When nature doesn’t nuture

In Zimbabwe, where Naledi Jackson grew up, if you disrespect the spirits, you can expect an angry call back. It’s a tradition echoed in folkloric traditions around the world, indeed even in modern environmental science, where we’re just beginning to see ol’ Mother Nature stir up her wrath for our upsetting the balance. That, as wide-ranging a concept as it is, is the crux of her enthrallingly ghost-like series of paintings Firewater.

“In a way it’s about how nature reacts to human interference,” Jackson explains. “The name itself is based on the Chinese five-element cycle, where there’s wood, fire, earth, water and metal with all phenomena arriving from that. Humans have the strongest fire element, and you can see that manifested with global warming, for example. Now the Earth is fighting back with excess water, which you can see with the tsunamis and flooding... Each painting is like a story that reflects that in some way.

The vernissage is Monday, Aug. 7, 8 p.m., at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), with DJ Andy Williams, free. Ten per cent of sale proceeds go to the Green Belt Movement, a women-lead reforestation initiative in Kenya. Show runs until Sept. 1 —Matthew Woodley

Masculine identity outed

The photographs in Absolutely Fabulous were shot during the heyday of the early ’90s hard-line critiquing of the straight white male. Local artist Paul Litherland decided that instead of accepting the role of feeling bad and guilty, he’d shake up the proscribed ideas of what masculine identity is. The results were never shown, Litherland says, “mostly because I was embarrassed.”

Now, to coincide with Montreal’s Outgames, the images are finally coming out today, Aug. 3, at Galerie Thérèse Dion (372 Ste-Catherine W., #527). The images show Litherland trying on a variety of identities ranging from dildo-wearer to schoolboy to being dead. The death piece was the image used to promote last winter’s group exhibition Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography at the Jack Shainman Gallery in NYC. That exhibition and the accompanying coverage in Artforum, ARTNews and The New Yorker resulted in Litherland being encouraged to drag the whole series out of his closet. How does he feel about these images 13 years later? “Why not figure out what kind of points of view men can assume?” he asks. Opening from 3–6 p.m., exhibition runs until Sept. 2, 398-9204. —Christine Redfern

One for the prisoners

Voices From Behind the Walls is a night of films and live performance at la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent) to mark Prisoners Justice Day. “I feel that prisoners totally lose their voice, and it is very hard for them to work against the system that is controlling them,” says activist poet and playwright Ehab Latoyef. “All of us should imagine how we would feel—what would we expect from the rest of the world?” The evening features the Kalmunity Vibe Collective, DJ Andy Williams and two films. Souha: Surviving Hell is about a Lebanese political prisoner, and Corporate Lockdown is a film about the private prison industry by Sarah Zammit. That’s this Wednesday, Aug. 9, films start at 7 p.m., cost is $5 or bring a book to donate to Books to Prisoners. —Vincent Tinguely

Indie anthems

For budding artists struggling to make do, access to the proper tools is key. So Risa Dickens co-founded Indyish.com, an online boutique, group blog and network of independent artists, to connect an eclectic creative squad to open-source tools. That, plus she wanted a space to sell her own stuff.

Indyish’s official launch, Aug. 5–6, at Main Hall (5390 St-Laurent), includes a clothing swap, a consistent variable project and a 24-hour music video-making-contest. Indyish musicians Telefauna, Shoot the Moon and Sara Johnston (of Bran Van fame) will donate a new track to participants who’ll compete in true DIY fashion—no access to bands, no equipment provided, no restrictions. In fact, the use of cell phone cameras and sampling from free content sites are encouraged.

Top picks will screen at Sunday’s shindig, hosted by Kidnapper Films’ Darren Curtis and jokester Claire Brosseau. “It’s something that could really have legs,” says Dickens, “because these bands are going to be big.” Visit www.indyish.com for more. —Michael-Oliver Harding

Is it Art?

REALISM FOR DUMMIES: The mannequin scene is abuzz this week with the Canadian premiere of Rootstein’s new Drama Divas collection, making its Canadian premiere right here in Montreal. In case you didn’t know, Rootstein is reputed as the world’s leading plastic person design company, having created the first African-American mannequin with realistic features and, well, basically redefined the word “realistic.” Now celebrating their 50th anniversary, the company has also reissued a mannequin of famous ’70s African-American model Pat Cleveland. The collection is exclusively at Gender Mannequins (314 Sherbrooke E.)—for info call 382-0637 or peruse the catalogue at www.gendermannequins.com.

ArtsHole

GOOD VIBES: Perpetual world traveller, painter of skateboard decks, illustrator, sculptor, writer and dreadlocked fearless purveyor of positivity Chris Dyer spreads the love at Foufounes gallery (87 Ste-Catherine E.) with his new expo of happy psychedelia Astral Aerials. The vernissage is Wednesday, Aug. 9, and the show rides on till Sept. 2. • TRANSYLVANIAN THROWDOWN: Give yourself over to the absolute pleasure of the Rainbow Collective’s Rocky Horror Show Live, going down in its predictable yet ever-glowing glory at the Théâtre l’Olympia (1004 Ste-Catherine E.), Aug. 3–5, 8 p.m., with a “Post Show Costume Party Sextravaganza” every night—www.ticketpro.com or 908-9090 for tix.

ARTISTAT: Sites around Quebec you can truly dig during Quebec Archaeo Month, running until Aug. 31—www.archeoquebec.com for all the details: 50

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