Written on
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disappointment in the technological age:
what hit and missed

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:
Michel de Broin’s “Black Hole Conference”

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

The Montreal artist who had the best year in 2007 would have to be Michel de Broin. In October, he walked away with the $50,000 Sobey Art Award for top Canadian artist under 40. And if that wasn’t enough, a week later, he received even more press when his artwork “Shared Propulsion Car” caught the eye of Toronto’s constables. De Broin had brought the car to Toronto for his exhibition at Mercer Union. “The Shared Propulsion Car” is a 1986 Buick Regal that is missing its engine, suspension, transmission and electrical system. It runs solely on the pedal power provided by its passengers. Toronto artist Dean Baldwin and some of the gallery staff took it out for a spin the day after the exhibition opened. It took the police only nine blocks to figure out “there’s something suspicious about that really slow moving car with the feet sticking out the bottom.” Check it out for yourself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynTKnPehv24.

The good

Many thanks to Stéphane Aquin for bringing New York artist John Lurie to town for his exhibition The Erotic Poetry of Hoog at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I’m a big fan of Lurie’s from way back—interviewing him was one of the highlights of the year. He cracked me up when he was talking about his paintings from the early ’80s. “Jean-Michel was a kid then who used to sleep on my floor for weeks on end. There was some paintings we worked on together, some we did at the same time. And if you were to tell someone back then that these two guys making these artworks stoned out of their minds… that one of them was going to be worth $40-million and the other $500. Who would have believed it? I was his mentor then, now a Basquiat is like a Picasso.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked the work of David Altmejd, but in 2007 I became a convert. Other exhibitions and happenings that turned me on, in no particular order: Elena Willis at the Darling Foundry; Kamila Wozniakowska and Cal Lane at Art Mûr; the birth of the DHC/ART Foundation and the new Drawn & Quarterly bookstore; Conundrum Press’s new imprint BDANG—devoted to publishing graphic novels from Quebec in English (and its excellent recent release—Richard Suicide’s My Life As a Foot); BGL’s fly infested ice cream truck and Caroline Hayeur’s documentary photographs in Artefact 2007 on Île Ste-Hélène; and lastly, Jim Campbell in e-art: 10 Years of Accomplishments by the Daniel Langlois Foundation at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

The bad

The e-art exhibition also contained one of my disappointments of 2007. I was really looking forward to experiencing Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work in person, especially after hearing about his brilliant pavilion at this summer’s Venice Biennale. Unfortunately, the way his piece “Subtitled Public” was shown at the museum, many people didn’t even notice it. So please Daniel Langlois, could you show Lozano-Hemmer’s work again? Preferably in a large space? Because it would be nice if we could finally experience this local artist right here on his home turf.

The ugly

The prestigious Donut Award for 2007 goes to curator Sylvie Gilbert for the exhibition Comic Craze last spring at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. By buying up a bunch of small press zines and self-published artist’s books and calling it a collection, this curator was able to sidestep annoying issues such as artists’ fees and agreements. Most of the artists didn’t even know that their work was in the show. If I was Gilbert, I’d be a little embarrassed after putting my name up in big letters and not even listing the names of the artists involved on the Web site or in the press material. But her response, “What’s their problem? Let them eat cake!”

Not that this had a negative effect on Montreal’s comic/underground art scene, ’cause it continued to thrive in 2007. In fact, my favourite art this year didn’t come via the mainstream art cognoscenti, but from Montrealers Alex McLean (aka Produkt) and Kathleen Weldon. Their animation for Patrick Watson’s “The Great Escape” is sublime (check it out on YouTube). Add to that their collaborative book of drawings launched at Le Kopshop (111 Roy) last June called “The Lost Years” and you’ve got a homegrown duo with a beautiful artistic sensibility. I can’t wait to see what they do next. Bring on 2008.

In memory of Thérèse Dion, one of Montreal’s most vibrant characters. R.I.P.