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.

A show I don’t want to avoid concerning a topic I would…

This Thursday the 30th at the always-to-keep-on-your-arts-radar Emporium Gallery in Montreal, Patrick Tsai of My Little Dead Dick fame and compadre Coley Brown will be showing their latest photographic collaborative efforts, entitled Growing Up.

From the mouths of those proponing to be in the process of growing up themselves:

“Growing Up was spurred by a spontaneous scene we witnessed together at Shibuya station in Tokyo, Japan- where two high school girls were leaning against a wall, one was crying while the other was trying to comfort her. Even though they were surrounded by a city of millions, they were the only ones that existed for that brief moment. The photograph we took of them that day eventually became the genesis of our project, a project whose intention was to document and explore the inevitable process of growing up.”

Sigh. Although part of me still refuses to deal with the whole concept of growing up, I still think it should be interesting to see what two photographers, almost a decade apart in age (ok, 6 years…but a big 6, as Tsai is in his late 20s and Brown, his early) have to say as a collective mass together on the whole topic. A show that will likely leave a bit of an impact, sentimental or otherwise, and an opening that I suspect you won’t want to miss…

All the practical details can  be found here.

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.

Proof 16

Attention Torontonians! Gallery 44 is having their Proof 16 show again and it’s a good one. One of our favorite Montreal artists Katie has some amazing self-portrait photo based weavings in the show. Here’s the details from Gallery 44.

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
401 Richmond St W. Suite 120 Toronto ON M5V 3A8 www.gallery44.org 416.979.3941

Proof 16
Gallery 44’s annual exhibition of emerging Canadian photographer’s works

Tanya Busse, Sarah Febbraro, Katie Jung, Yuriko Kubota, Mark André Pennock, Sabrina Russo, Jim Verburg, Cameron Young

July 10 – August 8, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday July 10, 6 – 9 pm, artists in attendance
Artist in residency talk: Friday July 10, 6 pm

Gallery 44’s annual exhibition of emerging artists features the latest photographic practices from across the country. This year’s exhibition is unique for its representation of a diverse range of media including sculptural and hand crafted pieces. The show includes a book work (Busse), images from YouTube (Febbraro), jacquard weavings (Jung), multiple prints mounted together with layers sliced away (Kubota), a video work (Pennock), an interactive table installation and flipbook animation (Russo) and gum bichromate prints (Young). Gallery 44’s 2009 artist in residence is Jim Verburg, whose multimedia installation is a culmination of his work during the residency.

June 18th: Thoday is Thrazy Thursday

Brace yourselves, there are (at least) three art openings to go to today (Thursday the 18th). They all start at 7pm, and I hope you can find a way to see everything without missing Corpusse’s performance at Zoobizarre later tonight. Details below:

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1. Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo at Galerie Push (7-9pm)

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of his intense and riveting creatures (see Kit’s post below). His Bestiairies show is staying at PUSH (5264 St. Laurent) until the 26th of July.

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2. The Emporium State of Mind (7-11pm)

The product of a collaboration between The Emporium Gallery (3035 St. Antoine Ouest #74) and Montreal State of Mind: a “media spanning group exhibition that will exemplify Montreal State of Mind’s mission- to promote the inherent creativity of those who live in Montreal done through the Emporium Gallery’s curation”. The exhibition features the work of Fangs, Amber Albrecht, Sean Orena, Alexi Hobbs, 123Klan, RAGE5, Robb Jamieson, Kit Malo (!), Julien de Repentigny, Astro, Dave Arnold, Ben Pobjoy and Danielle Levy. They are 13 Montreal-based visual artists, who will each be exhibiting one artwork priced at a maximum of $200CAD

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3. A Red Bird Studios Group Show at General 54, 7pm

General 54 (54 St-Viateur O) is hosting a group show put up by the artist-run arts space Red Bird. The exhibition showcases the work of its diverse group of painters, sculptors, graphic designers and silk screeners, each one exploring their individual practice and methodology within the material constraints of a 10″x10″ canvas board. There will also be cake supplied by Cocoa Locale (best cupcakes in town, and I know what I’m talking about) and 10% off everything in the store!

Artists include: Sarah Courtemanche, Dan Buller, Kit Malo (!), Oksana, Rebecca Rosen, Jayce Yam, Mark Dixon, Julien Ceccaldi (!), Katie Earle, John Player, Andrea Kastner, Colin Lyons, Corrie Peterson, Kim Kielhofner, Naomi Cook, Lisa Wilson, Daniel Nessler, Rachel Berger, Becky Emlaw, Shannon Kelly, Konan Cook, and others…

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4. Where you must be after all the art and cake (Zoobizarre, 9pm)

Starting at 9pm, Suoni per il popolo presents Corpusse (TO), The Unireverse (Mtl) and Knurl (TO). There will be everything you could need by then (besides art and cake), i.e. synth action, confrontational performance and raw noise.

I’m especially looking forward to seeing Corpusse do his thing: it will be primitive hardcore punk with a synthesizer, and it will involve glitter and nice make-up. Here’s a video of his last performance at Zoobizarre (6388 St-Hubert) in October 2006.

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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.

William Wegman, Lifetime Inspiration

William Wegman has always consistently displayed extraordinary wit, intemporal coolness, unquestionable humour and absolute talent. Visit his website to get a better sense of how remarkable his work is. The “1971-1985 works on paper” and “video” sections are especially both to die (of awe and laughter) for. He hasn’t stopped by Montreal since 1996, when he was exhibiting Fay’s Fairy Tales at the MACM…

Concordia students can still get a glimpse of Wegman’s genius without traveling by taking a look at the Selected Works by William Wegman, 1970-78 videotape over at the Webster Periodicals/Media Desk, or at the Video Works, 1970-1999 DVD, which they can find at the the Vanier Circulation Desk. The Webster Library also carries a few fantastic books about Mr. Wegman. The others can turn to amazon and thank god for the internet.

Massively good times will be had if you search “William Wegman” on youtube.

Yeondoo Jung

I first became aware of Yeondoo Jung’s photographs when someone showed me his Wonderland collection, photographs taken based on children’s drawings. For this series he collected over 1200 drawings and then chose only 17. To recreate the images he enlisted the help of costume designers and set designers to sew and build clothing and objects the way children draw them, such as shirts with uneven sleeves and 2 dimensional tables.

Yeondoo Jung’s most recent work still plays with the ideas of skewed reality and imagination. Nostalgia Documentary is an 84 minute HD video shot in one take where workers in orange jumpsuits walk in and out of the scene to change it completely. They place bird’s nests in trees, remove roads that are really carpets and change backdrops to countrysides. To get a better idea visit his website where some selected clips are available. Below of some screen shots from the film.

They are sexy people

SEXY PEOPLE is a blog that posts photo portraits, usually from the 1970s or 1980s. The “sexy” bit is a joke, but I’m fascinated by the way these dated, hilarious images capture something essential not just about their subjects - but about the aesthetic of hopes and self-image at the time they were taken. Thank goodness we’re beyond all that.

Of those who lived the charmed life…

I.e. - A post about an event tomorrow for folks who don’t have day jobs, or have very flexible day jobs, or have very flexible joints. So one most definitely not for me, unfortunately.

Tomorrow at 12:30 pm sharp at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery go check out 3 of the artists showing currently (in an exhibition entitled Ignition) strut their stuff (or gab their gab) at the final artists’ talk of the show.

It’s the latest juried Concordia Master’s Student’s show, and one of my personal favourite Montreal-based photographers, Meera Margaret Singh, (to whom we owe the images in this post) is one of the 6 recently graduated artistes who will be presenting tomorrow about her practice.

She’s hilarious, passionate and really thoughtful about why she does what she does, in a non-wanky way. Worth the trip down (or up, or around the corner, depending) to the Concordia campus just to see her.

Plus there will be all-you-can-eat free brownies and hot dogs….