Tag: art

Categories
Arts

September arts & culture festival masterlist

Don’t get too cozy yet! The weather was strangely warm this week and it appears it’ll stay that way for another… so get off the couch! Take a study break and go check out these festivals happening all over Montreal this fall! Oh, and if you haven’t seen any part of the Momenta Biennale, do that too!

 

THIS WEEK

LadyFest
Returning for its fifth year, LadyFest is a comedy festival celebrating femme and non-binary talents. I had the opportunity to go last year and had such a great time! Did I mention that I went back to watch a show alone… and sat in the front row? I didn’t even anxiety-hurl! LadyFest is truly soul food. Anyway, this magnificent happening ends Saturday, Sept. 21, so get your tickets here or at Théatre St-Catherine. For more information visit http://ladyfest.ca

 

Feminist Film Festival
No one will be turned away for lack of funds at this intersectional film festival! With local and international film shorts, FFF promises to challenge gender norms and feature strong female leads.

The schedule is as follows:

Sept. 21 at Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ), 5154 St-Hubert St.
4:30 p.m. – The Different Faces of Maternity

Sept. 22 at Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ), 5154 St-Hubert
St. 6:30 p.m. – Racialized Points of View

 

Stop Motion Festival
A fabulous contributor covered the Stop Motion Festival last year and completely overwhelmed me with the number of cool workshops that took place. Largely based on Concordia’s campus, this festival screens at the J.A. de Sève Cinema in the Hall building, in the EV building’s main auditorium, the LB atrium, and at Mckibbin’s Pub on Bishop St. Grab a beer and freak out about some sick animation until Sept. 22. View the full schedule here.

 

NEXT WEEK

Sept. 24-29: Montreal International Black Film Festival
I’ve attended the MIBFF since I started writing for The Concordian. Each year, my eyes are opened wider than the last. I was particularly fascinated by last year’s documentary on the reclamation of Dutch wax fabric, one of the most popular textiles in Africa.

With programs for youth, discussions, markets, and screenings, of course, this festival – opening with a tribute to Harriet Tubman – isn’t one to miss. For more information and tickets, visit http://montrealblackfilm.com/

Sept. 25-28: VIVA! Art Action
Taking place in the industrial heart of St-Henri, the VIVA! Biennial will feature over 20 artists from all over the world, including a handful from Montreal and a couple from Concordia! Performances, workshops, conferences, and other participatory experiences take the forefront at this festival, where lines between the artist and the viewer are blurred. Keep your eyes peeled for this one.

 

Sept. 25-29: POP Montreal
Hello fall festival queen, are you a person who likes to spend all day at art shows and all night at concerts and movies at the same time? Yes? Me too. Last year’s POP Montreal drained my soul in the best possible way. I have fond memories of walking to and from venues with POP’s specialty drink in my hand.

Committing to the festival means discovering new spaces and experiences you wouldn’t typically find yourself in. Queer visibility and sexuality, the underlying theme of Art POP, connects various satellite exhibitions across Montreal. Partnerships include UQAM, artist-run center Articule, and Elephant gallery – where Concordia-based creator Skawennati has developed a virtual portrait project with youth from Montreal North and Kahnawake.

It doesn’t stop there. In addition to art and music, POP Montreal includes a segment of symposium talks (which cross disciplines between art, music, queer theory, etc.) and film screenings at the glorious Cinema Moderne in the Mile End.

 

There is ALWAYS something happening in Montreal. No matter the weather. The end of September just so happens to be the sleepiest and busiest time ever. Yeah, yeah Green Day, I’ll wake you up when September ends, (that’s a lie I will wake you up now so you can festival hop.) Happy fall! Stay hydrated! Wash your hands!

Categories
Arts

Feeling, touching, and hearing performance art

Art is and, for the most part, always has been a feast for the eyes. It is delightful to look at a painting and recognize the emotion in the subject’s facial expression, to experience a multicoloured light show at a concert, and to watch costumes glittering as dancers sway and leap during a performance. But what if you could not see? How does one experience art if they cannot see?

Blindfolds are required throughout the performance and audience members are directed through the performance, through touch, music, and narration.

This is a question that Audrey-Anne Bouchard wants to answer. Bouchard is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, and professor at Concordia and the National Theatre School of Canada. Her latest show camille: un rendez-vous au délà du visuel is currently being presented at Montréal, Arts Interculturels (MAI) in the Plateau.

“I asked myself, what do people who cannot see at all retain from a dance performance or theatre?” said Bouchard. “They were telling me that they are always aware that [they are] missing a part of the show, so I came up with the hope of creating a piece where they wouldn’t be missing anything.”

camille: au délà du visuel, a performance piece which tells the story of a loss of friendship, aims to create an immersive, multi-sensory experience.

“I knew from the very beginning that [the show] was going to be immersive,” said Bouchard. “For me, it meant that the spectator would be immersed in the set of the piece; they would be able to understand through space, touch, sound, and texture, the environment in which it takes place.”

Inspired by her own disability, Bouchard created au délà du visuel, or beyond sight, a project aiming to enable a new audience－one who normally wouldn’t be able to access theatre and dance shows－to experience performance art.

“[The loss of my eyesight] came very progressively,” explained Bouchard, who suffers from Stargardt’s disease. “I started losing sight when I was around 17 but it took several months before they could find out what the origin of the problem was.”

Bouchard, who has always worked within the performing arts, noted that it only occurred to her about 10 years after the fact that her practice is very visual.

“It’s interesting because I created a job for myself where I can work with my eyes closed; I created a context where my disability is not a disability at all,” she said. ‘“I did a lot of research on the visual aspect of theatre and dance and I realized that this is kind of a paradox, that I’m losing sight and working with such a visual discipline.”

This inspired Bouchard to further her research and discover what it is that artists share through their art that does not necessarily have to be shared through sight.

“It was obvious then that the piece had to be immersive,” explained Bouchard. “To share with people, I need to be close with my performers.”

camille: au délà du visuel allows for the spectator to be fully immersed in the set, alongside the performers. Blindfolds are required for those without any visual impairments and audience members are directed through the performance, through touch, music, and narration.

“We also welcome people who have different kinds of disabilities,” said Bouchard. “We can guide you through a show if you’re in a wheelchair.”

Bouchard noted that the distance between the stage and the audience is what makes performance art very visual, by default.

“If we eliminate that distance then we have access to all of [the spectators’] tools,” she explained. “[We had to find out] how can you share the performance of an actor when you don’t see him.”

The development of the project took over three years and was very theoretical. “We created a new creative process methodology with this project,” Bouchard said. Through working with people who are visually-impaired and through research, Bouchard created a new way to work.

“To share with people, I need to be close with my performers,” explained Bouchard.

This new process methodology inspired Bouchard and the team of performers and artists she works with to develop a series of workshops.

“We designed a workshop to teach students or other artists how to work that way,” Bouchard said. “I think that now we have to keep working and creating work altogether for an audience living with visual disabilities and other disabilities that we would like to address as well.” Bouchard’s workshops, which will be both interactive and theoretical, are in the works and will be further developed over the course of the upcoming year.

“I see a desire from the arts consult to encourage more accessibility […] to all kinds of audiences who don’t normally have access to the arts,” said Bouchard. “It is becoming more and more present, and it’s changing. I’m benefiting from it, but I’m also hoping to help make it happen in the future; I hope that my work is also a great example of how the creative process that we use everyday works, but that there are so many other ways to create art that can be explored.”

camille: un rendez-vous au délà du visuel is being presented until Sept. 22, at Montréal, arts interculturels, at 3680 Jeanne-Mance St., suite 103. Further details regarding showtimes can be found at www.m-a-i.qc.ca

 

Photos courtesy of Laurence Gagnon Lefebvre

Categories
Arts

An auto-ethnography to embrace new beginnings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Feature photo courtesy of the artist

Categories
Arts

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

Mesmerizing. Ingenious.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Arts

Happening in and around the White Cube this week…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Graphic by Ana Bilokin (Archive) 

Shining a neon light on the history of ink

Tattoo Box Traditional’s storefront. Photo by Victoria Lewin.

At Tattoo Box Traditional, you’ll learn about more than just tattoo aftercare

Decked out in blown up portraits of World War I veterans and acetates dating back to the early 1900s, the walls of recently opened Tattoo Box Traditional tell a story. Artist Kate Middleton, living in France and working out of Montreal, began construction at Tattoo Box Traditional in August of last year. Originally meant to combat construction planned on Pine Ave. W., where her primary shop is located, she’s now hoping for the new location to double as a tattoo museum.

Artist Liam Lavoie tattoos his colleague on a quiet day at Tattoo Box Traditional. Photo by Victoria Lewin.

Collecting historical acetates and framed prints from artists she’s worked with over her career, Middleton has adorned the shop with bits and pieces of tattoo history. While the location only opened this summer, Owen Jensen, Sailor Jerry, Walter Torun, Zeke Owens and Jack Rudy are just a few noteworthy mentions who’s artwork can already be seen at Tattoo Box Traditional. Middleton said she’s only just getting started, “I have so much memorabilia that I have yet to get in there.”

Middleton holds up the sketchbook of renowned artist Zeke Owens, who tattooed service men and women during and pre-war. Photo by Victoria Lewin.

While residing in Avignon, France, Middleton also runs Livre and Let Die Books and Art Supplies on Pine Ave. E., as well as a small media studio out of California, her hometown. Ensuring the shop promotes a safe and open space for staff and clientele is one of Middleton’s top priorities. Being a female and lesbian tattoo artist, she said “misogyny is the biggest hurdle I’ve ever had to overcome, in myself and facing it from others. That needs to be ended before anyone or any gay woman can progress in their life.” Though the essence of Middleton’s vision is to showcase tattoo history, artwork that is traditionally misogynistic, racist, and otherwise offensive won’t make the cut in this tattoo museum.

An acetate from the early 1900s by famous American tattoo artist Paul Rogers. Photo by Victoria Lewin.
As a lesbian woman, Middleton works hard to ensure the shop maintains an open, safe space for all LGBTQ+ individuals. Photo by Victoria Lewin.
Artists work on various projects during the snowstorm in Montreal on Feb. 13. Photo by Victoria Lewin.
The shop offers free breast cancer ribbon and semicolon tattoos, symbolizing depression. Photo by Victoria Lewin.
Shop decor includes walls of art from various artists Middleton has met and worked with over the years. Photo by Victoria Lewin.

 

Tattoo Box Traditional is located at 1757 Amherst St. More information can be found on their website: tattooboxmontreal.com.

Photos by Victoria Lewin.

Categories
Arts

Finding intimacy and community through art

How To Be A Good Hostess questions traditional feminine gender ideals, through reimagined domestic objects. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Somewhere Shared challenges traditional art viewing spaces

How does physicality and space influence the way we view art? How can challenging traditional structures of art viewing, such as galleries, influence intimacy and community?

These are some of the questions that local art collective Somewhere Shared considered in creating their recent event, Somewhere Inside: A Cozy Wintertime Show.

Somewhere Shared is a Montreal based art collective, created by Concordia students and artists Rachelle Alexandra Fleury, Erica Hart, Olivia Deresti-Robinson, and Maggie Hope. Created in the summer of 2017, the collective has held several events that showcase work by local artists. The group focuses on creating spaces and opportunities for local artists, and transforming everyday environments into spaces for art sharing.

Somewhere Inside: A Cozy Wintertime Show took place on Feb. 2, at the Art Loft, in the Plateau. In organizing the event, the collective began with a thematic focus, which then influenced the space the show would take place in, and the art that would be featured. The show focused on ideas of intimacy, the home and the domestic space. The collective’s overarching themes of community building were also incorporated. Keeping this in mind, the collective searched for comfort in the Art Loft, which is both a home and an event location. While the venue serves as a living space for several, it also regularly turns into an event space for local music and comedy shows. The event’s environment exemplified the focus on accessibility and community that the collective values—the live music and film screening further challenged traditional gallery spaces, and removed the seriousness that is regularly present in more traditional gallery settings. It appeared that community connection was just as big a focus as the art was, as for most of the evening, everyone mingled, talked, and interacted with each other and the art.

Lindsey Lagemaat’s Earring considers the connection between capitalism and intimacy, or lack thereof. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

While going through the submissions, it was important for the collective to try to feature as many different perspectives and interpretations of the themes as possible. This was to make sure that, overall, the work being shown would be diverse and complex, adding to the overall concept and the viewer’s understandings and interactions with the show.

Somewhere Inside featured a variety of works, including sculpture, film and live music. Artists featured included Lindsey Lagemaat, a Concordia fibres student, who’s pink, textural, hanging sculpture considers the connection between capitalism and intimacy, or lack thereof. Artist Tiana Atheron, who studies fibres and crafts at Concordia, showcased an interactive work, titled How To Be A Good Hostess, which questions traditional feminine gender ideals, through reimagined domestic objects, such as a broom and a duster, and having instructions for viewers for how to interact with the artwork. As the venue for the event was an apartment and living space, already decorated with art on the walls, the collective worked to find diverse pieces, many that weren’t to be simply hung on the wall, but instead be interacted with by the viewer.

Merival performing at Art Loft for Somewhere Inside. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

The event also held a sit-down film screening and live musical performances from Sara Jarvie Clark, Merival, and Yum! Jarvie Clark is a Concordia theatre student, and a folk-americana-classical musician. Merival is the name of Toronto singer-songwriter Anna Horvath’s musical project, which draws inspiration from ideas of vulnerability. Yum! consists of Concordia students Tyson Burger, Nathan Walsh and Eddy Jackson, who create music that draws from folk, house and punk genres.

In June 2017, Somewhere Shared held an event in an apartment shared by three of the creators, to showcase artwork, music and merchandise created by the collective and their friends. This event looked at generating revenue for the artists from their work, and led to the collective working on future art events. These events continued to focus on their values of supporting local artists, and challenging traditional norms of how we view and interact with art. The collective also finds importance in community building, fostering both connection and intimacy through art.

In June of 2018, Somewhere Shared held its second event, Play. For Play, Somewhere Shared also collaborated with local collective Dress Up Montreal, whose mandate expresses their focus, in being; “an initiative aimed at encouraging self-expression through fashion.” The show took place in an artist’s apartment and rooftop, and featured many local artists, interactive pieces and live music. The event was centered around the concept of playing, or finding freedom, nostalgia and innocence through interacting with art.

Looking to the future, Somewhere Shared hopes to continue to curate different experiences, with a possibility of another show taking place this coming summer. Meanwhile, each of the members of the collective are continuing to practice and create their respective crafts and art practices.

Spotlight on Noah Baret

Noah Baret

Honeybee Series (2018)

My name is Noah Baret. I’m a first year photography student. My formal work is mostly rooted in portrait—this can be seen in my most recent series. The aim of Honeybee was to depict masculine beauty without the use of traditionally masculine framing.

I was inspired by the recent popularity of discourse on the relation between masculinity and beauty. I aspired to frame the models in a way that embraces both masculinity and beauty, proving that these two qualities can coalesce in a harmonious way. Honeybee celebrates men’s beauty without depicting it as feminine or masculine, but rather simply depicting it as an intrinsically human characteristic.

I also took inspiration from the work of Anthony Goicolea and modern high-fashion editorials. Like Goicolea, I wanted to keep my subjects in neutral colours and uniform-esque outfits. This technique directs the focus to body position and facial expression rather than branding. I framed the boys as models in high-fashion editorials are framed because I believe that the camera work used in high-fashion amplifies models and creates an image that is both intimidating and empowering. These inspirations helped me create striking images with a predominant focus on male beauty.

Instagram: @noahbaret

Website: noahbaret.com

Photos courtesy of the artist

Spotlight on Erica Hart

Erica Hart

I am an interdisciplinary artist and studio art major exploring psychology and mental health through a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, writing, performance art and video. Specifically, I am interested in researching vulnerability by investigating its relationship to shame, worthiness, intimacy, childhood and identity. In my early work, I explored painting bright colourful figures. My figures were playful, flat and referenced a child-like style. I didn’t fully understand why I loved this child-like painting until I started my vulnerability research. I was looking at overwhelming emotion and how we express it, and as I came to realize, vulnerability is something that children are the best at. They cry, they tantrum, and they understand the necessity of emotional release. My current work continues to investigate child-like sensibilities while also exploring psychology and mental health through personal healing and therapy via grounding exercises and emotional release techniques as a tool to propel my artistic practice.

Instagram: @erica_hart

Website: iamericahart.com

Photos courtesy of the artist

Spotlight on Rachelle Alexandra Fleury

Rachelle Alexandra Fleury

My name is Rachelle Alexandra Fleury and I am a multimedia artist from New York, currently based in Montreal. I am heading into my final year at Concordia with a double major in studio arts and art history, as well as a minor in psychology.

Throughout my childhood I trained and performed as a classical ballet dancer, which sparked my interest in performance arts and fashion design. I then took a more formal approach and combined these interests through costume and set design. In recent years, I have developed my paintings, drawings and material practices by exploring the space between craft and fine art. The role of women in domestic environments further inspired my work, and this “reuse” of female experience has influenced my interest in reusing materials and crafting techniques.

 

 

Photos courtesy of the artist

Categories
Opinions

A prescription for the museum

Graphic by Ana Bilokin

Art therapy is a better way to approach mental health issues, not a trip to a museum

According to CNN, doctors in Scotland have been handing out “nature” prescriptions to patients with depression and high blood pressure amid evidence that spending time outdoors and getting in touch with nature helps ease symptoms. I personally do not find this difficult to believe, as someone who experiences anxiety and depression and has been treated for both. What I do find difficult to believe, however, is a prescription to the museum.

Montreal doctors, in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, will now give out “museum prescriptions,” citing the benefits of cultural experiences on mental health and wellness, according to Global News. I believe it’s important to first examine the evidence supporting the impact of art and nature on mental health. I am all for certain forms of nature therapy, though I hesitate to embrace museum therapy.

It may be beneficial to prescribe a patient with a trip to the museum to help them get through what they’re experiencing, until a proper diagnosis can be determined. However, I believe that immediately medicating when further examination is needed isn’t the best route, especially if other forms of treatment can help. If the symptoms are mild, or if used alongside other treatments in more severe cases, I think the suggestion of getting closer to nature holds merit.

A psychiatrist suggested I purchase a SAD lamp, which mimics natural light to help symptoms of seasonal and non-seasonal depression while I awaited further evaluation. I found this to be helpful. Maybe fresh air and real natural light can have similar or better effects, especially given the implied exercise. Exercise is known to increase blood flow and release endorphins, improving mental and physical health, sleep, appetite, libido and quality of life for people suffering from mild-to-moderate depression, ADHD and anxiety.

Doctor Diane Poirier representing Médecins Francophones du Canada in the Global News article said the study is a pilot project that involved the museum doing research on the benefits art has on mental health. The act of prescribing a trip to the museum is not art therapy given by a licensed art therapist. It’s also not nature exposure or physical activity, both of which have evidence that supports their effectiveness. Art therapy is supervised by professionals who have training to assist the patient, whereas a trip to the museum is self managed. Although I can’t say it isn’t effective, I think it’s important to not call it therapy, as unlike nature exposure or physical activity, it’s doesn’t have an immediate range of effects nor is it supervised by a professional.

Art therapy with an art therapist can have evidence-supported benefits, according to several studies. In my opinion, however, this doesn’t just entail sending patients to the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal (MBAM) to stare at some Renaissance paintings and stop feeling empty inside. Most kinds of therapy, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and art therapy are guided by professionals. Going outdoors is patient-managed, but there are observable physical effects to exercising and being outdoors. If the patient is offered other options but chooses museum therapy, so be it. I would still hope medical professionals suggest treatments that have more effectiveness first. It was not specified how doctors will determine whether a museum prescription is a good option, and when they will prescribe more effective treatments versus participation in this study.

I wonder what would happen if psychologists and therapists were accessible and covered by Medicare, given that waitlists for mental health services at the CLSC are terrible and resources at schools can vary based on demand. People suffering from depression are navigating a very difficult system and can spend a lot of time going back and forth until properly diagnosed. It may do patients a disservice if they do a study rather than be offered effective treatment, unless this is truly what the patients want.

Even if the museum trips work to an extent, art therapy itself has proven benefits. Therapy administered and followed by a professional is structured and effective, yet incredibly difficult to access. The museum therapy idea appears to be a way to mimic some of the results of art therapy without providing a patient access to a professional. The government needs to put more funding into mental health services. When everyone has a range of accessible options, they have better chances of hitting the mark.

Graphic by Ana Bilokin

Categories
Student Life

Collective intervention is needed

The Rialto Theatre is on Park Ave, near the Outremont metro station. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Everyone, especially artists, are economic agents for deregulation and gentrification

In a dimly lit basement, at the end of meandering halls beneath the performance hall of the Rialto Theatre, an eclectic group of concerned citizens gathered to openly discuss the nexus of artists, real estate inflation and shifting cultural demographics.

Gentrification: The Role of Artists in Changing Neighbourhoods took place on Saturday, Sept. 29 as part of a collaboration between POP Montreal Symposium and Concordia’s Fine Art Student Alliance (FASA). The array of panelists included both artists and those who work with non-profit social housing organizations and as community organizers in neighbourhoods affected by gentrification.

Cathy Inouye, a musician who has fought against many issues related to housing and poverty for more than 10 years, opened her segment by saying that an important thing to remember when talking about gentrification is that human beings are losing their homes or being evicted from their apartments. Faiz Abhuani, the co-founder of Brique Par Brique, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create affordable living spaces for marginalized people, agreed.

“I think it’s important to start with that baseline,” he said. “The reason why we’re talking about this is because there are real effects on real people.”

Gentrification is a multi-faceted issue that “happens across the city, not just in areas where artists are moving,” Inouye said. Abhuani contextualized the historic development of gentrification with artists and the North American economic shift over the last century from industrial labour services to cultural forms of production.

“People thought: ‘I really need to be around the people I’m like’ … and ‘I need to be close to places where culture is produced,’” Abhuani said. He explained that this economic shift prompted those with sufficient financial means to migrate to urban centres. These ongoing demographic migrations, from a capitalist-marketing standpoint, continue to justify urban development in regions that push people from lower-income brackets out of their homes.

“The people who benefit from these changes and from these large economic forces are the people who have means,” Abhuani said. “And the people who don’t [have financial means] are the ones who end up biting the bullet [and] having to move around.”

In gentrification, the role of artists—in this case, referring to individuals with the social status and capital to make a career from their art—lies in the fact that mass migration to more affordable neighbourhoods creates economic speculation, explained Fred Burrill, a Concordia PhD student who currently works with local non-profit organizations to fight for the right to housing in Place St-Henri.

“[Speculation] is a very intentional, state-driven process of changing the ways that [housing] investment is configured,” Burrill said. Speculation increases the property value in a community, and the demographic shift brought by artists provides local governments with a marketable, discursive framework that justifies their desire for urban development in alleged “up-and-coming” communities.

According to Burrill, the goal of speculation is to “turn the housing market from something that is based on supply and demand to something that is essentially a concrete manifestation of the stock market.” He used Griffintown in Montreal as an example. “[Artists] are all actively part of an ideological apparatus that’s used to justify deregulation.”

Artists often positively frame their contributions to the cultural fabric of a neighbourhood as genuinely representative of that community and reflective of their deep connection to its residents. However, Abhuani said this is a dangerous mentality because artists with social status are able to sell this culturally appropriated art and capitalize on it, while those without esteemed social status cannot. “So, maybe you shouldn’t do that, number one. Number two, why are you [in that neighbourhood]?” asked Abhuani. “You’re not there in a vacuum … You’re not just trying to create. You’re not just trying to survive. You’re trying to get ahead.”

All of the panelists agreed that the presence of artists in low-income neighbourhoods brings systemic gentrification to the community through selective state investment in development projects because cities want to support cultural hubs. Although artists may also be affected by rental increases and have to leave the neighbourhood, Abhuani explained, many of them not only have the social capital to relocate, “but they like doing that; they want to be on the forefront [of living] in certain neighborhoods.”

Inouye shared an observation from when she lived in New Orleans as a tuba player in 2012. “You could really see the mostly white kids from New York or from San Francisco moving in,” she explained. “You could see this hunger that people had to kind of own that beautiful magic that exists in New Orleans, and you could see them really wanting to connect with the community that had been there—the community that had lived through Katrina … You could really see this process unfolding, and it was so similar to colonialism.”

Inouye added that while it isn’t bad to want to connect with a given community, it is necessary to keep in mind how different people occupy the space in that community and how social and physical capital change the way people interact with that space.

Most concerned artists will ask themselves, “What can I do, as an artist, to fight against gentrification?” which, Burrill explained, is the wrong question. Artists and people in general should simply ask what needs to be done, without placing the individual at the epicentre of change. While the panelists agreed that gentrification can be throttled through the acquisition of real estate and income disparity can be bridged by wealth redistribution, concrete plans to combat these systemic issues still aren’t being enacted.

Despite some differences of opinion between the panelists, they all seemed to agree that one of the first steps to combating gentrification is community mobilization. Burrill explained that there tends to be an element of individualism when talking about the housing market and gentrification, with arguments such as encouraging better knowledge of tenant rights to avoid eviction and to fairly rent out living spaces.

“What actually needs to happen is that we need to intervene collectively in the [housing] market,” Burrill said. This would entail the city buying empty lots, removing them from the realm of speculation and reserving them for social housing projects, he explained. That, or artists can literally make their neighbourhoods more ugly, he said as a joke. “Beautification of neighborhoods without collective intervention in the housing market is simply a tool of development.”

Main photo by Alex Hutchins

Exit mobile version