works created over a century ago are still pertinent in our age. Perhaps af Klint’s revelations offered her a glimpse into the future.

Graphic by Taylor Reddam-Woo.

Categories
Arts

Seascape Poetics: a virtual exhibition

Connecting Caribbean stories through water

Curated by Bettina Pérez Martínez and assisted by Simone Cambridge, Seascape Poetics presents the work of six Caribbean artists who explore the complex connections of Caribbean relationships with water. The virtual exhibition is hosted by 4TH Space, a programming research space, and the Curating and Public Scholarship Lab, an experimental gallery at Concordia.

Caribbean artists Deborah Jack, Joiri Minaya, Lionel Cruet, Nadia Huggins, Olivia Mc Gilchrist, and Jeffrey Meris engage in a virtual environment to depict the relationship of water with colonization, slavery, exploitation, and Caribbean identities.

The Caribbean has a complicated past as the region was colonized. The ocean surrounds many islands and is a keeper of the many colonial histories that aren’t spoken about. Hurricanes, slavery, colonization, memory and many other themes are explored through the artists’ work concerning the ocean.

The artists also evoke a sense of nostalgia derived from being away from the main homeland due to environmental catastrophes, exploitation of resources, but also tourism which affects the local people of islands that are taken for granted for private interests.

As stated on the exhibition’s website, Seascape Poetics engages in a form of digital placemaking where the Caribbean and its diaspora exists temporarily in a shared archipelagic space.

When entering the exhibition, viewers are situated under palm trees near a wooden house, with the sea on the horizon. On the next page of the exhibition, the sound of waves crashing and the coquí, a small frog that inhabits Puerto Rico, can be heard, letting the viewer enter into an unfamiliar environment.

The exhibition is set at dawn and takes place in a tropical environment, but not the tropicalized environment that corporations have produced to sell the Caribbean. Instead, it is an uncrowded space near the sea, depicting different ecosystems that inhabit the many islands of the Caribbean, such as mangrove trees, a type of small tree that grows in coastal waters. As all of the artists have different backgrounds, they share a space where they can draw connections in an environment that resembles their homeland.

The public can navigate throughout the exhibition with 360 controls, meaning that viewers can click and drag on the background to have a look at their surroundings. Each artist has a page to showcase their work, accompanied by a description. There is also a play button at the right of each artwork title, enabling viewers to listen to a commentary by Martinez and Cambridge.

The first art piece presented is Drawn by water. (Sea) drawings in [3] acts, Act One: Wait(Weight) on the Water (2018) by Deborah Jack, an artist whose work revolves around video and sound installations, poetry and more. This video installation, which consists of scenes of sea shorelines filmed in Saint Martin and the Netherlands, looks at memory, colonial history and climate change. The video is black and white, erasing bright colours to avoid tropicalization.

The second artwork, Labadee (2017) by Dominican-American artist Joiri Minaya, is a video that draws parallels between colonization and tourism, and questions whether tourism is ethical. The video starts with a Columbus narration in contrast to the perspective of a Caribbean Royal cruise ship sailing in the same sea that Columbus once sailed. The video was filmed in Labadee, located on the northern coast of Haiti, a private beach rented by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.,  an American cruise company. Minaya also draws attention to the impact cruise ships have on the ecosystem and the way it’s being damaged.

Moving forward, Puerto Rican artist Lionel Cruet’s Flood aftermath and other hurricane stories IV and V (2020) is a painting created on a blue tarp, the same blue tarp that was distributed to local Puerto Ricans by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover roofs that were destroyed by Hurricane Maria (2017). This artwork depicts the aftermath of the landscape after hurricanes by showing abandoned houses. Puerto Rico is still trying to recover from the event.

Then, viewers dive underwater where they can observe the work of Saint Vincent and Grenadines photographer Nadia Huggins’s Transformations No 1 (2014), depicting two images: to the left, a self-portrait of the artist underwater, her face covered in shadow and on the right, a sea urchin that emerges from the artist’s face. This artwork is significant as it draws connections between human life and marine life, where class, gender and social norms don’t exist.

Returning to the surface of the water, French-Jamaican artist Olivia Mc Gilchrist’s video installation Virtual ISLANDS (2019) shows a combination of lakes, rivers and oceans, creating ambiguity between land and water with the use of a circular lens that submerges viewers into a virtual world.

The exhibition ends with Haitian artist Jeffrey Meris’s Mouth to Mouth (2020) installation placed on the shoreline to honour overseas migrants. This artwork consists of fibreglass resin and plastic bottles sustained from a steel frame, creating an abstract version of lungs, including concepts such as breath, memory, and displacement.

The exhibition enables viewers the opportunity to understand realities that they may not be aware of, allowing them to have a better comprehension of the many stories that the Caribbean holds in its archipelagic area.

Seascape Poetics is available for viewing at https://seascapepoetics.com/ until Feb. 26.

 

Photo courtesy of 4TH Space.

Categories
Arts

A Q&A with Yiara Magazine

 A quick glance at what the arts publication has been up to this semester

There’s no doubt that Zoom University makes it harder to engage in student life and feel like you’re a part of something. In an effort to make students feel more involved and aware of what student clubs are up to, we’ll be conducting a series of interviews with various student-run organizations.

Yiara Magazine is a student-run, undergraduate feminist art publication based out of Concordia. In addition to publishing an annual print issue, they hold events such as workshops and panels. Past events have included a zine-making workshop with California-based artist Chantal Jung. Through their publication, online platform, and various events, they aim to make feminist art and art history accessible to all.

To learn more about what they’ve been up to, our arts editor spoke to Amelle Margaron and Sara Hashemi, the editors-in-chief of this year’s issue.

TC: Aside from pandemic-related changes, what is Yiara doing this year that is different from previous years?

Yiara: Lots and lots of collabs! We’ve really worked with so many different people from our creative community so far this year: artists, collectives, professors, curators, and other student organizations … Another major difference is that we’ve hired an official creative director, Stefania Bodea, who has been creating incredibly groovy graphics to promote our events and callouts, very fun and fresh.

TC: Do you still intend on producing a print issue, or will you be going the digital route?

Yiara: We’re still publishing a print issue! We’re still working out the details on how it’ll be distributed, but it’s such a big part of Yiara that we didn’t want to let that go this year.

TC: Considering the current socio-political climate, what are some adjustments and changes that Yiara is making or is planning on implementing for future years?

Yiara: Considering the evolving definition of feminism is at the center of Yiara’s mandate, it is an important part of our annual direction. As such, we make sure to feature writing and art from a diverse range of voices, in an effort to portray an accurate understanding of intersectional feminism.

TC: What are some upcoming events that readers should look forward to?

Yiara: Our virtual exhibition for Vol. 09 will launch on March 19, and we’re super excited about that! We’re also working with the art history department on a virtual exhibition that would be hosted on Artsteps throughout the summer, and will be posting a callout for that once we’ve wrapped up everything with the print issue.

TC: For anyone who might be interested in contributing or joining the team next year, when can they expect a callout?

Yiara: We usually post a callout at the beginning of the new school year, so folks coming back next year should keep an eye out for that!

Those interested in submitting written or visual work to be published on Yiara’s digital platform can submit to Yiara online via yiaraonline@gmail.com. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

For more information about Yiara Magazine’s upcoming events and annual print issue, or to know more about them, follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

Feature image: Yiara Vol. 8 cover. Courtesy of Yiara Magazine

Categories
Arts

Kicking off Out of Many with Antwaun Sargent and Yaniya Lee

Behind Jorian Charlton’s photography exhibition

As part of the online exhibition Out of Many, curator and art critic Antwaun Sargent, alongside writer and editor Yaniya Lee, hosted a conversation with Jorian Charlton. The talk, which took place online on Feb. 9, discussed the work behind Charlton’s photographs presented in the virtual exhibition.

Curated by Emilie Croning, Out of Many is presented by Wedge Curatorial Projects, a non-profit initiative promoting Black and diasporic culture, in collaboration with Gallery TPW, an artist-run centre that exhibits artistic and curatorial practices.

Antwaun Sargent is a writer who has contributed essays for museum publications and has been published by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Sargent is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion, published in 2019, which addresses the role of Black people in fashion and art today.

Yaniya Lee is a Toronto-based writer interested in the ethics of aesthetics. Lee has written for publications such as Vogue, Canadian Art, C Magazine and more.

The conversation revolved around the work of Jorian Charlton, a Toronto-based portrait photographer whose work focuses on personal experiences and Jamaican-Canadian culture.

Charlton uses digital and film photography for her work. Her photographs depict storytelling and Black representation.

The virtual exhibition includes photographs that Charlton’s father Clayton Charlton gave her. Charlton and her father’s vintage 35mm slides complete each other as they create a dialogue about family albums in contemporary time.

Charlton’s father’s images depict the 1970s to the late 1980s in Jamaica, Toronto and New York.

Through these images, viewers can see a band playing music on a bright day or men and women posing in different environments. His pictures present the past, whereas Charlton’s are the present. Together, they create a chronological line of experiences.

Charlton doesn’t know much of her father’s past as he wouldn’t share too much. She would learn details of his life from her aunts. Her father’s photographs were a small peek into the past. She remembers having asked her father about the pictures, but he would simply reply by saying that they were only pictures.

Having seen the pictures that were given to her for preservation, she thought about creating an archive that she could pass down.

“After I had my daughter, I was sort of thinking about family album archives and wanting her to have an archive for the next generation,” said Charlton. “When you think about family albums or photos from the ’80s or the ’90s, it’s usually from an American perspective.”

That is when she created her own perspective with her photographic style. Her photographs are personal, accentuating beauty and intimacy.

She eloquently captures people in pictures. Couples, siblings, and single portraits can be seen. Each photograph is a story.

[blockquote align=”left” author=””]“I just want to have more representation of us and have that be normal,” said Charlton. “I want the next generation to see themselves.”[/blockquote]

Charlton has created an archive of Black people’s lives to be looked back on. Charlton portrays them in their authenticity. She seeks to demonstrate beauty in tender photographs by showing various personalities through her lens. “I see similarities between my father’s and my pictures even though it wasn’t made on purpose,” said Charlton.

When photographing her subjects, Charlton has little involvement when it comes to telling them how to pose. She is usually quiet when taking shots to let her subjects do their own thing. Charlton keeps it as natural as possible.

[blockquote align=”right” author=””]“I want these photographs to convey a person’s truth and essence,” said Charlton. “I don’t want to manipulate things too much, I keep it as simple as I can and I want my subjects to be comfortable when I’m photographing them.”[/blockquote]

Charlton speaks of individuality. She lets her subjects be free in her images through fashion and style to let them present their stories in their own way.

Just like her father’s photographs, Charlton was able to capture tender moments that will forever live on, shedding light on a new generation of people.

In her exhibition, Charlton quotes Bell Hooks, author of In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life”, in Art On My Mind: Visual Politics (1995): “Ultimately, these images, the world they recorded, could be hidden, to be discovered at another time.”

Out of Many by Jorian Charlton is presented online until April 17.

 

Photo courtesy of Jorian Charlton.

Categories
Ar(t)chives Arts

A glimpse at John Kacere’s “body” of work

The artist painted larger-than-life depictions of the female midsection

Upon first glance, John Kacere’s paintings could be mistaken for some NSFW photos. A quick search of his name in the Google search bar yields dozens of photos of bare women’s midriffs and bottoms.

The American artist originally began his career as an abstract expressionist in the 1950s and ‘60s. Works such as Homage to Stuart Davis (1952) feature the same bold geometric shapes painted in primary colors that many artists of the same era, like Joan Miró, are recognized for. These pieces contrast many of his series from the same period, such as three works (1959-1963), which feature a collection of very minimal strokes and shapes on paper.

Kacere experimented with a variety of media, including pencil, graphite and collage, until the late 1960s, when he settled on the oil-on-canvas photorealistic style that he is known for today. One of his first works, Untitled (bikini) (1970), depicts a close-up of a woman’s bikini line. She wears white lingerie, and the shading is so detailed that it appears as though the painting is an enlarged photograph. The painting is nearly 50 inches wide and 40 inches tall — that is over three times “life size.”

The artist maintained this style for the rest of his career, assembling a collection of roughly 130 works, according to the Louis K. Meisel Gallery. Over the years, the New York City gallerist, Louis Meisel, has worked to collect them in order to offer a retrospective of Kacere’s career. Meisel is said to have discovered Kacere’s work via his wife, Susan Pear Meisel, who met Kacere in 1966 when she was a student at Parsons School of Design, where Kacere taught.

In a statement on his gallery website, Meisel writes: “I might point out that Kacere’s work CAN be seen as all three parts of realist painting, portrait, still life AND landscape.”

This quote encompasses many of the aspects present in Kacere’s paintings. Some, like Meisel, have compared the works to landscapes, describing the curve of the womens’ hips as “[building] a terrain across each canvas.” Others, like Melt, have observed the classical resemblance and quality of his work which “could be attributed to the luxurious materials and skin on display.”

While his focus on the beauty of the nude body was recognizably influenced by classical sculptures, it is also interesting to note his displays of female fashions, which make the paintings resemble still lifes. In each work, the depicted woman is clad in a new, intricate and luxurious set of lingerie, and sprawled against luscious patterned silks and satins. The fabrics are shown in a similar manner to the way most still lifes depict ceramic vases or ripe fruit.

His work has, unsurprisingly, been described as erotic and provocative. There is no doubt Kacere was fascinated with the female figure, which, of course, has raised questions regarding objectification. According to Fad, Kacere once stated that “Woman is the source of all life, the source of regeneration. My work praises that aspect of womanhood,” in reply to criticism about his chosen subject matter.

The verdict is still out among art writers and critics on whether Kacere’s work is, in fact, problematic or not. However, his “body” of work makes it clear that he redefined the way we perceive the modern female nude.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam.

Exit mobile version