Tag: Contemporary Art

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Arts and Culture Festival

MOMENTA returns to Montreal with a new face

Curator Ji-Yoon Han speaks at the first MOMENTA Vernissage: the opening of Mother, Memory, Cellophane by Séamus Gallagher, McCord Stewart Museum. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

MOMENTA’s 18th edition maintains the great axiom: the only constant is change.   

Since 1989, Montréal’s MOMENTA Biennale de l’image has brought artists from around the world to collaborate with the local creative community in celebration of contemporary art that speaks to global concerns. Expanding on its origins as an exposition of cutting edge photography, MOMENTA’s 18th edition puts forth a program of artists who employ a breadth of methodologies in their work including video, sculpture, lenticular printing, projection, performance, miniature painting, and more. 

The opening event was held at Fonderie Darling—a converted 19th century industrial building that had been abandoned in 1991 until it was revived as a visual arts centre in 2002. The repurposed foundry served as the perfect venue for the vernissage, for its history aptly suits MOMENTA’s theme for this year: Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis.

Curator Ji-Yoon Han Speaks at MOMENTA’s Opening Event, Fonderie Darling. Photo By Emma Bell / The Concordian.

In a world of fixed identities that tether us to limited ways of being, the masquerade invites us to embrace transformation, fluctuation, novelty and possibility. It is an intervention that offers a space for reimagining identity as a continuous process of becoming. 

“This biennial is about desire—it is about becoming; becoming other, becoming image, becoming oneself through the tangles of the gaze. Becoming is appearing and disappearing—showing and concealing. It is a transformation in time and space—bringing to the surface the energies of the archaic, the forgotten, the subterranean. This is about experimenting with one’s place and one’s boundaries—never affixed in this world; embracing transitional states,” said curator Ji-Yoon Han to the crowd outside the foundry. 

View of Artist Jeannette Ehlers’ Video Installation Moko Is Future (2022) in their Exhibition Play Mas, Fonderie Darling. Photo By Emma Bell / The Concordian.

MOMENTA provided 23 artists with the opportunity to exhibit a solo-show at one of the 16 participating venues around Montréal from the Mile End to the Old Port. The first exhibition to open was Séamus Gallagher’s “Mother, Memory, Cellophane” at the McCord Stewart Museum near McGill University. Han remarked that Gallagher was one of the first artists she had in mind as she was developing the theme for the biennale, for their interdisciplinary work is rooted in transformation, liminality, and motion. 

“Mother, Memory, Cellophane” is Gallagher’s first museum scale exhibition. Upon entering the gallery on the third floor of the McCord, the viewer encounters an illuminated pink platform occupied by an invisible figure wearing an extravagant plastic pink-and-blue dress with a sash that reads “Miss Chemistry.” This dramatic, phantasmic display introduces the viewer to the protagonist of the show, the ghost of Miss Chemistry.  

Gallery view of Mother, Memory, Cellophane, McCord Stewart Museum. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

The 1939 New York World’s Fair, titled “World of Tomorrow,” showcased the anticipation for rapid scientific advancement as a new dawn for society. It was here where the DuPont company launched their new nylon stockings, donned by a model named Miss Chemistry, who personified chemistry as human progress, calling her the “the plastic woman of the future.” Her stereotypical feminine beauty, enhanced by the synthetic material of the stockings, stood as a symbol of mid-20th century values and visions of the future. Today, we look back on these sensibilities with eyes that have witnessed the true legacy of the 20th century—so-called progress at the cost of violence, pollution and uninhibited consumerism. 

“It is the first time that Séamus is dealing with an historical moment,” said Han. “This is one of the reasons why we thought it would be a good match with the McCord museum.” 

McCord Stewart Museum Façade. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

The title of the show is drawn from a 1940 survey that claimed the words “Mother,” “Memory,” and “Cellophane” as the most beautiful words in the English language—a testament to the entanglements between femininity, nostalgia and synthetic material culture. These notions intertwine and constitute the character of the phantom of Miss Chemistry that Gallagher appropriates through drag performance.

Moving through the gallery, lenticular prints line the periphery of the space. The holographic quality of the surface denies the audience a fixed image to gaze upon, and rather offers an oscillation between text and image that changes along with the viewer’s movement. The print “Desire’s Inherent Vice Belongs in its Accumulation” (2023) superimposes the titular text over a still image of the artist performing as Miss Chemistry. As they perform, their face is transformed through a projection mapped onto a mask, creating layers of identity. These layers are further complicated by the shimmering surface of the print that obscures just as much as it reveals. 

Gallagher has thus created a persona that cannot be grasped; “an image that can never be seized” as Han describes it. Their technique and materials speak to the ever-shifting and evolving nature of identity and expression. Hear more from the artist during their free virtual discussion of their work on Nov. 22, 2023 at noon, which will be livestreamed on the museum’s Facebook page.

Find MOMENTA’s upcoming calendar of discussions, conferences and workshops as well as their exhibition map at their website here. The biennale will be ongoing until Oct. 22, 2023.

Categories
Arts

Introducing Lana Denina

An artist who speaks her truth through intimate art-making

Social media does have its advantages; it allows people to discover and connect with the many talented artists that share their work on social platforms.

I came across Montreal-based artist Lana Denina’s Instagram account a few months ago while scrolling on the application’s explore page. The colour palettes she uses and her detailed illustrations of faces caught my eye.

Denina, who is of Beninese and French origin, is currently studying Marketing at Concordia. She remembers copying drawings from her childhood books when she was six. Then, she started painting.

Her style is unique. Denina’s art illustrates modernity and authenticity, exploring human relationships, body movements and morphological diversity.

My paintings are greatly inspired by our era of beauty and technology,” says Denina. “I also incorporate a lot of modern fashion into my art.”

Denina combines digital art and painting, representing people of colour is important for her as she feels they should be more included in contemporary art.

She looks up to different cultures. For instance, she gets inspiration from the art of the Shōwa era, a period of time in Japan that signified the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from 1926 to 1989. Denina also admires Dan masks, traditional objects created by the Dan people, an ethnic group from Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the masks are integrated into the hierarchical system that governs political and religious life.

Her paintings are designed differently from each other. Some pieces are darker, whereas some are lighter; it all depends on Denina’s mood. The faces depicted in the artworks were envisioned by the artist, creating new beings. “They all are made-up faces from my imagination. It’s a mix of various faces I saw over the internet or in real life that I thought were unique,” said Denina.


Moi vouloir Toi (2021) is an animated painting depicting a woman with a snake on her head looking at a man. The background changes colour, from green, purple, to a fading red, giving life to the artwork.

L’ocean du regret (2021) is a self-portrait of Denina from the series Wet, a collection of paintings she created where water is always present. In this painting, viewers can observe Denina standing in the water, with a cut over her heart. The piece is about giving one’s heart to someone fighting personal battles and the way it can be harmful for both people. The piece is painted with dark red shades, making the painting seem more intimate since it’s a self-portrait and red is known to signify intimacy and passion. It’s as if Denina was portrayed in her vulnerability.

I want to show my process of evolving throughout adulthood but also tell love stories,” said Denina. “Love is extremely powerful because it transforms people into vulnerable beings. It unveils the true nature of people.”

 

 

Loving myself, suffering with myself (2021) is another astonishing work, illustrating a woman in a red background, sitting on a red couch looking at viewers. This painting is about self-love and the way it can be challenging to accept one’s self. “I mostly love my sad paintings,” added Denina. “ They express powerful feelings.”

Her most recent work, Puedes oírlo (2021), which translates to “you can hear it” in Spanish, is animated work, showing a couple sharing an intimate moment, while the sound of a heartbeat can be heard. This painting seems to be a remembrance of a past relationship, where one still remembers the heartbeat of a partner that they once heard; a sound that never left.

I’m attached to all of my paintings. All of them are unique and capture a particular emotion I was feeling at the time they were created,” said Denina.

She possesses the skills to fabricate her art with different materials. Duo Tone is a set of velvet rugs, each with a different illustration on them. She also designed a woven throw, inspired by the Suri tribe, a community from Ethiopia. A woman meditating can be seen on the throw.

“I want to tell stories about life, the good and the bad sides of life. Every human being on Earth is different and has [their] own story,” said Denina. “I want to represent people as much as I can.” For the moment, Denina is working on a silk scarf she is designing.“The sky really is the limit, I have so many ideas. Lots of new projects are coming up soon but cannot be revealed yet!”

Viewers can keep up with Lana Denina’s work on her website and Instagram.

 

Photos courtesy of Lana Denina.

Categories
Opinions

Stickin’ it to this ‘cheeky’ sculpture

McCarthy’s large art installation, named “Tree”, caused a controversy in Paris and around the world for its tongue-in-cheek obscenity. Photo from @_youhadonejob on Twitter.

In the case of contemporary art, we should pull the plug

I love art. In fact, I believe that most people can come to appreciate art to some extent. From music, plays, movies and paintings, art is a part of our lives that all of us can relate to. Art is beautiful, art is expressive and—most importantly—art is provoking. So when I say that Paul McCarthy’s giant inflatable butt plug is an affront to artistic integrity, take those previous sentences into consideration and you’ll realize that I’m not just being surly.

Propping up a giant inflatable sex toy in the middle of Paris isn’t beautiful, it isn’t relatable, and it’s less provoking than watching reruns of Friends in slow motion. It’s tragically bland, carries no message and putting sexy things on display has been done a lot more gracefully in the past anyway. Quite simply put, it isn’t art, and it shouldn’t even be categorized as anything other than flushing down a load of money. It’s a tired fart joke, a farce that you might get a laugh from if you’re a teenager, or if you’ve never seen a butt plug before.

McCarthy’s large art installation, named “Tree”, caused a controversy in Paris and around the world for its tongue-in-cheek obscenity. Photo from @_youhadonejob on Twitter.

McCarthy’s anal stimulating balloon, named “Tree”, he says, was meant as “abstract” and “a joke,” or so he told CBC. When I read comments like this in regards to a project of this magnitude, I’m outraged. While hundreds of artists toil away at making a living day-by-day, working minimum wage jobs to survive while working undyingly hard on often beautiful projects, Paris decides to throw dosh in the direction of this abomination. The livelihoods of artists who are genuinely trying goes by completely ignored, while what we get on display is this travesty—this so-called “joke”—put forth by someone who obviously had no idea what to do when they were asked to undertake this project. I’ll say it again, this butt-plug isn’t art and neither is shitting in a bucket and calling it “abstract.”

I understand what avant-garde is, don’t get me wrong, but attempts like these skirt on the borders of pretentious. It doesn’t generate anything, culturally, it doesn’t provoke thought, hell it’s not even the least bit edgy. It’s just dumb.

Unsurprisingly, this tall, green ass-toy was defaced roughly a week ago. It was folded up, and taken away rather quickly, much to the grumbling of those who invested in this catastrophe. Fleur Pellerin, the delightful culture minister, called this “a serious attack on the principle of artistic freedom,” when in reality, that “sculpture” was an attack on the principles of artistic integrity. You don’t feel the need to deface proper art, because it reaches out to you. There’s no outrage, no cry for justice for McCarthy’s project, because unlike real art, it didn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t mean anything if they propped up a giant black dildo, an inflatable fleshlight, or a pair of silicon breasts. The butt-plug isn’t some deep metaphor for accepting the diversity of sexual pleasure, or whatever sort of garbage you can dig up from the annals of some artistic philosophy textbook. It’s a giant load of cash thrown in the direction of a big artist who simply didn’t know what to do this time around. Paul McCarthy’s a phenomenal artist—look up his sculptures like Boxhead—they’re incredible and well-designed, unlike this monstrosity.

Right now, though, I grieve for the loss of this green travesty. Not because McCarthy’s work was defaced and scrapped, but because the work of thousands of other artists was ignored in its stead.

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