Canadian martyr massacre

They might not be your first choice for a picture to hang in a child’s bedroom, but in reality, Diana Thorneycroft’s photographs are considerably less violent and much more humorous than the shoot-’em-up video games kids love to play. In The Canadiana Martyrdom Series, now showing at Art Mûr (5827 St-Hubert), Thorneycroft depicts absurd scenes of agony using dolls, action figures and toy animals. The scenes have a precedent in art history: They’re inspired by the outrageous old drawings and paintings of Christian martyrs suffering on medieval torture devices. Yet Thorneycroft’s images are quintessentially Canadian. Set in landscapes culled from calendars and tourism posters, Canadian “icons” such as Anne of Green Gables, Mounties, hockey players, Bob and Doug MacKenzie and Céline Dion inflict, receive or witness painful situations in front of a crowd of polar bears, elk, moose, beavers and howling wolves. These photographs play with our cultural love of murder as entertainment, point out our apathy towards violence and in the end give everyone who sees them a good hearty belly laugh. Runs until Dec. 17, 933-0711. —Christine Redfern

Made you look

“We’re brought up like we shouldn’t look at someone who is different,” says London-based dancer-choreographer Jemima Hoadley. “I think for some people, when they see someone with a disability on stage, it’s like the first time they’re allowed to look. It takes the taboo away, and eventually the disability drops away and you see the dance.”

Hoadley had her first contact with disability and dance when she worked with British troupe CandoCo, which casts both disabled and able-bodied artists. Soon after, she crossed paths with local quadriplegic dancer France Geoffroy, a founder of Corpuscule Danse, Quebec’s first integrated dance company. The two artists shared an immediate connection and decided to work together, this week bringing us All in an Instant, which takes its spirit from those random, but sometimes meaningful encounters of city life.

The shows are part of Tangente’s Corps Atypiques series along with a theatrical piece by Menka Nagrani and Richard Gaulin, Dec. 1–3 at 8:30 p.m. and Dec. 4 at 4 p.m. (840 Cherrier, 525-1500). —Marites Carino

Feline fête

The feisty felines of Catcall are having a party! Co-organized by Luna Allison and Abigail Lapell, the monthly series runs at Café Esperanza—but tonight’s gala second anniversary show is at Main Hall (5390 St-Laurent). “It’s exciting that it’s been sustainable,” says co-organizer Lapell. “Because the series is in an intimate space, it’s comfortable, more a coffee house vibe than a rock show. It’s a small project that has grown of its own momentum. This is a chance to celebrate that.” It features music, spoken word and more by Catcall alumni Amanda Mabro, Annabelle Chvostek, Andrea Revel, Josephine Watson, Kathy Kennedy, Farine Five Roses and Jordi Rosen. Dec. 1, 8 p.m., $5–$10. —Vincent Tinguely

Intruder alert

“Sometimes I feel so happy.” is the line from a Velvet Underground song British artist Mathew Sawyer jotted on a piece of paper and slipped into the pocket of an older woman sitting on a bus. A clandestine picture of her is pinned to the wall in the fresh and amusing exhibition on public interventions entitled Pardon Me now showing at the Saidye (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine).

The works in this exhibition blur the boundaries between public and private. Sometimes they’re done with the subject’s collaboration, like Shizuka Yokomizo’s series of portraits taken through the first-floor windows of people’s homes. Other times they were done without the occupants’ knowledge, like Andrew Dadson’s jumping from rooftop-to-rooftop on Vancouver houses. All eight artists in this show provide their own compelling twist on art inserted into the everyday and manage to successfully pull off the difficult task of presenting this kind of work in a gallery setting. Runs until Jan. 22, info: 739-2301. —Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

YOU CARE, YOU WEAR: The only things unethical about enviro-conscious, fair-trade friendly, fabric-recycling friperie La Gaillarde (4019 Notre Dame W.) is how darn good their clothes look and how immorally hot you’ll look in them. Thursday, Dec. 8, they shine their Enviro-art spotlight on Montreal designer Geneviève Genest, who’ll be presenting the latest from her regal-meets-resourceful Créations Genest in a fashion show at the boutique. Commit to responsible consumption and head down to the store for a cocktail at 7 p.m., before the show begins at 7:30.

ArtsHole

GOODS FOR GRABS: The third edition of the Dare-Dare Depot isn’t just a fundraiser for the ever-provocative gallery/group, it’s a fine place to snatch up a few holiday goodies for the friends and family. The sale, which will have items on hand from dozens of artists, runs this weekend, Dec. 3–4, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., at Rhum Café (201 Laurier E., #100), $4 at the door • POETRY NOTEBOOK: Taien Ng-Chan launches a books ’o poems Maps of Our Bodies & the Borders We Have Agreed Upon (Cumulus press) along with a multimedia CD-ROM he co-created with Scott W. Gray of the Sally Fields. The evening, today, Dec. 1, 7–10 p.m. at Toc Toc (6091 Parc), features projections, music by the Sally Fields and, of course, readings from the author and a few others.

ARTISTAT: Number of price tags used by Vanessa Yanow in her supermarket shopping cart collage, “Six Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixty Seven Price Tags,” part of her exhibition Chariots of Desire, opening today, Dec. 1, 6 p.m. and running through Dec. 22, at the Visual Arts Centre, (350 Victoria): 6,367

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