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…

If you have ever been interested in curating. At all.

Michelle Kasprzak is a pretty incredible artist and curator, and knows a crazy amount about her field on a global scale, and not just in terms of where the jobs are at,  but where the philisophical lines split hairs, morph, and move about as well.

She’s definitely an interesting and highly informative resource and her blog about curating is a really fun and excellent way of not only staying informed but also of challenging ideas you might already have about cultural organizing practices.

Take a look and go back for more.

THE BEST VIDEO DANCE PARTY OF THE NINETIES!!!!

Friday August 7th 9:30 PM
The Paper Apartment Gallery (formerly My Hero Gallery)
3655 St. Laurent

It’s like a MuchMusic Video Party…but not.
Come dance the night away with the best music videos from your past.
This is a fundraiser for an Art Festival we will be putting on soon.
This awesome party will feature a tasty bake sale where you can buy yummy delights like…

Smashing Pumpkin Pie
Stone Temple Pie-lettes
Pearl Jam Cookies
Sub-Lime Tarts
Notorious P.I.E
Nir-Flan-A
Candy Apples in Stereo
Pave-Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
and much much more….

Chum-BEER-Wumba will be available for sale

Pay What You Can Suggested $5

RSVP on Facebook here

No Henge this Thursday

This Thursday, Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau, the two artists behind the creative duo Seripop, are inaugurating their first solo exhibition in Montreal (their first Canadian exhibition in almost 2 years). The art show “elaborates on their penchant for psychedelic exuberance through an immersive, silkscreen-based kaleidoscopic take over of the Emporium Gallery“.

Based in Montreal, Seripop has earned international attention for its stylistically distinct, silkscreened street posters which have been featured in notable books such as ‘New Vintage Type’, ‘New Masters of Poster Design’ and ‘Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer’ among many others. In addition to Seripop, Lum and Desranleau play in AIDS Wolf, a noise-rock band and Hamborghinni, a drums and electronics project.

Seripop’s No Henge exhibition will open at the Emporium Gallery (3035 St. Antoine Ouest #74) on Thursday, July 2nd from 7pm-11pm. The exhibition will also be open on Saturday, July 4th and Sunday, July 5th from 12pm-5pm.

Do Nothing At Casa

If you are the kind of person who likes to stay home doing nothing instead of going out dancing on St. Jean, then why not do nothing with a bunch of other people at Casa? Here’s their description of what I’m sure will be an interesting night of nothingness.

Starting at 6pm we will remove all furniture, all art on the walls, all information on the blackboard, turn off all pre-recorded music, turn off all lights. Once this is done, surrounded by the emptiness of an emptied Casa, we will simply be there, come join us in doing nothing (perhaps with a bit of chat, eat, drink). By midnight or so we will bring everything back to normal.

Go get cultured!

This Sunday the 31st of May is Museum Day here in Montreal. We recommend you take advantage of all the free admission and try to see as much as possible. Here are the all participating museums (there’s a lot of them so you might be busy).

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Biosphère, Environment Museum
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Centre d’exposition La Prison-des-Patriotes
Centre d’histoire de Montréal
Centre historique des Sœurs de Sainte-Anne
Château Dufresne Museum
Château Ramezay Museum
Cinémathèque québécoise
Cité Historia
Darling Foundry, Visual Arts Centre
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
Écomusée du fier monde
Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site of Canada
Maison Saint-Gabriel
Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum
McCord Museum of Canadian History
Montréal Biodôme
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Montréal Planétarium
Montréal Science Centre
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Musée de Lachine
Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu
Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec
Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and history
Redpath Museum
Sir-George-Etienne-Cartier National Historic Site of Canada
Stewart Hall Art Gallery

phew!

Long Haul Open House

The Long Haul Studio is having an open house where you can poke around in all the studios and meet the artists. Here’s all the info
OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND…
Come to our open studio weekend! All 18 studios will be open to the voyeur in you.
~Meet the 28 artists that make up the Long Haul Collective.
~Enjoy the range of work spaces - from utterly chaotic to super sparse.
~Diverse creations will be on exhibit and/or for sale in each studio.
~Paintings, drawings, felted rugs, pillow, wood frames, photography, sculpture, body products, jewelry, glass, and more…
~Families, collectors, art enthusiasts, all are welcome!

WHEN: Saturday and Sunday may 30th and 31st, from noon - six
WHERE: The Long Haul / Le Corrid’art 450 / 454 Beaumont ave. Park Extension

Pavilion Projects et al. OFF BNL

I am going to give my own head and yours a wee break and be back soon with a layout of the OFF BNL events going on during the month of May in a bit. Soon, very soon. For those who just can’t wait the schedule can be found behind these words.

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.

Kate MccGwire

When I saw these feather pieces from artist Kate MccGwire I almost had a nervous breakdown imagining putting them together. She is clearly a much more patient person than I.