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)

Seripop in the UK and Gordon Ball this Thursday

Remember Seripop’s No Henge installation at the Emporium Gallery?

The creative duo exhibited it again last month, at the Baltic Center for Contemporary Arts (UK), to show it off with The Trail, from 2008. They’re sharing pics of the installation process on their blog, you have to click here and see them.

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Speaking of the Emporium Gallery, Gordon Ball’s I am sorry. Sincerely, Frankenstein exhibition opens this Thursday, August 27th from 7pm-11pm (3035 St. Antoine Ouest, #74). It’s Ball’s first solo exhibition in Montreal in over 2 years so come out and support this local photographer.

I’m told this show is full of nudity.

Let’s build a giant room-sized theremin with 16 antennas!

We would like to invite the tag-team of artist/engineers David Beaulieu and Christian Pelletier to this year’s Pop Montreal International Music Festival (September 30 - October 4) and see them build a Theremin room in our special Art Pop and POP Symposium headquarters.

The duo was last seen breaking musical boundaries with their loud-speaker suits worn by Patrick Watson and his musicians at this year’s Festival de Jazz de Montréal.

The installation of massive proportions we want them to build will invite festival-goers to participate (alone, or in groups!) in the creation of on-site, mind-blowing, improvised music as they interact in a room with 16 antennas suspended above and around them. As they are activated, the antennas trigger psychedelic sounds that are bound to excite and solicit interest from all sorts of human beings

It’s gonna be spontaneous, it’s gonna be an immediate and visceral experience, it’s gonna be communally created art instantly diffused, IT’S GONNA BE SO COOL! We’re asking all lovers of theremins, lovers of art, lovers of interactive experiences, lovers of electricity, lovers of music and lovers of the world everywhere to help us make this project happen. Your money will be used to pay for David & Christian’s hard work and the equipment they will need to make this happen.

Check out our kickstarter page, where you’ll see all the amazing REWARDS we’re offering to people that back this project. Among those, you’ll find:

• a limited edition DVD of animations made by local animators
• a DIY theremin kit
• a hand silk-screened limited edition t-shirt with a theremin on it
• an mp3 of an exclusive track from Gentleman Reg or Dishwasher
• a FULL PAGE photo of you in the Pop Montreal segment program
• a VIP Festival Pass to the Pop Montreal International Music Festival
• a personal festival friend and a cozy bed to sleep in
• a musical about you and 3 of your friends, written and performed by us. we will tape it in Montreal in front of a live audience, and send it to you.
• a custom-made Loudspeaker Suit built by Beaulieu and Pelletier

Get your MPD on tonight

If you want to see everything there is to see tonight, you better work your multiple personality disorder to your advantage:

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• The animations of Stefan Gruber at Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) tonight at 8pm. His work has fluid animation and a trippy aesthetic that echoes the nonchalant sophistication of comix artists like Ron Regé Jr.

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• Before that though, you should stop by right next door, over at Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent), for the vernissage of an exhibition featuring the costumes, props and photos from the in-progress short film, Smile Stealers. This is happening from 5pm to 7pm.

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• The second edition of the Montreal 60 Second Film Festival is having its (free) Registration Party down the street at La Sala Rossa (4848 boul. St-Laurent) from 8:30pm to 11:30pm. The idea is simple: the first 120 filmmakers to sign up each make a 60 second film that will be screened in september. Entertainment will include performances by Julie Lequin (of her “This American Life” submission), magician Sébastien Talbot, zoetrope workshop, screentests - not to mention doorprizes featuring original art created for M60! More info on this incredible project here.

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• For the 18th year in a row, Groupe Intervention Vidéo presents Vidéos de femmes dans le parc (VFP), showing 17 short video works by awesome ladies, including forever-mammoth-favorite Kim Kielhofner. This is happening at the Théâtre de Verdure in Parc Lafontaine, 9 pm.

Amy Lockhart @ La Centrale

I’m as late as late can be on the Amy Lockhart promo-bandwagon, and the vernissage and artist talk were both happening over a week ago. But trivialities aside, you should still try to catch her show over at La Centrale (4296 St. Laurent) before it ends on June 21st.

Amy’s style is weird, grotesque and recognizable, with a je-ne-sais-quoi that sets her appart from the ever-expanding crowd of underground independant DIY-ers. Two thumbs up fto her or having a discernable and unique vibe without ever limiting herself to a specific format/medium/character.

Her exhibition features art that range sfrom papier-maché sculptures and installations, to drawings, paintings, zines and superbly fluid animation of Marc Bell doodles. She works with a ton of different mediums and styles while remaining ‘edgy’ and ‘relevant.’

You can find more of her work in the Nog-A-Dod anthology, edited by Marc Bell and published by Conundrum Press (available at the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, 211 Bernard O). The bookstore  also has a copy of the Ganzfeld 5: Japanada! anthology in stock, in which her work is also featured, among pages and pages of equally impressive artists.

Biennale Madness

Ok folks, so the Montreal Biennale is half-over, but there is still plenty, plenty, plenty to check out. So much so that my head is spinning a little over here in my dark, damp corner of the world, and I just might need to put a plastic bag on my head to help breathe. That helps, right….?

The majority of what the Biennale has to offer runs throughout the month, so fear not, people, you haven’t missed much if you haven’t gone to see its diverse programming yet. General notes of interest for those wishing to embark on the Discover-MTL-BNL-09 train;

1. The festival has many locations, but the central one is L’Ecole Bourget, which is down, down, downtown. Its exact address, unlike my hairdressers, is not a mystery, and is 1230 de la Montagne, (coin Ste Catherine) which is close to Guy-Concordia and Peel Metro stations. 

2. The admission fee will set you back $5, or the price of a very good latte, unless you can prove you’re 12 or under, so I suggest dressing way, way down. Think beanie and giant lollipop. 

3. For other Biennale locations and a map of where things are at, check this link out. To download the full program, click here. 

At any and all rates, here, in a randomly assorted listing, are some of the things that I suggest you go and do, wrestle down, cajole, chomp on, etc….

1. The interactive exhibition at the Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay (6052 Boulevard Monk, Metro Monk)

This exhibition, which runs all month long, is located in and focused on the fabulous South West of Montreal and its boroughs (St.Henri, Ville Emard, Verdun, Point St Charles, Little Burgundy, Etc) The idea behind the show, thought up by by the Educational Services of la Biennale de Montréal 2009 and artists Alexandre Castonguay and Michel Seta is to offer different communities in the neighbourhoods a chance to help create a soci-artistic project together through the use of various mediums and mechanisms. 

It sounds like it will be an interesting thing to check out, particularly in regards to how well it integrates the festival’s Open Culture mandate. There are guided tours every day for those interested in learning more about the project/contributing to its narrative, and the hours are listed here, at the very bottom of the page.

2. Saturday, May 16th (today!) + Sunday, May 17th (tomorrow!) from 12-5pm - last chance to see TAG in action - L’Ecole Bourget 

Who are TAG? and what do they do? These folks are a community of peeps interested in creative gaming in all its diverse forms. TAG (Technoculture, Art and Games) seems to be comprised of academics through Hexagram at Concordia and lots of creative partners. 

If you go to the Ecole Bourget today or tomorrow, you’ll get a chance to see their Biennale incarnation, Porous Lab, do its thing, or to participate in the creation of their games. To be honest, I only kindof get it, but that’s always where things get interesting, so go and find out how to become your own personal avatar in the Unicorn Candy Land Simulation I’ve been dreaming of for so long.

3. Every Saturday of the month at 2-3pm - Daniel Jolliffe’s Performance Mobile En Velo - 

This looks really cool - Daniel Jolliffe, an artist who combines sculpture practices and electronic technologies, is inviting everyone of us to call his hotline, at 1-888-500-1011 and record whatever message comes to mind, has been pre-planned for months, is a big fat lie, is the gorgeous, secret truth. Think Biennale Rant Line or some such. Then he takes his homemade megaphone, pictured above, and tours the city with your words and mumbles. 

Every Saturday for the duration of the fest, Jolliffe will be ready at 2pm at L’Ecole Bourget for you to come with your bike and chocolate croissant snaxs to tour around with his handmade sculpture to proudly (or sheepishly) declare to the world the recordings of each person that left him a message. 

Meanwhile, it’s almost 2pm, and it’s raining raining raining, so if you feel strong enough to go today, wear something plastic and yellow and red, (like his scultpure!) to keep the droplets at bay.

4. Thursday, May 21st from 5-8pm - Conference with Daniel Jolliffe and Alexandre Castonguay, L’Ecole Bourget

For descriptions of each artists work, please see individual write-ups. I couldn’t find any description of what this is going to be on the festival’s website, which could easily be due to over-saturation at this point with so many clicks and links and rain and music and coffee and. All this to say they will likely be talking about the use of electronics and technology in their works, as they both use digital medias in interactive and interesting ways, so if this sounds like your type of thing, then leave all the others behind in their nests and go. 

5. Saturday, May 23rd - Soundscapes/Paysages Sonores - La Sala Rossa, 4848 St Laurent

One of the only Biennale events off the Ecole Bourget map, this evening at the Sala will render live the music composed by David Ryshpan and inspired by the work of Rick Leong, one of Montreal’s youngest painterly stars. You can also go and check out both Leong and Ryshypan’s creations at the Ecole Bourget itself. 

6. Everday Exhibitions going on at L’Ecole Bourget 

There are many artists and exhibitions going on at L’Ecole Bourget for the Biennale, and for $5, you get the flexibility of going during whatever day of the week you like, as it’s open the entire month without fail daily. 

If you missed the documentary on the innovative and inspiring Roadsworth, you can still check his work out in and around L’Ecole Bourget when you go. He’s been commissioned to do work around the metro stations of the school, so walk slowly on de la Montagne so as not to miss his breathtaking creations. 

Once you’re in the bowels of the site,  (yes, yes, I used the word bowels, folks. Get over it) you can see Brazilian artist Cao Guimaraes‘ photo series Gambiarras (2002-2007) showing how São Paulo citizens rework their surroundings to make them more functional.

If you’re feeling the need to get your hands metaphorically dirty a bit more, then dive into Read + Write,  an interactive installation conceived of by artist Alexandre Castonguay in collaboration with Mathieu Bouchard, a digital arts engineer. The work invites participants to engrave texts, sounds and images on the wall and to control their appearance. This artwork is a drawing machine as well as a software interface. 

In a less directly-interactive vein, but no less engaging, is one of the program’s most exciting presentations from the perspective of my little bean-head, which is that of Richard Wentworth’s amazingly poetic and understated photo series, Making Do and Getting By (1973-2008). Wentworth’s humour and unique vision has produced a body of work that engages with the direct environment of everyday living in ways both immediately recognizable and unashamedly playful and touching. 

Also not to be missed is 8 Courts 1 Collectif, an open source cinema initiative curated and coordinated by Michèle Gauthier and Claudine Tissier. They chose 8 up-and-coming Montreal filmmakers: Michèle Gauthier, Benjamin Gueguen, Ahn Minh Truong, Yan Giroux, Sophie Goyette, Alexandre Gibault, Abeille Tard and Guy Édouin to direct a series of 8 short films based on content provided by the public via a website over the course of one year. Their website explains the process in greater detail. 

Phew. I feel overwhelmed already. In a good way, like when I am laying outside, in farm country, eyes closed and sunny, with a sudden onslaught of 10 kittens coming at me from all directions. Grinning-from-ear-to-ear-overwhelmed.

In fact, I feel so exhausted already that I think I am just going to get drunk alone in this dark, damp corner of mine, from now until the closing party on the 31st of May at, where else? L’Ecole Bourget. It’s a 5 a 7, so go early and then stay late, while you drool on all the napkins and leftover cheese plates as yet again, security has to be called, and you must be physically thrown out.

Kent Monkman is in town!

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 5th at 4pm, fabulous Cree artist Kent Monkman will be giving a free lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, in the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium (Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, 1379 Sherbrooke). The artist talk is happening in conjunction with the opening of his Dance to the Berdashe video installation, which will be located in the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion until the first week of October.

Tonight as well: Moral Dissonance Vernissage

There’s also an intriguing vernissage happening tonight at the VAV Gallery (7-9pm, 1395 René Lévesque Ouest). Matt Goerzen & Mark Stroemich are exhibiting Three Men Beating Someone Else to Near Death with Sticks and Bats and Such (pictured above in all its confrontational gloriousness). The second installation, Quantum Prayer Bells, is by Nimalan Yoganathan. It is a “quadraphonic sound installation that immerses the listener inside a Montreal South Indian Hindu temple re-contextualized within an Electroacoustic setting.”

The show’s all about negotiating selves through either destruction or reflection, and it’s staying in the VAV gallery until May 8.

Heads Up for May

Here’s a quick post to start hyping up Kent Monkman’s Dance to the Berdashe, a video installation composed of five large projections to be installed at the MBAM from May 6 to October 4. I just want to point out how hot the artist looks, and I’ll let Kit, the biggest and most knowledgeable Monkman fan of us four, write about the meta-fab artist some other time.

Speaking of something happening in may, remember the awesome Greasy Goose Salon? They’re looking for submissions for the next May 21st salon, which will be on the theme Gesture. You have until the fifth of May to send your proposal for a 20-minute lecture to greasygoose (at) thearchive.ca. Check this website out for more information on the monthly community lecture series.

Go get your robe and necklace already…

Tonight, performance artists/ruffian Jason Harvey and his cohort Michael Farsky, (at least in this endeavour) plan to marry cats, mystic dance, and hypnotize some folks, all in front of you.

A large-scale interdisciplinary art event, Demon Night promises to be, in their words, a “bright cosmic passage on to a new echeleon of existence. Feeling one with every person in the same room, learning and sharing a new found understanding and strength. Be free and be joyous, and spread the light that is within you!”

I am going to personally be in Vermont being one with a bunch of strangers and mountain views, but if you are sticking around Montreal, the night starts at 11pm and the loft it is in will be completely transformed to look like a giant womb, (no comment) replete with a “cuddle wing”, so you might end up not leaving until the wee hours of the morning at the earliest.

It is at Lab.synthese, which is located at 435 Beaubien West. There IS a cover charge, and it IS $5 which includes a robe and necklace.