by CHRISTINE REDFERN

Forget about those winter blues. The local arts scene is full of hot shows that will carry you through till the snow melts. Take Further, for starters, Marianne Corless's fur portraits, currently on display at La Centrale. The exhibition gives a nod to the fur trade's history in Canada and also provides viewers a chance to kick off their shoes and enjoy a wall-to-wall carpet made entirely of fur. If the whole concept of animal pelts raises your ire, drop by with a placard and protest, the show is up until Feb. 20.

Manon Labrecque, much loved for her works exploring contemporary dance, video, sculpture and kinetic installations, is now showing at Clark. On view is a new video installation, L'Appel, plus three kinetic and sound sculptures, Les Guérisons. It runs until Feb. 26.

The Musée d'art contemporain has started a new film and video program called Space/Time. The inaugural edition brings together five short films by five artists, each offering a personal view of how we relate to the world. Through Jan. 30, familiar yet strange landscapes are experienced in Floria Sigismondi's apocalyptic view of a playground, as well as in works by Khrystell Burlin, Thomas Köner, Gareth Long and Leighton Pierce.

Moving into February, the multi-venue exhibition Language of Intercession puts indigenous new media art front and centre at Oboro, Dazibao and Articule from Feb. 19–March 19. Curator Steve Loft presents video, digital and Web-based work by seven artists, including K.C. Adams, Dana Claxton and Skawennati Tricia Fragnito. Leaving identity politics aside, Loft says that the exhibition keeps its focus on "the expression of an indigenous aesthetic and where it resides in a media-saturated society."

Ripple effects

Ondulation by Thomas McIntosh, Mikko Hynninen and Emmanuel Madan will be at the MAC from Feb. 11–March 6. Waves travel across a large basin of water, rising or falling in response to the generated sounds. Lights, bouncing off this moving surface, send reflected ripples over the walls of the gallery. Try to see this installation during one of the four Wednesday nights when the guys perform live with the work.

The revolutionary material plastic is the focus of a group exhibition at Art Mûr. Plastique brings together work by François Chartier, Sylvie Laliberté, Rafael Sottolichio, Sarah Stevenson and more, on display from Feb. 14–April 2.

The Montreal High Lights Festival brings back its annual All-Nighter/Nuit Blanche starting in the wee hours on Feb. 26 and continuing until the morning of the 27th. There are a plethora of art events taking place in the Belgo building (372 Ste-Catherine W.), at Place des arts and various other spots around town. Jump on the free bus and ferry yourself around from one event to the other till the sun rises. One event to numb your brain is the travelling performance exhibition Snow Shovelling, wherein performers shovel the white stuff at Dare-Dare's temporary spot in Viger Square. Check out www.montrealenlumiere.com for more info.

There'll be so much good stuff happening at this year's Edgy Women Festival, running from March 17–20, that you might as well just take up residence at the Sala Rossa. It starts off with a multidisciplinary cabaret, then showcases the fabulous work of local Nathalie Claude and ends with the wild performances of the post-punk anarchists les Reines Prochaines.

Michel de Broin shows new drawings and the humorous installation Inside Out at Galerie Pierre-François Ouellette. For a taste, check out the "Inside Out" quicktime video from the Mobilize exhibition in Germany at www.kloud.org/mdb. It runs from March 5–April 17.

Originally from South Africa and now residing in Amsterdam, Moshekwa Langa is coming to town for a residence and exhibition at the MAI. Curated by local Dominique Fontaine, Langa's installation will include a selection of his recent and most significant works, which explore issues surrounding identity, displacement, geography and history. This exhibition is part of the citywide Vues d'Afrique Festival. See www.vuesdafrique.org for more.

Last, but highly captivating, is Year 01's Teletaxi. Call and request a pick-up to experience audio and video works via GPS technology as you travel by taxi through the city. Teletaxi involves 15 different artists including David Jhave Johnston, Michelle Kasprzak and Myriam Yates. Presented by Dare-Dare, this cab is in gear from March 21 until the summer solstice.