Get Your Art Souterrain On
For the next few weeks, there’s an amazing conference going on that anyone interested in local art organizations, artists and practices should try to get to when they can. Started yesterday and ends the 13th of March.
It’s Art Souterrain, and it seems like a giant extension of Nuit Blanche insanity.
The website is here: while I don’t have tons of time right now to go over the roster of who’s speaking when and where and how and why, I do have the time to suggest you look over the schedule.
Some of my local favourites who’ll be yakking and performing include En Masse, Celine B. La Terreur, Alana Riley, 2Fik and Eric Bolduc. But go see folks you don’t know and be amazed by their prowess, skill and hotness. And send me pictures.
More about the event when I am not rushing out the door madly in search of cheeseburgers.
Filed under art talk, artists, conference, events, local, profiles | Tags: 2Fik, Alana Riley, Art Souterrain, celine b la terreur, En Masse, Eric Bolduc, nuit blanche, ratsdeville | Comment (0)Secret Agent Norvid At it Again…
I swear that my love of Adrian Norvid’s work is not only based in an appreciation for humour that resides in the ridiculous (e.g. the “spit it out” & “suck it up” milk container duo as seen above, Art Pop 2009). Although, to be honest, this element of his practice definitely endears me to it eternally, being a resident of Ridiculous myself.
Yet Norvid manages to always go beyond the instant pun or play-on-words with an almost mystical ability to imbue his drawings, sculptures and objects with a deeper sense of loss, of lamentation and of joy. And I am not being trite here, I truly mean that. Picture your uncle, the one you only ever saw during family vacations. The fellow whose face only comes to mind with the help of old photographs. Who always made you feel at home, smuggling warm candies from his pockets into greedy, grubby hands. With that way of shouting ironic phrases at adults that seemed like hilarious jokes for the kids.
At the time, he was just Crazy (re: amazing, awe-inspiring) Uncle Charley. Now, looking back on those moments, you see that he carried with him an incredible sadness and joy for life that likely few felt as deeply.
Adrian Norvid’s work is Crazy Uncle Charley, as art. For me, anyway.
I strongly recommend you go and find out if you feel similar. Norvid’s got a new exhibition up (the opening was early on the night of Nuit Blanche) at the Joyce Yahouda gallery. I always find her programming interesting, and it’s high time you went back to the Belgo sans enough-people-to-create-a-giant-finnish-sauna-in-the-hallway, n’est pas?
His latest show, Wrongo, is a:
burgeoning collection of epic, large format drawings, massed hangings of smaller, poster-like works, rangy paper constructions and laconic found objects…
It runs until the 27th of March. It is ripe with themes of inappropriate behaviour. Take a date and do something nasty in the gallery while it’s up already. You have a month to find someone suitable.
Filed under artists, gallery, local | Tags: 60's swag, 70's instruments, Adrian Norvid, the Joyce Yahouda Gallery | Comment (1)Underwater with John Ancheta, or notes on an opening (TONIGHT!)
I’ve known John Ancheta for far too long. I’ve seen his hair grow, and then get cut, and then grow again. Like one of those Barbie head-dolls that everyone wanted as a kid. But that Barbie toy never grew up to become one of the most interesting and challenging contemporary painters in the Canadian/International art scene. John, on the other hand, did.
He’s been one of my absolute favourite painters, nay artists, for years. His dedication to his craft, understanding of place within a vast historical context, and unwillingness to settle for a certain set or style of aesthetics never ceases to astound me. The fact that I always, always want to take my clothes off and get it on with his canvases is just a bonus.
Tonight, from 6-8pm, he’ll unveil his new, distinctively different body of work, Aquacades, completed this past year at Battat Contemporary (7245 Rue Alexandra, Suite #101) It runs until April the 10th.
It’s a compelling, less accessible body of work than some of his previous stuff, and extremely rewarding - if you spend the time with it that it asks of you. Imagine someone you meet at a party who you’re not necessarily lusty after within the first 10 seconds, but who slowly grows on you until you can’t imagine your intimate landscape without their presence.
And landscape is a good word to use when talking about John’s work, as he infuses his pieces with a type of organic sensibility that defies or perhaps works in dissonant harmony with his meticulous execution and process. We’ve been talking about that process and the elements that inform it for some time now, so I present here one of our many conversations, this one concerning specifically the 2 shows he has up now.
If you’re blessed enough to find yourself in Montreal tonight, then go and see what I’m talking about. Well worth the movement towards, guaranteed.
You have 2 shows up in Montreal currently – one at the GAO and one at Battat. What’s it like to simultaneously present work in the same city?
The two shows are difficult to compare, really. The exhibition at the GAO is a retrospect of an older body of work while the pieces at the Battat Contemporary are from a completely new series.
My art practice has changed considerably over the past year. Installing the show at the GAO was really interesting. Seeing the old work again gave me a new perspective on that time. But ultimately, my thoughts are on my new direction.
I know that this body of work is quite a departure from your last series. Could you talk a bit about this transition and your new direction?
I see it as a departure, in several ways. What strikes me now about my older work is the focus I had at that time on a dynamic and painterly poetic. I think I was really concerned with proving to myself that I could really paint. The GAO show speaks to my roots as a painter - my education here in Montreal, my love for the painterly tradition…
However, that direction started to unravel towards the end of 2008. I think you can see it in a particular painting at GAO titled Camouflage. I included it in the exhibition purposefully as to me it signaled an end. I had worked that painting over and over trying to take it somewhere. To make it work, I had to retreat back to what I knew, what I had developed. It couldn’t go any further.
I quite like that painting, though it raised more than a few eyebrows at the show. It’s the most difficult piece in the exhibition. What came afterwards was a fairly clean break. I went to London, and came back knowing more or less what I wanted to do. I messed around for a few months and then put down my large bristle brushes, let go of thick painterly surfaces and started over again. I wanted to see what would happen if I took away all my tricks, what was left.
One of the things that struck me in your show at GAO was imagery (however abstracted) and I’d love you to talk about the process of how you go about defining or creating your visual landscape.
My painting process at that time was really intuitive and spontaneous. I was working very fast, finishing the paintings before they dried in order to build fluid image. Primarily I worked from found photographs, mainly of farmers working in fields, anything that put me back into the space of my early years growing up in rural Canada.
Once the motif was loosely developed I would abandon the photo and let the painting unfold. The narratives that emerged are largely based on formative experiences. As an American growing up in what I guess you could call a ‘subversive’ ex-pat community, I was isolated from the surrounding rural inhabitants. My relationship to the land was different as it was filtered through the eyes of my specific community that had this utopic dream of going back-to-the-land. The work speaks to my alien surroundings, to the sense of being in-between something indefinable. They’re cold war paintings as seen through the eyes of a child. The work is descriptive as much as it is dreamed and imagined.
Your latest series seems to have less definite imagery involved. Was the visual research process different?
In a sense, for me, the psychic space of my new work has not changed all that much. What has changed, (quite dramatically I suppose), is how I approach that space. In the older work I was after a sort of heightened yet suspended drama. My new work over the past year has been a process of emptying out all that felt comfortable, as I have said - my hand writing, my typical narratives and figures.
Formally speaking, what remains has become in some ways more clearly articulated through the use of stencils and flat color. At the same time, what can be sensed is admittedly more obscure. The new work is more a relationship between cartography and landscape.
Colour is such an integral part of your work. How does your relationship to colour function?
The sensation of colour is critical to my artistic practice. It’s similar to the sense of smell or taste. It’s immediate, visceral. I dwell less on an inherent attraction to certain colours and more on the relationship between colors.
Who are some of the artists you’re most moved by? Do you think their influences can be seen in your work at all?
Mmm. I always find that a really difficult question to answer. I recently saw a performance by Moheb Soliman that completely blew me away: http://www.habibalbi.blogspot.com/.
I would say music has the strongest and certainly the longest affect on me. Being moved always seems to be about a passing moment, so its difficult to talk about. I am not sure one could sense the painters I love in my newer work. Maybe Goya.
Recently I have been looking at the work of Julie Mehretu - it’s brilliant, what can I say? Who else? Jules De Balincourt. Cai Guo Chiang - I was able to see Head On being installed at the Guggenheim. I missed the show but got to watch the install, wolves being taken out of crates and shaped into flight up the winding staircase, it was unbelievable. I actually hung the show at Battat today and I could clearly see Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures. I have no idea what comes across at this point, I guess I’ll see it more in hindsight.
What are some of the joys of painting for you? What are some of the parts that you painfully push through?
The isolation is sometimes difficult. My current process right now entails a lot of uncertainty until the very last stage, which I love. The feeling of peeling stencils to see what comes together is always amazing. I think that painting is a lot like any practice: you have to keep on going and not ask yourself the tough questions when you are feeling low. Enjoy it when it’s working, reflect upon it when reflection comes, and never forget to listen. I recently had an accident in the studio that destroyed a painting scheduled to be shipped to an upcoming show. Things like that are painful for sure.
All in all I love making images, it gives so much back to me.
There seems to be a highly evolved sensuality in your work. Is this something that you hope people pick up on?
Sensuality….mmm…..
I guess I often feel that the studio is the only place that I can really be decadent in my exaggerations, where I can embellish. I can relish in what I love and I hope to share that with a lot of people.
I find that the process of creation itself is so different to a finished work. A little death occurs when a work is done…
I think I used to agonize over the impact of each painting. Now I tend to focus more on a body of work, which makes each ‘death’ a little easier. Each piece becomes more of a single gesture towards a larger articulation. In this way, the peaks and valleys get smaller and easier to traverse. It’s a longer process, but challenging in an exciting way.
What you got coming up after these shows?
I have a show in Milan at the end of March. I just finished my website, and I am going to Madrid to see the Goya collection at the Prado. Things are good.
Filed under art shows, artists, interviews, local, painting | Tags: Battat Gallery, john ancheta, painting | Comment (0)Of why conceptual art is actually amazing.
Ok, so short post here - I recently attended Tehching Hsieh’s pretty unbelievable artist talk at Concordia, and it was fairly life-altering on so many levels. His work is absolutely of-the-stuff you should check out and his perspective on it, even more so.
But what I wanted to point out here, now, was that during the final public one-year performance that found Tehching and Linda Montano tied together for the entirety of 1983, they documented all of their conversations by taping them. They then presented these tapes to the public, but not as audio recordings, as objects.
Some tapes show remnants of long conversations, others short. He mentioned that presenting them this way was a conceptual manner of being able to open up the possibilities of the audiences imagination, to be able to picture the dialogues and what they could have, might have, should have been saying.
It reminds me of when I first moved to Quebec and didn’t understand all the french that much. It was equal parts frustrating and amazing, because although I felt a little isolated, on the Metro I could make up what everyone was discussing. It somehow seemed that death, love, italian politics, ponies and the poetry of the universe seemed to come up a lot in those conversations at the time. Then slowly, over the years as my ears adjusted and I started dating a francophone, the talking around me morphed into concerns over getting winter tires and how many kids to have and doctors and boring stuff related to filing. everything. away.
All this to say that suddenly I think I’ve realized that conceptual art is actually about allowing for a space with which to play, unbridled imagination architecture and room to breath on top. Why did I think it was so clinical for so long? Conceptual art is only as sterile as my mind chooses to be when encountering it.
And I am far from sterile, in fact like most of us, I am a dirty, dirty farm-yard animal. Yeah. So there.
Filed under art talk, artists | Tags: artist talk, conceptual art, DHC fondation, Tehching Hsieh | Comments (3)The sequel is always better.
Today, tomorrow and Sunday, brace yourself for brisk walks outside, amazing sights and adventures untold. In the spirit of the fall harvest comes Centre Clark’s 2nd annual A.P.O. megafest, where if you dare, you will be treated to over 100 local artists’ works that can be engaged with while the artist themselves are present, in their studios.
Ateliers Portes Ouvertes was one of the most interesting art-happenings of last fall, and this year it’s going to be even more awesome, because sequels, despite what folks usually say, always are. Think of the Brady Bunch II: Marcie Leaves Home, for instance. Best movie of 2001, I still argue.
And sequels are also great because they are reliable in some aspects, and present new situations in others. A.P.O. 2009 still has its heart and soul in the same buildings they were found beating within last year - primarily the 2 huge buildings on de Gaspé, (5455 and 5445) and a smattering of over 20 spots within walking distance from this central hub.
One of the places I am most curious to check out is Atelier Punkt, a mere stone’s throw away from de Gaspé at 5333 Casgrain. They most recently had a group show that included talent such as Alexis Bellevance (whose studio you can visit in room 1009 of the 5455 de Gaspé building) and Patrick Bernatchez, to name 2 of many. I feel like many adventures await behind these doors.
I am also delighted that Steve Topping will be opening up his home for visiting hours, as he usually never lets me come over. His work, a fusion of science, design and sculptural questioning, is perhaps best seen in his home as he truly is an artist that works with functional viability at the core. Go take a look at 80 Rue St Viateur East, Apartment 306A.
Also, if you’re interested at all in taking a look at that hilarious CUIR building on the corner of Van Horne and Parc, go this weekend, as you’ll be able to see Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo’s work alongside that of Karen Trask (6201 Avenue du Parc, 4th floor). Their hallway and corridor alone deserve going to document as they will give you plenty of juice for ideas for this hallowe’en. Bring a friend.
On the way between the de Gaspé buildings and the scary Parc Avenue haunt, drop in at the Red Bird to see what the En Masse @ Art POP crew are cooking up. 135 Rue Van Horne, up the stairs.
Basically, bring mulled wine in a flask and get roving around the neighbourhood you may know oh-so-well or not-at-all. The whole circuit would take a day and a half or so, maybe 2, so set your sites on that goal and rock it out.
A few things to note for this year: There are guided tours that leave from Centre Clark Saturday and Sunday that you need to RSVP to but could be really fun. One is a tour on bike, and the other is just a one-and-a-half hour introduction to all things A.P.O. They leave in the early and mid-afternoon (12 and 13h30)
Reserve by emailing: lara@evoy.com OR apo.visites@gmail.com
Also, don’t forget about the artist talk with Michelle Lacombe and Sheena Hoszko happening at Agence Topo (5455 rue de Gaspé, 1001B) at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
And A.P.O. extends into St Henri this year, so if you live in the southwest, or are even more adventurous than Link, (which you should be, St Henri is awesome) make sure you check this info out.
Finally, I would suggest starting at Centre Clark, at 5455 rue de Gaspé, studio 114. They organized the whole thing and have great brochures with easy-to-read-maps you can get and then sleep next to for the upcoming days. Also, the shows up right now there are worth checking out too, particularly Dominique Sirois’ U Can’t Touch This, which includes lots of gold and a few more owl heads.
You can also download the guide from their website directly in case you’re lazy. Which is what I am going to go do right now.
Filed under artists, local | Tags: A.P.O. 2009, Alexis Bellevance, Centre Clark, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Patrick Bernatchez, St Henri Circuit, Steve Topping | Comments (3)101 reasons to stay online…
For Art POP 2009, Michelle Lacombe and Sheena Hoszko, two dynamic Montréalers with a plethora of interesting relationships with the visual arts (as coordinators, outreach workers, educators, conceptual artists in their own rights and much more) came together to do a visually incredible, conceptually witty, poignant and wise piece for the first time as a collaborative pair.
Entitled 101 Song Scores, this interview with them about their project and process speaks enough for itself that my introduction can hererby be sent straight to the guillotines like so many other overly flowerly representations that the Jacques Louis Davids’ of the past have spout forth.
But! Just to highlight that as part of this years’ Atelier Portes Ouvertes, this fascinating duo will be giving an artist talk at Agence Topo at 2 p.m. this Sunday the 18th. More info to follow.
1. Could you explain a little about this project?
Sheena: 101 Song Scores is a project that stems from the 2009 Art Pop call for submissions, which really got us thinking about our art practices in relation to music. We decided to base our proposal on lyrics, and pull scores/text-based performance directions from songs.
The results of this ended up taking two specific forms: The first was a series of images or “ads” that list the score, song title, year, and length of the song (we did not include the band name to avoid any immediate associations with genres).
Pop Montréal graciously gave us access to the festival design files, so the scores themselves look like Pop content, despite the vague/oblique text. These scores were placed within the Art Pop and Pop Montreal websites/publications, in spaces usually reserved for advertising. We then began working with Agence TOPO, a Montreal-based new media artist-run-centre, and together created an amazing online database of all the 101 Song Scores content from our scrappy (but effective) google docs spreadsheet.
2. How did it come to light?
Michelle: Having followed each others’ practices since university, we had an interest in working together but lacked a context. Art Pop, an initiative we both wanted to submit work to, provided that context. Over yucca fries and beer we brainstormed areas in which music and art overlapped. We wanted to work within the content of the festival but in an indirect or conceptual fashion. Performance scores, text-based instructions developed through experimental music compositions but quickly adopted by visual artists, were selected as the starting point of our project.
Engaging with song lyrics as instructions seemed like a simple proposal to work with, but one that could shift away from the music towards larger issues such as the subjective interpretation of meaning, collective memory, and the role of music in social action/identity. There was also a playful “can-you-guess-that-song” element to the work that we felt would suit the diverse public of the festival.
3. Have you worked collaboratively before? What has the process been like?
Sheena: We’ve worked together on art-related coordination before, but this is our first time collaborating on a work. It went really well, especially for a process-based project that required many fast and on-the-fly decisions - always the ultimate test! I think it solidified the fact that certain elements of our practices - mainly the conceptual framing of our individual performance and intervention work, which often deals with the body, language, and emotion - overlap in ways that make collaboration quite seamless.
4. What are some of the thematics you are touching on the most with 101 song scores?
Michelle: The project is primarily about the subjective way in which we engage with “popular” western music. It is only through experience that we develop a relationship both individually and collectively with music, its lyrics and its meaning. Think of the way music often creates a brief intimate moment of connection to something also simultaneously being proposed to countless other anonymous listeners. The project however also became about how those experiences are mediated by language, action and time.
5. What do you think poses challenges for participants? I mean specifically around issues of engagement. If you could discuss this decision to make the website durational and what it represents for you that would be great.
Sheena: As we don’t have tons of experience in web-based work, we agreed keeping the site simple would be key. One thing we kept going back to was ensuring the site would highlight the, “I want all the info, and I want it all now” culture of the web. Thus the database was setup in a way that would provide access to only one score at a time, and each score would stay visible for the entire duration of the song. At the beginning the song title, artist, album, and year appears, and that info fades out about 10 seconds later. Besides that moment of contextual framing, there is no way to find more info, skip ahead, refresh, or see the database content as a whole.
Thus it sets up a decision making process for the viewer: to choose if they are going to engage, wait for the next score, or move to another site altogether. Some people have let us know that they access the work by keeping 101 Song Scores open in another tab and continuously checking back.
This is an unexpected but really interesting way of negotiating the idea of duration, as the project then exists in relation to all the other content being viewed at that moment. So the project asks if the audience will to give over their time in a way that is generally avoided online, and accept a certain lack of interactivity. I find this poignant if in relation to the minutes and hours spent tirelessly checking email, viewing status updates, searching for torrents online, etc.
6. Is this your first web-based project? What considerations did you have when constructing concepts and aesthetics within this site specific space and time?
Michelle: Yes this is the first web-based project for both of us. Sheena however, has integrated social media sites (myspace, email, etc) into previous projects.
The durational quality of the internet was something we wanted the web page to consider as it was the only space of the numerous sites 101 Song Scores occupied offering the possibility to play with time. Up until that point, the duration of the scores was proposed but never imposed. Because of the possibility of linking action to duration in a direct way, it was decided that the web page would host our database in its entirety (over 170 scores).
To keep with the conceptual concerns of the work, we wanted the database to be accessed only one action at a time, requiring that the visitor wait the time it takes to experience the proposed action before seeing the next one. To highlight this, the design was chosen to make the time-lapse or duration of each score a prominent element of the site. It was also a sort of shout out to the culture of webtime such as “death clocks”.
It was a logistical challenge to create a web space that required waiting, (ie. no refresh possibilities, no scrolling forward, no opening numerous pages to access more scores) as it goes against what the internet strives to be (interactive, immediate, controlled, etc.) We worked with Vincent Archambault who found a way to program a database of actions that are continually counting down, whether there is a public present or not.
Similar to how one might experience a video installation, the viewer comes in at a specific time but has no control (aside from waiting) as to what content they are accessing. If someone else comes in, they see the same thing and are also faced with the choice to wait and see the content or leave. Although this element of the project can be overlooked, it is to us the most successful and exciting part of the work.
7. What are the plans for the website once Pop Montréal is over?
Michelle: The project will be presented as part of Agence Topo’s open studio on Sunday, October 18th at 2 p.m. There we will be giving an artist talk and discussing 101 Song Scores. Vincent, the programmer, will also be present to answer the more technical questions.
Although the web page will remain online forever, a very generous act on the part of Agence Topo, we have yet to decided if we will continue to promote it or further develop the databases’ content. We are giving ourselves the time to get some distance and get back to our respective practices before making any final decisions.
8. What next?
Sheena: I would suggest to anyone reading this to try out creating some song scores of their own, be it by listening to their music collection, via youtube, via the radio. The whole process has really changed how I engage with lyrics, and has setup an ongoing space where I reflect on what actions I focus on, and why.
Law can be sexy. I swear.
So there’s this awesome new law clinic in Montreal that’s still fledgling. It is completely FREE and just for ARTISTS.
Which equals HOT. Free stuff for artists is almost always sexy.
Yeah. The link to their website is right here. It’s called CJAM, which is cool not only because of the much-needed services they’re going to be offering artistic folks surrounding a plethora of issues, but also because CJAM sounds like WKRP in Cincinnati’s spin-off show starring Loni Anderson and a bunch of the extra muppet characters that were never really memorable.
We need more people in the world who are willing to work on sustainability needs such as education and promotion of strong business and law practices for people who macramé giant cats during the time they are not at their job at Quatre Freres to pay for said art-making.
Especially when the Harper governement is rubbing its hands together over talk around majority this and here-goes-the-last-little-dregs-of-funding-for-everything-remotely-creative that.
So take a look around the website and get informed, spread the word and think about volunteering your expertise if you’ve got it. A truly worthy cause. Unlike my plea for editing skills for the long digressions I have gone on in this post. Less sympathy for that dilemna…
Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: CJAM | Comment (0)In secret places the art lies.
In the Notman House, an historically significant and pretty amazing space (architecturally as well as culturally) lots of things don’t happen. It is for the most part, unloved, neglected and unused. It is also for sale, and I am terrified of the people I don’t know yet who might buy it, demolish it, or change its inherent character and energy. For despite all of its loneliness and peeling walls, it is perhaps one of my favourite buildings in Montreal, if not of all time.
Which is why it is so amazing to see art in all of its rooms and secret places during the Pop Montreal Festival for the Art POP segment. I will go into each project here in more detail, but these are some of the fabulous artists and their works that graced the spaces the Notman House offers to us all.
There is something that I used to never understand about site specific work (years ago, when I was much, much younger and things were firmly in place on many levels) as I was a pencil-and-paper kind, and could do so anywhere. So for me the idea of people creating work in relation seemed odd somehow. Now, years and years later, with lots firmly not-in-place, I feel that even paper and pencil respond to their environments and that site specific work is inevitable in some ways, so to be conscious of it and consider its meanings is the least one can do.
The Notman House is a gorgeous example of how the smell + feeling + peeling + stains + stories + damp all change and amplify whatever it is that you do there, and most definitely the art that was growing from its walls the past week.
Here’s to the folks who did the work that carefully and thoughtfully contemplated their processes in relation to the house. That some of what they did will stay for the next folks to feel through the paint.
Below find some amazing photos of 2 of the artworks that inhabited Notman for Pop Montreal this year…more to follow…
Dominique Sirois, Ring My Alarm, Art POP/Notman House 2009
Bridget Moser & Jessica Campbell, Art POP Notman House 2009
Filed under artists, festival, installation, local, video | Tags: art pop, Bridget Moser & Jessica Campbell, Dominique Sirois, the notman house | Comment (0)
En Masse @ Art POP
One of the co-presentations of Art POP this year is a collaboration with En Masse, a pretty amazing troupe of over 40 artists that get together from time to time to do inspiring and fairly mind-blowing murals, collaboratively. For the entire month of October, they are going to be at the Red Bird Studio gallery for their latest project which combines 6 of their artists with a whole whackload of awesome artistic teenagers from various schools in the English Montreal School Board network. Together, they will create a mural the likes of which you’ve never seen, guaranteed.
The vernissage is this coming Sunday (the 4th) at 5pm, going until 9pm or even later, pretty crazy for a Sunday me thinks!! The gallery is at 135 rue Van Horne, and it’s going to be awesome. If you don’t get a chance to make it out, then swing by the studio every day from 12-6pm on weekdays to see what the gaggle of creative folks are doing there and watch their project develop.
One of the masterminds of the whole scenario and one of the Frozen Mammoth’s favourite people-of-this-fine-city, Jason Botkin, recently let us in on some of the deep dark secrets of his group. We can’t wait to see how this whole thing develops, and we’ll let you in on it all as it goes along….
1. Where did En Masse emerge? What was the impetus? If you could give a bit of background info on its initial coming together, that would be great.
En Masse was conceived one glorious evening in December of 2008, the ‘love-child’ of Tim Barnard and myself.
At the time, I was exhibiting a solo show at Galerie Pangee. As luck would have it, the gallery had an opening in their post-Christmas schedule, a little window that Tim and I eagerly imposed upon. Originally, our design was to ‘curate’ an enormous group show, packed mad salon style with everyone we knew and wanted to know. Seconds later, the idea was dashed upon the rocks, as we landed upon the En Masse concept, or specifically, the idea of gathering together those same cats to do a gigantic collaborative drawing of some sort. For both Tim and I, collaborative drawing/art making parties have been an important part of our practice, so the idea stuck!
En Masse was thus born in February of this year (2009), at the Galerie Pangee, with 28 artists engaged in 28 days of ecstatic mark making. We timed the ‘finissage’ to coincide with Montreal’s all-night Nuit Blanche festivities, thus inviting all to join us in celebration of one of the very biggest, most incredible drawing experiments most of us had ever seen in our tender young lives!
(Jason and Mural at Oshega Festival, Photo courtesy of Fred Caron’s awesome hands)
2. Has it changed much since you guys first began doing it? If so, how?
Tim, hot n’ heavy off on other projects, has been replaced by Rupert Bottenberg. Rupert brings an amazing skill set to the table, having established the Montreal Comix Jams, while juggling duties as the music editor at the Montreal Mirror newsweekly.
While the approach to the drawing itself is always the same at core—black and white, big, and involving as many artists as logistically possible (the more the merrier), our biggest step forward has been the creation of an ‘educational’ element to our project, through the introduction of a mentorship project involving local high school kids.
3. What is the creative process like in terms of choosing people to be involved? I know there are 28 members now, so are you guys officially a “team” or is the roster more fluid than that?
At this point, we’ve worked with nearly 40 artists on various projects, so in that sense, “Team EM” is better looked upon as a flexible and ever-changing ‘collective’ of emerging artists, whose work has been categorically defined as ‘underground’ and/or ‘lowbrow” art.
Refreshing and expanding the ranks is a key factor in breathing new and constant life into the project. Choosing the artists…that’s a tough question…SO MUCH amazing talent out there, so little time!
4. Many of the artists in En Masse work in somewhat alternative mediums (street art, grafitti). Was this a conscious decision, or organic? What does this type of background bring to the project?
This was a very conscious decision on our part. We wanted to include a wide range of artistic practices/pedigrees, especially exploring these cats whose voice has been largely excluded from the mainstream galleries and museums, institutions that seem to be somewhat unsure of the relationship between the fine and lowbrow arts.
We want a real grab-bag of styles, all flowing into one enormous web of ideas, thoughts, jokes, and general fun, one in which we can all freely participate in the chance to expand our potential as creators, while developing collective social and professional networks with each other.
5. How has doing this kind of massive collaborative work affected your own personal practice, if at all?
Collaborating with these incredible artists leaves me very inspired, and challenged to free up my own approach towards art making. Ego melts away during these events. So, my time in the studio, or at the sketchbook (when it comes), is now much more spontaneous, improvisational, playful. I like this.
6. Can you tell me a bit about why you guys have decided to do an educational thing? Is there a decisive angle to creating En Masse in a plethora of arenas, or does it happen more naturally than that?
The educational thing came as the natural ‘next’ step. I would have killed for a project like this as a kid, so now, with two wee ones of my own, and in working with Rupert who has produced many educationally directed events in the past, the mentoring program for kids came about very organically through personal interest.
This is a way for us to contribute socially, in a direction we feel good about. Artistic kids rarely get the chance to explore and express themselves within the school systems, as they exist, so if we can lend this hand to the schools, their teachers, and the teens, everybody gets happy. And perhaps the doors to heaven open a little wider.
7. What are some of the thrills and challenges with working with such a big group?
Cover your ears kids; this could get a little gory! I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say, it’s a bit of an administrative roller coaster at times…
With practice, the organizational drama gets a little more predictable, and easier to manage when it rears its ugly head. A steady diet of emails, ear often glued to phone, and a whole lotta labour of love keeps me going. Fortunately, I get more sleep in the weeks leading up to an event these days.
8. What most excites you about the project En Masse will be doing with ESBM, Redbird & art POP?
So many things excite me about this project! This particular avenue of the En Masse project has huge potential! I can’t wait to see what kind of work comes out of this thing, as we get this chance to collaborate directly with artists who are young in years and practice, but demonstrating real passion and huge talent in the crafting of their voice. What a mutual privilege and pleasure for us all!
For the kids, this is a great chance to gain practical tips about how to work in the mediums they are interested in, improve upon their own sense of self-worth as artists, and potentially form long-lasting creative partnerships they wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise.
9. What can you see in store for En Masse? If this goes really well, would you guys be into doing more educational/mentoring stuff?
Without question! We’re very excited with the educational stuff, and have received enormously positive response from everyone who has come into contact with the project. This event could be considered to be the pilot for many great things to come, especially as we gear into provincial, national, and international En Masse expansion in the coming year!
Filed under artists, festival, interviews, local, profiles | Tags: art pop, En Masse, jason botkin | Comment (0)
Art Pop Poppin’ up.
So Art POP is happening soon soon soon, with the first vernissage on the 30th of September at 5pm at 6600 Hutchison….
There’s a ton of stuff going on, so make sure to check out all that’s going down here.
One of the coolest parts about this year is that there are 2 central locations so it’s easy to go see a whole whackload of stuff without feeling overwhelmed. Also, as everything is going on all week, you get aladda chances to swing by and check stuff out, so no pressure. Of the peer kind or otherwise.
The artists that are showcasing this year include Bridget Moser & Jessica Campbell, Adrian Norvid, Lalie Douglas, Dominique Sirois, Kim Kielhofner, Michelle Lacombe & Sheena Hosko, Daniel Iglesia, Brendan Reed, Paul Warne, Christian Pelletier & David Beaulieu, Jean-Philippe Harvey & Adam Bergeron, Richmond Lam & Mathieu Blanchette.
It’s going to be a pretty amazing week. I am going to attempt to interview as many of these fine folks as possible to get a sense of what they’re working on, etc. so stay tuned!!
Filed under artists, events, festival, local | Tags: Adrian Norvid, Brendan Reed, Bridget Moser & Jessica Campbell, Christian Pelletier & David Beaulieu, Daniel Iglesia, Dominique Sirois, Jean-Philippe Harvey & Adam Bergeron, Kim Kielhofner, Lalie Douglas, Mathieu Blanchette, Michelle Lacombe & Sheena Hosko, Paul Warne, Richmond Lam | Comment (0)
