Tag: Fine Arts

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Arts

The material and the mystical

In conversation with student artist Teddy Desmarais…

In experiencing Teddy Desmarais’s artwork, viewers are transported into a mystical, surreal world, one in which puppets, castles, and costuming are everywhere. Creating vivid, intricately detailed characters and a world of the surreal, Desmarais shows expansive imagination within their art, while reimagining reality and their personal environment.

Desmarais is a multidisciplinary artist, who grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, and moved to Montreal two years ago. They are in their second year at Concordia, studying fibres and film animation, through which their practice explores concepts such as personal queer identity, organically made and handmade art, and materiality. These themes are considered through the use of recycled materials, along with a central focus on puppetry and costuming. Their practice includes amazingly detailed fibre works that invoke a sense of the surreal and mystical—a recent work includes a puppet dollhouse castle. The castle, decorated with different fibres and intricate detail brings together puppet and costume forms. It’s complete with a spot for Desmarais to put their face into the form, incorporating the artist’s physical presence into the work.

Exploring different mediums and finding influence from their environment, not to mention their own experiences and identity, Desmarais’ art truly stands on its own.

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Currently, what are some of the main focuses, mediums and themes within your work?

“I’ve always been very multidisciplinary and multi-medium based, but for the most part I tend to use a lot of recycled materials for 3D work (fabric scraps, magazines, cardboard, plastic). I do 2D work as well on a regular

basis, but I wouldn’t say it’s the focus of my practice. Right now, I’m trying to make my work a little more meticulous. I’ve been compelled by effortlessness and intuition for a while, but I really want to learn as much as I can—while I’m here in school—about the materials I can use and get better with them or even venture into realms of other mediums I normally shy away from, like resin and moulds and organics.

“I really believe that handmade objects have inherent magical qualities, and I love the idea of creating something from start to finish myself.” Photo courtesy of the artist.

I’m on a little bit of a quest to build enveloping costumes and environments either through film with stop motion and performance, or with live experiences. This, as the root of my practice, is inherently an expression and exploration of my own queer identity and how I feel I genuinely interact with the world and its speed of demand and explanation. I really believe that handmade objects have inherent magical qualities, and I love the idea of creating something from start to finish myself, especially as industrial habits grow incredibly against that. Puppets really combine all those aspects to me: a melting pot of costume, performance, character design, sets, and movement. So fibres has been definitely excellent for that. I was very starstruck first learning how to hand-dye things and embroider and quilt!”

Have you worked in other mediums and focuses? What was the transition and process to get to your practice now?

“I have always been so absorbed in too many things and ideas that by the time I applied for university it was very difficult to narrow down what I really wanted to do, until I began hyperfocusing my attention on stop motion, puppets and costumes. As far as art-based mediums go, I was always a really good knitter and felter as a kid. I’ve been highly sensitive all my life and I remember wanting to make things that felt sentient and fantastic and captivating. Although I was always obsessed with costumes, sets and decorating, my practice in itself used to be very heavily limited to drawing, ceramics, painting and occasionally silkscreening. Then, I slowly started integrating cartoons and collages and eventually moved to watercolours. I took a sculpture course in fall 2016 and a ceramics course in winter 2018 and I think that was what really started to push me in the right direction. I made a wizard costume in January 2017 and my first puppet in spring 2017, right around when I went down a wormhole of revisitin

g James and the Giant Peach, The Neverending Story and other beautifully handcrafted puppet-based films. I have been in love with exploring puppetry, set building and costumes, and combining the two ever since. My most recent costume, a puppet dollhouse castle that I wear with my face sticking out the middle and my legs out the bottom, is a sincere expression of this growing infatuation with exploring this self-sustained medium.”

How have Concordia and Montreal, vs. B.C., influenced your work, if at all?

“Growing up in Victoria was fulfilling in a mystical way, considering how spiritually charged the environment is, and how a lot of weird stuff happens because of that, but it was also, hilariously, a lot of being bored and creating your own fun. Which lead, curiously, to spending a lot of time with friends galavanting around in costumes, taking photos and sneaking about. This kind of carefree, goofy,

creative habit and attitude is definitely something I feel like inherently exists in Montreal, which makes it a prime stomping ground for authentic exploration and fun, something I feel is a vital piece to the puzzling growth of my work.”

 

“I have been in love with exploring puppetry, set building and costumes, and combining the two ever since.” Photo courtesy of the artist.

In general, what are some influences within your work?

“I think the things I’m most drawn to are always in flux, but I’m attracted to things that feel like a mirror to my subconscious, and things that appear as endearing surprises. This can be anything that dips into unlearning censorship and encouraging mischief and chaos and involuntary tomfoolery (but coming from a place of tenderness of course!). Specifically, I’ve always been very inspired by goofy medieval art, as well as absent-minded scribbles and children’s drawings. Recently I’ve been really getting into enchanting environmental facets like shadows and lightning and rainbows and old memories and bugs. And I’ll always be in love with teeth and wind chimes and secret passages and antiques and old things in general too! Fairy tales, things that are poorly sewn together, towers and cobwebs and dreams are in my heart and 100 per cent unavoidably evident now as an influence in my practice. I think a lot of things that influence me too are ultimately based on what connects the most to how I see and feel things, trying to understand the foam bubbling in my brain. It’s likely why I’m so attracted to odds and ends that are magically charged, anything that tugs at the intuitive heart strings in my chest is something I try to learn from and pursue.”

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Desmarais has participated in several local art shows in Victoria, B.C. More of their work can be found at @goodknight_ted on Instagram.

 

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Arts

The Art Hive is a safe space for all

The Art Hive is dedicated to students’ creative expression, without judgement

Creation, self-care, and skill-sharing—Concordia’s Art Hive provides a serene environment where everyone can create. Run by the school’s creative art therapy students, this space provides students and the university’s community with a place to relax, decompress and work with a variety of creative materials. The Art Hive works to provide an inclusive space for the community, with the intention to connect, share skills and create.

There are a variety of Art Hives located across Montreal, which provide community connection and artistic resources to varied neighbourhoods throughout the city. Concordia’s very own Hive is free, open to all, and wheelchair accessible. It also works with the university’s Centre For Creative Reuse (CUCCR) to provide recycled and reused materials, creating a sustainable foundation for art-making.

This space is dedicated to students’ creative expression, without judgement, whether they have previous experience with the arts or not. Students use it for self care in periods of academic stress, to work on creative school or community projects, or to meet other people from diverse backgrounds around a constructive activity.” – Rachel Chainey, Art Hive Network national coordinator.

Its location within a university arguably heightens the significance and value of the Art Hive’s mandates and resources. In an academic environment that generates a lot of stress, intensity and focus on productivity, the Art Hive provides a space for people to remove themselves from that environment and take time to relax, be creative and work without an agenda or a deadline.

The Art Hive is for people of all disciplines, whether fine arts or any other department of study. Artistic spaces can often be intimidating and may appear or act as an exclusive environment, deterring some from becoming involved. The Art Hive is a resource specifically for the community, and its mandates work to make sure it is inclusive, accessible and comfortable for all.

For those who are experienced in fine arts, the Art Hive provides a more relaxed space to create and practice a craft, contrasting with the typical academic format of deadlines, critiques and specific criteria. Instead, students can create without these pressures and perhaps find further inspiration for their other work. In studying fine arts and creating work exclusively for a curriculum to be graded, the magic and joy in art can be lost, to a certain extent. By providing an environment specifically for the wellbeing of the community, with no structure or need for a specific finished product, fine arts students can once again find their passion and inspiration, or just create artwork in a space focused on providing peacefulness and freedom for all.

With ties to art therapy, the Art Hive uses creation as a therapeutic practice. Along with its regular scheduling and space, the Art Hive also offers a Pop Up Art Hive at the Zen Den in the university’s Counselling and Psychological Services department space. The space works to give visitors a calm, comfortable environment to decompress and practice mindfulness, while also having support and staff on-hand for those who are struggling or simply need some support.
The mental wellness aspect of the Art Hive is another major component of the organization and what it can provide to the community. As students, mental health—which can be affected by stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed—can be a prominent concern. It’s not always easy or accessible for students to reach out or receive help for these concerns. It is also often difficult to acknowledge the need for extra support. This space has direct ties to therapeutic practices and removes some of the potentially daunting aspects of reaching out for help, while still working to provide a form of relief or aid through its format. The accessibility of the Hive comes into play here-everyone is welcome.

The Art Hive is also just an enjoyable place to be. While there plenty of benefits tied to wellbeing, mental health and student life, the space also provides an environment to create, experiment and connect with others. With its inclusivity, accessibility and flexibility, the Art Hive truly provides a great space for the community. It can be a wonderful resource for students, addressing and acknowledging a variety of needs and working to provide a comfortable space for all.

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The Art Hive is open on Mondays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the 5th floor of the EV building. The Pop Up Art Hive at the Zen Den is open from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. every other Tuesday.
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Arts

Expressing what you are and what you are not

Thomas Hamlyn's work sat on the floor in the middle of the VAV Gallery during Smelted. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Smelted: An exploration of oneself

To cap off Smelted, VAV’s most recent student-run exhibition, some of the artists spoke about their pieces and the mediums they used to showcase their quest for identity.

The 11 students selected for this exhibition used funky materials such as terracotta, sofa cushions and even candy to express aspects of their individual identities. Using media  ranging from acrylic and oil paint to woodworking and photography, the artists explored themes related to materialism, health and sexuality.

Alicia Turgeon designed a flexible, ergonomic table and chair.
Photo by Hannah Ewen.

For Alicia Turgeon, a former industrial design student, her quest meant working on her cognitive and sensory particularities by making ergonomic furniture. After 20 tests and three prototypes, she presented Prompt 01-02, a wooden chair and coffee table with flexible features.

“To me, this piece was all about showing the process,” Turgeon said. The result is not final, but the chair embodies her idea. “I am still working on finding a way so that someone can actually sit on it.”

Isaac Smeele’s work explores breeding and consumerism. He presented Candyland, a textured, colourful portrait of a teddy bear made of candy, moss and garbage.

Isaac Smeele’s Candyland explores breeding and consumerism.
Photo by Hannah Ewen

Since Smeele selected items that decompose, he used large amounts of acrylic to exemplify and capture the hoarding of things. With the acrylic used to set the piece, he estimated it will stay intact for 10 years.

Family also played an important role in Smeele’s personal evolution. “I wanted to show something about how we tend to sugarcoat the hardest parts of ourselves,” he said. “As a father now, I realize the parts of myself that I need to work on.”

On the other hand, Meghan O’Kill-Dearden presented Things I like to Collect, an assemblage of meaningful objects she has accumulated over time. She recreated purses and bags with terracotta, glazes and epoxy. She also integrated elements that were intact such as dried flowers and fruit pits.

“I wanted to show how collecting objects can comfort me,” O’Kill-Dearden said. “[My work] questions their functionality and the enjoyment of these objects.”

Matieu Marin’s photographs explore chronic illness and the impact of medicine on his body.
Photo by Hannah Ewen.

All the pieces in the exhibition show some sort of internal reflection and questioning. Some do so with a lighter tone, and others with a darker approach, such as Matthieu Marin’s work. For him, that self-reflection happened using a self-portrait made with a digital camera. He examined his chronic illness and the impact of medicine on his body through photography. In the two pictures he presented, Marin is naked and uses motion blur (with the movement of his arm) to demonstrate the impact of medicine on his body.

“I wanted to show what it means to embody a sick body,” Marin said.

Smelted gave viewers intimate access to the artists’ personal introspection. It immersed the viewer in a world where they found themselves contemplating and questioning their ideas of identity. The exhibition successfully showcased vulnerability, uncertainty and, for some of the artists, finding purpose.

 

The VAV Gallery holds exhibitions every three weeks and will be accepting submissions for their fall programming until Sept. 14, including their special Black History Month in November exhibition. All submitting artists must be enrolled in at least one fine arts course during the 2018-19 academic year. More information can be found on their website: vavgallery.concordia.ca.

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Arts

Delving into queer experiences

The History of Sexuality will be playing at the MainLine Theatre from Sept. 21 to 30. Photo courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum Photography.

Dane Stewart debuts a self-written, directed and produced endeavour

While reflecting on the intent behind writing his newest theatrical piece, Dane Stewart expressed that he wanted “to combine Foucauldian, feminist, queer theorists and their texts with lived experiences of people in Montreal.”

As one of Concordia’s recent graduates of the individualized master’s program, Stewart is set to debut his play at the MainLine Theatre on Sept. 21. The production, titled The History of Sexuality, explores themes of power, sex and queerness in the context of student life in Montreal. The plot follows five graduate students who are enrolled in a seminar studying the philosophy of French intellectual Michel Foucault. Stewart said he had studied Foucault’s work at Concordia himself and became particularly inspired by the philosopher’s book, also titled The History of Sexuality.

Foucault’s philosophy, along with a number of theatrical pieces using a technique called verbatim theatre prompted Stewart to start writing his own play. Verbatim theatre involves the playwright conducting a series of interviews, transcribing the interviews and using the direct quotes to script the play. So, as Stewart explained, the actors in a verbatim theatre piece would speak the words of the interviewees.

Dane Stewart wrote the play as part of his thesis for his master’s degree. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Typically, this method is used in documentary-style plays so actors portray the real-life people whose words they are speaking. Stewart, however, decided to use the verbatim theatre technique in order to adapt real-life experiences into the lives of fictional characters. He conducted interviews with several people within Montreal’s queer community about their experiences. Then, Stewart extracted sections of these interviews to be spoken by the characters in his play. By doing so, the playwright added, he was able to include a variety of perspectives outside of his own without needing to speak for anyone.

Stewart called this technique “fictionalized verbatim theatre,” although he recognizes that he may not be the only playwright using it. He developed this method while working on his thesis for his master’s degree, and received a grant from CALQ (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec) to further improve it himself. The grant allowed him and his team to hold workshops in order to explore and develop this writing technique. With this help, they were able to write several drafts and spend time perfecting Stewart’s work.

After finishing his thesis and graduating from the master’s program where he studied theatre, communications, and gender and sexuality studies through an interdisciplinary program, Stewart began working towards showing his play at the MainLine Theatre. He worked alongside Michelle Soicher, a fourth-year undergraduate theatre student who took on the role of assistant director and stage manager to gain experience as well as academic credits.

“Queerness, non-normative sexual identity and sexual practice have been a big part of my life. It’s also been a very challenging part at times,” Stewart said.

Although drawing upon his own experience as someone who identifies as queer was extremely useful, Stewart said he wanted to capture the realities of other people in Montreal’s queer community as well. Through conducting a number of interviews and refining his writing technique with the workshops funded by CALQ, Stewart is finally left with a piece that he said he believes tells the stories of the individuals featured “very well.”

The playwright also recognized that the stories explored in his play are just a small portion of the diverse experiences that make up the queer community as a whole. He added, “I also am a believer in intersectionality and striving—as someone who takes up a lot of space or has the capacity to take up a lot of space in life and in society—to subscribe to the mandate of ‘take space to make space.’”

According to Stewart, The History of Sexuality is very much based in reality. The setting is a replication of what attending graduate school in Montreal is like today. It was important to Stewart to not only acknowledge the diversity within the queer community in Montreal, but also to represent the characters in his play as real people living real lives.

“One of my goals with the piece,” he said, “is to present queerness—to present non-normative sexual practices, sexual identities and expressions of gender—as just intimate and honest and real.”

“A lot of media and a lot of art that’s surrounding queerness and queer sexualities and genders these days, I feel is quite sensational,” he added. “[The characters in the play] are just people going through their daily lives. I think it’s important for us to see that.”

The History of Sexuality will be playing at the MainLine Theatre, at 3997 Boul. St-Laurent, from Sept. 21 to 30. Showtime is at 8 p.m. with additional showings at 2 p.m. on Sept. 23 and 30. Tickets are available through the Facebook event and the MainLine Theatre’s website. Prices can vary depending on your financial situation.

Feature photo courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum Photography

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Arts

The city of bridges beckons

The Concert. 1741. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 cm.
Photo Collection Musée de la musique, photo Jean-Marc Anglès

Are you in need of some enchanting Italian music? Some splendid Italian architecture? How about some good old Italian theatre? Then the Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts has something in store for you.

The Concert. 1741. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 cm.

Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to the Baroque in the Serenissima explores the interdisciplinary relationship between Venetian music and the fine arts.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Venice resembled the United States as it is today—a global power feasting off its assets. Quick historical insert—Venice was at its prime as a parading, independent republic before Napoleon set things askew.

The exhibit has been enjoying strong reviews, according to press officer Thomas Bastien. “People love this exhibit, and I would say we have had over 30,000 visitors so far,” said Bastien. “We were lucky to be able to have over 61 establishments loan us articles and artifacts for the exhibition, which explains why it took so long for us to set up this project…in all, it took us five years.”

The exhibit’s attention is on three themes: art and music in the public sphere (think gondolas and street musicians), art and music in the private realm (think private salons), and finally art, music and mythology (think Apollo).

Stroll through the first room and you get a crash course in Ven

Photo Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY

etian history between 1488 and 1797. One of the most important dates to keep in mind is 1501—when Venice was honoured as the center of music publishing, thanks to the standardization of modern musical notation—everyone agreed on one way to depict music on sheets, with a five line staff, read from left to right.

The beauty of the exhibit undoubtedly lies in the artifacts. You are immediately bathed in everything opulent. For instance, the first room explores Venetian history by showcasing beautiful Procurators’ red velvet robes. Continue your ambling as you listen to excerpts from Giovanni Picchi and Antonio Vivaldi, or just a continuous loop of Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 589, peering at the richly decorated hymn books.

Also on display are the oil paintings by the likes of Titian and Tintoretto.

Courtesy of Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Museo Correr

They depict typical Venetian scenes, where citizens convene at the San Marco square, bargain for pears and go out to eat gelato. With the winter weather creeping upon us, Venice looks like quite an attractive destination indeed.

As you walk through the exhibit you get an overwhelming sense of pompousness and pride —seemingly what Venice must have been like back then. It appears to have been a virtual hotbed of culture, bathing in a golden light.

The museum placed a gondola in one of the rooms, where visitors can gaze at the lacquered black painted taxi boat, a tradition that still lives on in Venice today.

Yet another feature are the instruments. The museum went out of its way to find extraordinary instruments you would be hard-placed to name. For instance, have you ever heard of a cornett? What about a zil, the 16th century trombone or a naqqara? These long-forgotten instruments are given a second life, so to speak. Also on display is the Milanese mandolin made in 1762 and decorated with ebony and ivory.

As Francesco Sansovino once said, “music has its own cult in this city.” He must have been right, judging from the amount of music played in the Italian città.

Photo Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice / Matteo De Fina

As the exhibit elaborates, there were two main establishments which took music seriously: the ospedali and the scuola (school). In the simplest of terms, the ospedali (loosely translated to hospital) was an operation offering food, lodging and clothing to orphans.

Founded by a Franciscan brother, the ospedali also encouraged music. Orphans were taught music by none other than the string instructor Antonio Vivaldi. As for the scuole, they were spiritual associations which promoted music. By the end of the 16th century, there were six scuole (schools) in Venice.

Photo Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice / Matteo De Fina

In the mythology-themed room of the exhibit you see displays ranging from hilarious caricatures of operatic figures penned by Antonio Zanetti, to festive scenes of nude bodies reclining in nature munching on peaches in Jacob Comin’s “Concert of the Muses for the Gods.”

Finally, we come to the opera. Did you know that the Teatro San Cassiano was the first theatre in the world to present opera to the general public and be financed solely through ticket sales? Visitors get a glimpse at rosy-cheeked opera divas and highly prolific composers such as Tomaso Albinoni who scripted more than 80 operas.

In its prime, Venice was flooded with culture and refinement, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has achieved a rare means of marrying the eye to the ear.

As Montreal Director and Chief Curator, Nathalie Bondil, stated, “At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, it is now equally impossible to see without listening, to listen without seeing.”

Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to the Baroque in the Serenissima exhibit runs until Jan. 19, 2014 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

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Arts

Preparing to succeed at theatre auditions

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

For those whose passion lies in theatre, it is a known fact that pursuing acting can be exhilarating and stressful at times. The final result that the audience sees played out on stage involves immense amounts of work and time, talent and most of all tenacity. Yet, all this starts with an audition.

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

A second year theatre performance major at Concordia, Meagan Schroeder, shared some helpful and insightful tips when auditioning for a play.

The most important thing, Schroeder says, is to “walk in with confidence and a straight posture. First impressions are everything.” Another measure to take is allowing yourself time to do a warm up before the tryouts. Exercising the mouth and warming up muscles before you go in to an audition prepares the person auditioning to be able to give a great performance and put them in the right mindset.

It can be daunting and extremely intimidating to walk into a room with a panel of directors and managers and audition to be a part of something huge. The fear of failure and messing up creates anxiety, which can hinder not only a person’s confidence, but their performance as well.

A person auditioning for a play can spend weeks preparing material to perform in the audition, and sometimes all of this preparation can be ruined if nerves get in the way.

Most importantly, Schroeder advises, is not to overthink. People auditioning need to “trust their gut, because if they hesitate, it will make them seem unsure of themselves, or that they are going to be difficult to work with, and need more direction than others normally would,” She added.

When entering into the world of acting, the competition can be cut-throat. However, not getting a part in a production doesn’t mean failure. The most successful actors and actresses are not the ones that easily get every part they audition for, but those who don’t succeed at first. People who can take criticism and use it to fuel their passion and drive are successful.

It is always important when auditioning for plays to have a thick skin. Asking the director for feedback on an audition and practicing with peers is a great way to improve as an actor. In fact, the more feedback one receives, the more room there is for improvement and success.

So, aspiring thespians of Concordia, go forth, audition and take advantage of what Concordia and Montreal’s performing arts landscape has to offer. Let these tips and your muses be your guide.

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Arts

Welcome to the freak show

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

Beyond the walls of Montreal’s prestigious Museum of Fine Arts there is another art scene that lives in small, obsolete areas of the city. Spread out across the Mile End and the Plateau are gallery spaces hidden in random, industrialized buildings, waiting to be discovered and explored. Such is the case of Diagonale, a gallery located on Gaspé Ave., and which is currently harbouring Monstrosities, yet another artistic endeavour showcasing the work of Concordia students.

Monstrosities consists of a selection of works by undergraduate students completing their major in fibre and material practices, one of the lesser known studio programs in the fine arts department at Concordia. As the exhibit’s descriptor so quaintly puts it, “the artists deal with notions that tie textile and the body together, exploring the relationship that exists between the two and how they contrast and complement each other.” The result is a combination that will provoke both nausea and utter astonishment.

Body Of Consent, one of the easiest pieces to spot upon walking into the exhibit, is the work of artist Véronique Tremblay. What at first will earnestly remind viewers of a set of genitalia disembodied in limp pieces, is actually meticulously thought out. As audiences approach the piece they realize that on this pink, shiny fabric, the author has printed thousands of words that could typically be related to sexual encounters, be they one night stands or full-on relationships. Words linger on textile, reminding viewers of the consequences and weight that come with this burlesque illustration of these fundamental body parts.

The most impressive and notoriously nauseating piece in the exhibit is, without a doubt, Untitled by Cardy Lai. Using what appears to be strands of thick woollen string drenched in coffee, the artist realistically makes viewers want to gag by creating an accurate depiction of fecal matter. Although some question the artistic value of such a piece, it does play a more traditional artistic role phenomenally well: it effectively recreates reality. In fact, the depiction is so well executed that viewers will squirm, cringe and even turn away if they are the more sensitive type. Stomachs will certainly churn as audiences will have no trouble imagining the texture and stench to accompany this piece.

Other works also stand out in the exhibit, though less scandalously. Stephanie E.M. Coleman’s Maladjusted, an impressive piece of lingerie, plays with transparency and symbolism. As for Mask: Bestialiska, by Benita Whyte, this last piece is a combination of sculptural endeavours and video presentation. The piece has this particularly monstrous touch to it, as the video reveals a subject slowly and meticulously removing a mask in a movement to reveal her face.

Notions of freedom and liberty are perhaps unintentionally evoked by the gallery’s setup, as the shadows on the wall remind us of birds flying off into the horizon.

There is some criticism to be had in regards to the curatorial style of the exhibit. Considering the symbolic value of their work it would have been nice if the artists had provided some sort of descriptor to further enlighten their audience on the creative process that accompanied their work. This is because with understanding comes fascination. After all, it’s a fundamental rule of human nature: horrify us and we simply won’t know how to look away.

Monstrosities will be running until March 23 at Diagonale Centre d’arts, 5455 Gaspé Ave. local 203. Admission is free and the gallery is open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.

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News

A motion to ensure Fine Arts representation

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

A motion due to be proposed at the upcoming meeting of the Concordia Student Union will attempt to resolve the lack of representation on council for Fine Arts students, one week after the Fine Arts Student Association met to discuss possible responses to the situation.

At their first meeting of the year, FASA debated possible actions to be taken in response to the lack of representation on the CSU.

Where the faculty would normally have three representatives, a recent byelection in which no Fine Arts student ran and two councillors were forced to resign means that Fine Arts students have been left with no one to represent their interests on council. In late October, Laura Glover, a councillor and former VP student life and sustainability, stepped down citing a heavy workload as her reason for leaving.

At the meeting, FASA VP clubs and services Erika Couto brought up the issue and opened the floor to possible suggestions. Executives and councillors expressed a variety of responses, including informing Fine Arts students of the situation via newsletter, attempting to withdraw themselves from the CSU in protest and even the possibility of seeking the impeachment of certain councillors.

Finally it was decided that members of FASA would attend the CSU’s next regular meeting to raise the issue and voice their concerns. The executive would also invite VP internal and clubs Nadine Atallah to attend FASA’s next regular meeting to help explain why the byelections were not better advertised to Fine Arts students, a factor that led to no candidates running for the one seat available.

On Thursday, however, CSU President Schubert Laforest contacted Couto to explain that a meeting had been held to come up with possible solutions, and that after consulting with the policy committee, one had been decided on.

Laforest explained that the idea involved changing the standing regulations of the CSU in order to allow the faculty to appoint a representative to council in the event that no student from that faculty is sitting on council.

“Basically it would be to add a new stipulation to the Senate regulations whereby in the event that after both annual general elections there was still no faculty representation from any given faculty, the corresponding faculty association would be given the ability submit someone to be appointed to council to represent the faculty,” he said.

Laforest explained that the way a representative would be chosen was left purposefully vague, to allow the student faculty association freedom to decide the matter in their own way without any involvement from the CSU.

“It’s not for the CSU to impose precisely how that ends up being chosen, that’s for the faculty association to determine themselves,” Laforest said. “They are independant and it would be a step too far if the CSU were to dictate how exactly that would happen.”

The motion, which is due to be discussed and voted on at the upcoming CSU meeting this Wednesday, would allow for some kind of representation for Fine Arts students on council, a fact that Couto says she welcomes.

“I think that [Laforest]’s proposal is a good one,” she said. “As students, we all deserve the opportunity to be a part of the CSU’s framework, and this will hopefully help alleviate this ever happening to any faculty in the future. I really appreciate the effort that he took to get in touch with me and make sure that it was a reasonable solution not just for us but for the future of the CSU and Concordia students at large.”

Couto also said that many FASA executives had reacted positively to the proposal, and that they would attend the upcoming meeting to see the motion debated.

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Concordia Student Union News

Petition circulating for a second CSU byelection

A petition is circulating and calling for a new round of byelections in January to fill the vacant Fine Arts seats on the Concordia Student Union’s council.

After the departure of councillor Laura Glover, and the forced resignations of councillors Michael Mercer and Nicolas Martel due to mounting absences, Fine Arts students have been left without representation on council. The most recent byelection did not allow for all three seats to be filled after no one ran for the only seat available, that of former councillor Laura Glover.

Erika Couto, the author of the petition that has garnered close to 250 signatures and VP clubs and services of the Fine Arts Student Alliance, told The Concordian that as well as only having one seat out of three available for elections, the one seat available for Fine Arts students was poorly promoted.

“There was very little outreach done to advertise this one open seat,” Couto said. “No visible postering in buildings frequented by Fine Arts students, nothing was sent to the FASA executives to be sent out through our listserv. These were all easy steps that could have been taken to ensure maximum visibility for the open spot.”

Couto said that the lack of representation is a concern for her, considering the CSU deals with millions of dollars in funding and makes vital decisions for the entire undergraduate student body.

“What it comes down to is that I know these people, I see them every day,” she said. “I owe it to them to fix a problem when I see it, because I care about them.”

At the council meeting where the petition was discussed, a decision was reached to support the petition and look into the issue of holding another vote in January. Though there were questions of where the money would be found, it was decided that the matter would be sent to the financial committee to figure out the technicalities of holding another election.

Nadine Atallah, VP internal and clubs of the CSU said that she was concerned about the lack of representation for Fine Arts students, but that it was not a unique situation.

“It’s definitely unfortunate any time that you have a lack of representation or no representation at all for any faculty at council and we should all do our best to do serve those people,” Atallah said, adding that she was pleased to see Fine Arts students interested in representation. “There are also independent students who aren’t represented at all on council, and we’re having a hard time getting independent students out, which is concerning for me as an independent student myself.”

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Arts

Sometimes there are no words, sometimes there is only art

Photo by Madelayne Hajek
Photo by Madelayne Hajek

Before speech, humans communicated through symbols, drawings, and their body movements.

However in this age of words, there is still a lot that can be gained from our previous methods of communicating.

Drawing, using our bodies and making sounds are tools that are useful in expressing what we can’t or don’t know how to express verbally.

These tools are especially useful in therapeutic settings and are employed by creative arts therapists to help patients express their needs, resolve issues or come to terms with trauma.

Therapists can use a number of different media in their sessions, including art, music, drama, and dance. In the case of art therapy, the client is invited to create something in front of the therapist. The therapist and client will look over the image together and reflect on what they have created.

As an image speaks louder than words, it is sometimes easier for people to express their inner world through art. The art created by the client is an opening for dialogue and in some cases, such as traumatic experiences, the issue can be worked out through symbolically using what the client has drawn or painted.

“I’m really into abstract impressionist [art], so I just take the paints and try to blend all the different colors and after I’m done doing that [my therapist] looks at my artwork and says, Rachel* is this what you’re feeling inside?” says Rachel, an art therapy client at CSSS Cavendish.

There is no dictionary of symbols in art therapy, what a person draws is symbolically significant to them and therefore only has meaning in relation to that particular individual.

“The art is a way for them to symbolically explore their issues. After that, we look at the images and see if we can find a solution,” explains Julia L. Olivier, art therapist and president of Expression LaSalle.

Most of the people who take part in art therapy at Expression Lasalle are people who have had to deal with trauma and things that they are ashamed to talk about. It is much easier for them to express it through art or by acting it out with theatre.

“At first, patients will come in contact with a lot of emotions, like anxiety, but after awhile they will feel joy, and remember what is was like to do art when they were children,” says Sarah Brodie, an art therapist at the Montreal Therapy Centre. “You can make links between the shapes on the page and your inner world…it all leads to who we are and where we want to be.”

Sometimes, art therapy can help people discover passions they never would have discovered ordinarily. For example, Olivier had a patient who was a single mother of three children and was dealing with the fact that they were growing up. She had to find out who she was as a person, as an adult without children. Her artwork was filled with jewelry, so Olivier suggested that she should try taking a jewelry-making class.

With drama therapy, patients must act and watch others act in order to solve their problems. This technique, like art therapy, is great for people who have suffered traumas, as well as people who have trouble understanding the problems they are living with; they can understand it better by seeing other people act it out, or by acting it out themselves.

“With drama therapy, you can act out memories or fantasies, and this helps you better understand them,” says Brodie.

Patients will often set goals for themselves on their first session. This becomes the theme that they will explore during their individual or group sessions.

“We try to work on a series of goals that we need to overcome in three years time. So I have three goals that I need to overcome in the next three years. So every week we try to work towards that,” says Rachel. “One of my goals is to be more comfortable in my own skin, another one is to stop being overly stressed.”

According the Canadian Association for Music Therapy: “Music therapy is the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development.”

Music therapists work mostly with children with special needs or developmental disabilities, hospitals’ patients, and elderly populations. They also work with people who are in comas, or premature babies.

“We once had a little boy who spoke in gibberish. With music therapy he was able to make words by following the rhythm, he started saying short sentences, to say his name,” explains Guylaine Vaillancourt, assistant professor of music therapy at Concordia. Music therapy allowed the little boy to make friends, and Vaillancourt even noticed a change in the boy’s mother, who seemed to realize that her boy was smart.

Vaillancourt told another story of a patient in palliative care who was very tense and who was dealing with a lot of pain. She also had trouble talking about her disease. Vaillancourt played songs that she chose on the piano, songs that meant a lot to her. With the use of instruments and song, the patient became much calmer, and even felt less pain and slept more soundly.

With premature babies, music therapists use techniques like recording the mother’s voice and playing it to the baby. They may also record the mother’s heartbeat and play soft, soothing music for the baby. By playing these sounds, the baby is helped to feel more secure while in the incubator, and this helps the baby gain weight much faster, according to Vaillancourt.

Words are a difficult mode of communication, we can’t always find the right ones to express how we’re feeling, but with the tools used in creative arts therapies there is another avenue to which we can turn.

*The name has been changed due to the personal nature of the topic.

Expression Lasalle is located at 405 Terrasse Newman. The CSSS is part of the CLSC’s network of mental health services, for more information visit www.santemontreal.qc.ca

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Arts

Video game princess

Olivia Kowalski graduated from Concordia's Fine Arts dept. two years ago. Photo by Madelayne Hajek.
Olivia Kowalski graduated from Concordia’s Fine Arts dept. two years ago. Photo by Madelayne Hajek.

“Working at Fido was the worst 8 months of my life and I would not wish it on my worst enemy,” said Olivia Kowalski, a Concordia University fine arts graduate who struggled to balance her desire to be an artist with her need for a stable income following her graduation two years ago.

She has found a middle ground, however, returning to school to study 3D animation for video games at Campus Arts et Divertissement numérique and working as a Disney princess performer on weekends to pay the bills.

“I am not cut out for a 9-to-5 job. I need a certain creative outlet on a daily basis, but I do not think I am cut out to be a starving artist either,” she said.

The starving artist thing might be a common stereotype, but Kowalski felt like that was the road she would have to take after graduation in order to fulfill her childhood dreams of being a painter, a dream which she defined as a “bohemian vision and romantic ideal.”

She painted a couple of things here and there after receiving her diploma but, slowly, realism and disillusion started to creep in. She couldn’t see herself dusting off paintings in an art gallery but she said she didn’t have the self-discipline needed to thrive as an independent artist either. She decided to take time off to reflect and in the meantime took up a position as a Fido customer service representative.

Working on the phone got her so depressed she started secretly perusing online job offers during her shifts. Which is when she found a Craigslist posting for the princess gig, which sounded a bit shady. Luckily, it turned out to be a legitimate job offer and she didn’t hesitate to trade in her headset for a tiara.

So how does a girly girl like Kowalski end up studying in a video gaming program?

“I was never a gamer. My boyfriend is and instead of complaining about it I enjoyed watching because I was mesmerized that people could draw like this on a computer. The graphics were so realistic and beautiful. I knew there were artists working behind that,” she said.

This prompted her to do some research and find out that Montreal is an animation mecca. She got accepted at Campus A.D.N with a last-minute application that required her to produce a portfolio of video game characters in a weekend.

And although she doesn’t regret getting her Bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a major in painting and drawing, she expected to learn more technical skills in the program, which she found too heavily oriented towards conceptuality. Nonetheless, she feels the program gave her some background and credibility.

“I just wish I had found the school and program that I am in, sooner. I have been there for two weeks now and I already see all the possibilities I can have as soon as I graduate.”

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Arts

The art of getting by

Photo by writer.
Photo by writer.

Stepping into the VA building’s Café X, guests have two options: turn immediately to the left and be greeted by a glass cylinder full of food, a smiling face, and a giant chalkboard of tasty options, or turn immediately to the right and be greeted by a topless, bald, androgynous monster-human spewing paper fortunes out its mouth.
That’s right. Art in Action is still happening.
Gallery X, which inhabits the walls of Café X, is hosting the works of seven of the 30 artists who contributed to the 2012 Art in Action exhibition that ended March 4. The gallery will continue to show the pieces until March 24.
For those who can’t go—or those who just want something to read—here’s the rundown.
As mentioned above, the gallery decided to place the most shocking and unappetizing work closest to the entrance and directly next to the food. Shaw Desjean’s La Logorrhee comprises three pieces: two square canvasses, and that alarmingly ugly (in a good way) human form, which is meant to represent man’s inadequacy in expressing feelings in words.
To the left is Naomi Large’s Our Boxes, a group of brightly painted squares with vague human forms. The pieces attempt to explore “the human form in its natural state,” and the societal boxes in which its sexuality is constrained.
Turning around, visitors can take a seat on what looks like one half of a 1980s family sofa. On the way there, it’s hard to miss Karen Boyles’ Lighten, a giant graphite drawing of a kind of patchwork parachute-tent attached to strings weighed down by bricks. The description states that the structure “suggests our capacity to construct new environments. Environments that are transient, nomadic, adaptive, inclusive: created from a diversity of materials from a diversity of perspectives.”
Across from the partial couch is the second half of the gallery, located inside a turquoise painted room. Here, as before, guests have two options. Turning to the left, one can peer out the wall of windows overlooking the construction on Bishop Street. Or, looking to the right, one can ungracefully lean over someone studying in an effort to examine Keara Yim’s selection of high-colour photos that illustrate Canadians’ relationships with the land they inhabit.
Although Yim’s bright outdoor-themed photos (one two three tree) mirror the openness created by the wall of windows, the feeling of a room wide enough to walk around in is just an illusion. The room is pretty narrow. All the artwork is on the walls, but all the seating is up against the walls, too, underneath the artwork. Therefore, visitors can’t really see anything if they choose to sit down.
Him, Her, Us by Bianca Hlywa offers an examination of subtleties in gender differences through the representation of similar androgynous figures. Opium Dreams by visual artist Emily Yun Ching Claire and literary artist Ryan Kai Cheng Thom has strong messages of diaspora, queer desire and gender fluidity, and requires a lot of looking-at time.
So while the student strike may last for another week, Art in Action proves that there is certainly room for art in the Concordia fine arts landscape, no matter how many students it takes to meet quorum.

Art in Action runs at Gallery X (VA building, second floor, room 229) until March 24. For more information, visit www.gallery-x.com/current.

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