Distroboto
turns seven
BETTER THAN CIGARETTES: Distroboto’s goodies
There’s something beautifully mad about Louis Rastelli’s Distroboto dream. With eight full-time machines dispensing tiny art and craft gems around Montreal, a number of temporary installations for the Bibliothèque Nationale, Cirque du Soleil, last fall’s Biennale, and over 20,000 hand-crafted goodies sold at two bucks a pop, Rastelli’s vision remains fixed on the future.
“I would like to see them in some of the Maison de la Cultures,” says Rastelli. “And also outside of Montreal—there’s a group in Québec City and a group in Trois Rivières who are interested.” But expansion means funding, and that’s the name of the game with this Friday’s (Jan. 25) Distroboto anniversary party and benefit bash.
The line-up is a dizzying array of Montreal’s finest musos, including sets by Think About Life and Exhaust, and hip hop throwdowns courtesy of Giselle Numba One, Gambletron, Random Recipe and DJ Lynne T. La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent), $10.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Good things,
small packages
MORNING RITUAL: “Make-up”Eighty-five little paintings by New York-based artist Yves Tessier are now hanging on the walls at Optica (372 Ste-Catherine W., # 508). The bottom edge of each work is placed at the same height around the room, apparently to imitate how he is used to looking at them lined up on his studio table in Harlem.
These paintings are executed in the quick-drying, rarely used medium of casein paint on panel. Tessier uses no shading; instead, his work is flat and linear. He claims his approach is “suggestive of Etruscan, Egyptian or Assyrian painting,” but it made me think more of a contemporary comic book.
The exhibition, titled Recent Situations, features quirky and appealing narratives that are easy to appreciate. The people Tessier depicts are often women, and what is refreshing (but unfortunately far too uncommon) is their ethnic diversity. Throughout the show, a parade of individuals of Asian, African and European decent are involved in various ordinary activities guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips. Until Feb. 23, info: (514) 874-16 66 or www.optica.ca.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Beauty in decline
I thought of Ansel Adams when I first saw Lawrence Beck’s black and white photographs at Projex-Mtl (372 Ste-Catherine W. #212). There is a timeless quality to these shots of nature that makes one unsure of when they were taken.
Beck, a lifelong New Yorker, spends most of his summers in the Italian Alps. This he credits with developing his love of the natural environment. The texture of water, leaves, rocks and trees that he is able to capture in his photographs is nothing short of impressive.
Three series of images are on view in the current exhibition: one focuses on waterfalls, another overgrown thickets and the most recent on the Monte Rosa mountain range in Italy. The latter shows cows grazing in front of a glacier at an altitude of 2600 meters.
These images seem to represent an archetypal vision of an unchanging world, yet according to Beck the glacier is half the size it was when he was a child. Beck’s work stops the decline, preserving these moments of beauty and grandeur before they slip away through our fingers. Until Feb. 2, info: (514) 570-9130 or www.projex-mtl.com.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Political design #9
Designer Kevin Lo admits that he wasn’t really a part of zine culture when he started the now award-wining zine Four Minutes to Midnight as part of his master’s thesis. “The idea was to look at how art movements were made,” he says. “It was definitely a bit tongue in cheek.”
Four years later and about to launch the ninth issue, his sentiment and the  project itself have evolved. “I’ve always been interested in doing political work through design work,” Lo explains, “and I wanted the zine to exist outside of school and without the academic constraints.”
After moving back to Montreal, Lo met up with co-editor John W. Stuart, got connected to people in zine culture here and honed the zine’s “the personal is political” stance.
Loosely built around ideas of silence and conflict, the latest installment includes artwork and writing by Brigitte Henry, Billy Mavreas and Mirror contributor Vincent Tinguely.
The launch party, Musicians Are Cowards (an unintentionally ironic name), takes place this Saturday, Jan. 26 at 9 p.m. at Lab Synthèse (435 Beaubien W., #200) with bands PARLOVR, Flames! and American Devices $5 or $12, with a copy of issue nine.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Is it art?
GEEK CHIC: “Belt bling is out. Belt tech is in. Thanks to the latest in technology, you can now simultaneously send text messages to the world (think Dow Jones indexes) and keep your pants up.
 These four-by-two-inch LED screens can store up to six messages, each message 256 characters long, meaning you may never have to “tell people about yourself” ever again.
Just think of the things you can program in there with the buckle’s onboard programming buttons; a quote by Philip K. Dick, your favourite math equation, your phone number and address for emergency purposes…
The LED and its crawling message, however, doesn’t have to stay around your waist, as it conveniently comes off and can be set on your desk.
www.thinkgeek.com
Arts
hole
WIND UP: This is the last weekend to catch the nostalgic toy-like creations of artist Florent Veilleux. Le Poneylectrik is at la Maison de la culture Ahuntsic-Cartierville (10300 Lajeunesse) until Jan. 26. • SECOND START: STOP., the second part of START STOP. a project on rhythmicity featuring work by Patrick Beaulieu, Charlemange Palestine, Simone Jones and Lance Winn, Thérèse Mastroiacovo, Samuel Roy-Bois and Helen Tak opens tonight, Thursday Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m. at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery (1400 de Maisonneuve W.). • UNDULATING: The work of artist Suzanne Dubuc is on view at la Maison de la culture Plateau-Mont-Royal (465 Mont-Royal E.) until Feb. 24; the vernissage takes place tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 25 at 5 p.m.
Artistat
The number of canvases artist Michèle Provost embroidered in order to create her show Une journée dans la vie de Maggy M., which is on view at the Musée du costume et du textile du Québec (349 Riverside, St-Lambert): 70 |
