Pompoms and penises
FAUX FUR FUNGUS: From Fresh Flesh
If vinyl, faux fur, knitted penis covers and spinning bananas sound like something you’d like to experience, get yourself to the opening of Sonia Haberstich’s exhibition Fresh Flesh tomorrow night, Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at la Centrale (4296 St-Laurent).
Haberstich recently completed her masters of fine arts at Concordia and has assembled over a hundred varied items in a site-specific installation at the gallery. “The exhibition is a collection of souvenirs about my childhood,” says Haberstich, “with a good dose of humour, kitsch and definitely a sexual edge!”
On top of twenty turning bananas, Haberstich uses a lot of dollar store material and recycled paint. “I buy the already mixed cans from the hardware store—the returned and rejected colours,” says Haberstich. “It’s cheaper and makes me work with a different palette, not necessarily the colours I would choose. I also use lots of pompoms.
“The pompoms attract you closer to the work, but at the same time repulse you, because of the way they are positioned they resemble a kind of virus spreading across the wall.”
Until March 23, info: (514) 871-0268 or www.lacentrale.org.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Flipside of
skate culture
HIGH FLYER: Terell SadafiBlack influence in skateboarding, though large, has until recently gone overlooked. In the past year, much has been made of an emergent black skateboard culture. The New York Times ran two articles in 2007 about skating’s new-found acceptance among African-Americans, whom the paper said once labelled it a white sport.
Leslie Woods, editor-in-chief of the magazine What’s Really Good?, thinks it’s about time black skate culture came to the forefront.
This year WRG? centred their Black History Month celebration around black skaters, releasing a limited-edition skateboard deck with a crossword puzzle graphic underlining their contributions to the sport over several decades.
Next Thursday, Feb. 28, WRG? will be holding the Black History Month Project, an art show at Tokyo (3709 St-Laurent). Focusing on black skaters’ experiences, it features familiar skate imagery, along with paintings and multimedia installations by such artists as Claudio Bianchi, Zak Hoke and Ryan O’Dowd.
Woods hopes the show illustrates the breadth of black skate history, from Steve Steadham to Stevie Williams. “Some of these people were everyone’s idols,” says Woods, “and really pioneered skateboarding as a whole, not just for African-Americans.”
The show starts at 10 p.m. Entry $5. For more information, check out www.wrgmag.com.
by LUCAS WISENTHAL
Relationship dance
A year ago, contemporary dance icon Peggy Baker was supposed to premiere a new work by choreographer James Kudelka here in Montreal, but shortly before, Baker broke her foot. Since then, the piece has “changed somewhat,” but its base remains the same.
A Woman by a Man shows “a woman being supportive of a relationship where  the partners don’t notice each other anymore and they take each other for granted,” says Baker. “It’s an old story, but a unique concept in dance.” Baker calls the 35-minute work a “physical metaphor.”
“The man is front and centre, going about his movement in life while the woman stands behind with her arm linked to him the whole dance.”
The duet with dancer Michael Sean Marye is the finale to an evening of short works that includes Unfold, created in 2000, and a new piece Portal, which Baker calls a duet for herself and lighting designer Marc Parent. The show runs at 8 p.m. nightly until Feb. 23, at the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts. Info, (514) 842-2112.
by MARITES CARINO
Boundary-pushing burlesque
The perennially wicked burlesque ensemble Dead Dolls Cabaret is gearing up for a tour with O My Bleeding Heart!, a sexy fundraiser featuring Nat King Pole, Boston’s The Big Moves Troupe, a dancing butt plug and the smooth MCing skills of Norman Nawrocki.
 “The Dead Dolls are a lot of fun, they challenge so many stereotypes about burlesque, because they’re everyday Montreal women who are comfortable with their sexuality onstage,” says Nawrocki.
An inveterate multitasker-of-the-arts, Nawrocki’s current focus is the upcoming Anarchist Theatre Festival. A rebel news ranter, poet, musician and novelist, he’s also the author and performer of a series of barnstorming solo cabaret shows about sex and sexuality.
“I’ll be performing two extracts from my Sex Toys show,” says Nawrocki. “I’ll have some giant body parts and sex toys to display!”
The fun takes place this Saturday, Feb. 23 at Café Cleopatra (1230 St-Laurent). Reserved seating for lesbians. Doors open at 8 p.m. $12.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Is it art?
WORK IT LIKE DION: On any given day the Mirror receives a number of unsolicited emails with links to things like artist portfolios, random photos, online Christian romance novels, etc. But Laura Landauer made a lasting impression with a link to her Celine Dion workout video.
Landauer, a Montrealer and current Toronto resident, is a singer, actor and  impressionist who does a mean Celine. In fact, even before she dons the requisite gold- hooped earrings and faded Quebecois accent her likeness to the star is eerily apparent.
In the video, which is posted on Will Farrell’s Web site funnyordie.com, where it received 1300 “funny votes,” Landauer leads two back-up dancers through her morning workout routine. It consists of mild hip-shaking, facial expressions and a cool down in front of a fan, all of which aims at allowing you to “Keep fit, stay healthy and be strong the Celine Dion way.” www.gypsymiller.com
Arts
hole
ROAD WORKS: The latest works by Montreal artist Stéphane La Rue will be on view at Galerie de UQÀM (1400 Berri) as part of the solo show Retracer la peinture until March 29. The vernissage takes place tonight, Thursday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. • BLAH BLAH BLAH: The influence of language on art in a bilingual city is the topic up for public discussion tonight, Thursday, Feb. 21 at Articule (262 Fairmount) as part of Artist + Audience: Languaging art and negotiating language politics, where do we start? Starting at 7 p.m. Sylvie Lachance, Karen Spencer and Karen Trask will be debating everything from language politics to the artistic merit of a translated work.
Artistat
The year that Bernard Shaw penned Major Barbara, presented by National Theatre School’s graduating class Feb. 26–March 1, in which a woman major in the Salvation Army becomes disillusioned when the organization accepts a donation from her arms-dealer father: 1905 |
