Tigers burning bright

If you are looking for a good excuse to get out of town, look no further. The exhibition Long Scroll by Chinese-born New Yorker Cai Guo-Qiang at the National Gallery’s space in Shawinigan is definitely worth the trip.

The exhibition opens with a traditional Chinese scroll painting of 100 tigers by his father, after which you encounter Cai’s (pronounced “sigh”) massive installations, gunpowder drawings and explosive videos. The way his work fills the three long galleries harkens back to the motion, rhythm and blank spaces found in traditional Chinese landscapes—like in his father’s paintings—but his subject matter is contemporary and much more universal.

Cars flipping through space with lights radiating out of them as if they are exploding, tigers, writhing in fear and pain, shot full of arrows, a section of an ancient Japanese fishing boat, floating on broken ceramic statuettes of a Buddhist goddess or a car filled with exploding fireworks travelling ghost-like through Times Square. Cai manages to turn this potentially violent material into a meditative and poetic experience that stays with you long after you leave. Long Scroll runs until Oct. 2—Shawinigan is 90 minutes away by car, info: 1-866-900-2483. —Christine Redfern

Off the deep end

Since it was such a hit last summer, the choreographic pool party Piss In The Pool is returning to the deep end at the Bain St-Michel (5300 St-Dominique). Last year, organizers/choreographers Sasha Kleinplatz and Andrew Tay welcomed over 200 people into this non-traditional venue for an assortment of short works by emerging choreographers.

“Doing site-specific work takes you out of the historical context of dance,” says Kleinplatz. “And when you get a structure that’s artificially forced on your work, it forces you to think out of the box. You don’t work in the same way as you do in a studio.”

Along with the organizers, choreographers Christiane Bourget, Dana Michel, Catherine Leblanc and Andrew Turner have three days to set their oeuvres within the confines of the defunct public pool space. Between works, in a social atmosphere, spectators will be shuffled around for different vantage points for each piece. “The audience becomes part of the theatre experience—it’s not passive,” explains Kleinplatz. “We’ve made an agreement that we’re in this together.” Dip in June 30–July 1, 8:30 p.m., $5. —Marites Carino

Word quake

When Lawn Chair Soirée organizer Jan Jorgensen heard about the earthquake in the Yogiakarta area of Indonesia, she immediately thought of her Indonesian friend and fellow poet, Ali D. Musyrifa. “I called Ali to see if his family was all right, and it turned out Yogiakarta was his city,” she explains. Jorgensen organized the Spoken Word Marathon Benefit to help raise relief funds. It boasts more than 30 readers, including Musyrifa himself as well as Labibah Zain reading in English and Indonesian, and Élizabeth Robert and her fellow scribes from Noches de Poesia, who’ll perform works in Spanish, French and English. July 1, 10 a.m.–10 p.m., Webster Hall at Westmount Park Church (4695 de Maisonneuve W.), $3, 721-8420. —Vincent Tinguely

Sweet dreams

The invitation for Elena Willis’s exhibition Naturally Human caught my eye. It shows a picture of a collie pulling a man in a lake—both clenching the rope in their teeth. This detail is taken from one of the six large-scale photos, all inspired by the artist’s dreams, now on view at the McClure Gallery (350 Victoria).

The “Ice Skating Dream” shows a rink on a sunny winter’s day filled with people enjoying a variety of outdoor activities. Another, titled “Group Effect,” shows people fully dressed, walking into a stream looking off into the distance as if in a kind of trance. A third shows a person treading water in the dark, a chain running from his mouth to the bumper of a car that is in the process of sinking. That’s a real car, tipped into real water, not a scene fabricated in PhotoShop. Go see all of these elaborately staged shots, you won’t be disappointed. Until July 15, info: 488-9558. —Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

A BETTER PUTTER: Embarrassed by what a winter’s worth of vernissages and outings to see emerging choreographers has done for your putting game? Non-traditional thinkers need non-traditional golfing equipment, and the L2 Lateral Line Putter is just that. Endorsed by Sandra Eriksson, LPGA Member Teaching and Club Professional, Delray Beach Golf Club and LPGA Professional of the Year 1999, the putter is designed so golfers face the hole front on, swinging the club to the side of the body. This, claims inventor John Ambrose, allows for increased directional accuracy, better distance control, a more natural hand-to-eye co-ordination, easier to read breaks and, consequently, a lower handicap. Check it out at www.toolite.com/golf.

ArtsHole

T IS FOR TOP: Twenty T-shirts featuring fresh designs from the winners of this year’s OneTop competition are now on display at Galerie [sas] (372 Ste-Catherine W., #416) and will be there until Aug. 23. This year’s theme is the couple. • ORIENTAL ORIENTATION: Buddhist sculptures, Tibetan thangkas, obi tapestries, kimonos from the Meiji and Taisho periods and a series of geisha prints—all impermanent of course—can be seen at Galerie Mazarine’s (1448A Sherbrooke W.) summer exhibition, Far-Eastern Winds. It continues until July 22. • ART OUTSIDER: Take a breath of fresh air this weekend at the Festival International Montreal en Arts’ outside exhibition, showcasing more than 140 painters, photographers, performers and other creative types, along Ste-Catherine between St-Hubert and Amherst, June 29–July 2.

ARTISTAT: Number of cool Inuit sculptures in the MMFA’s new exhibition ItuKiagâtta!, focusing on works from the ’50s by the far-north’s finest: 50

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