Wise old crones
NAKED AMBITION: From A Wisdom of Crones
A withered old woman, an old ewe—that’s what it says in the dictionary if you look up the definition of crone.
“Crone used to be a valued life stage, not an insult”, says artist Ramune Luminaire, whose exhibition A Wisdom of Crones opens tomorrow, Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m., at Galerie la Centrale (4296 St-Laurent).
The project started in 2004, when Luminaire was working on a maiden/mother/crone series of nude drawings. A young girl and a pregnant woman agreed to pose, but her crone went south for the winter.
A local paper ran an article saying she needed an older woman to model and 13 women responded. “I decided I had to do something with these women because they were so fantastic. Meeting each of them was a humbling experience.”
Thirteen life-size charcoal drawings resulted. Each woman stares directly at the viewer, surrounding and confronting them. “When people pose, they start to tell you their stories,” says Luminaire. So she recorded the conversations and wrote a story about each woman.
Mira Coviensky has created an artist book out of Luminaire’s stories and images, while multi-instrumentalist Sam Allison has composed a CD of tone poetry from the women’s voices.
Until May 4, info: (514) 871-0268.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
Picking cotton
CO-OPTING THE T-SHIRT:
(L to R) Green, Kwerty, Stone and Robertson “I started a screen-printing company last March, then I realized I didn’t really want to own a screen-printing company,” says Katie Green of her latest endeavour, Moniker Designs, a screen printing co-op run out of Red Bird Studios (135 Van Horne).
“A lot of smaller artists and designers don’t have the facilities, which is surprising in a city like this,” she says. “That’s why we’re going to offer custom printing for everyone, artists, designers, up-and-coming bands, NGOs…”
The studio, which she heads up alongside Sunny Stone, Kwerty and Chris Robertson, hosts its inaugural show this Saturday, April 6, starting at 3 p.m. It continues Sunday, April 7 at noon with Machine Wash Cold Tumble Dry, a t-shirt design show and fundraiser featuring the work of 23 different artists.
Although custom apparel and one-of-a-kind pieces will also be available, the main attraction is the t-shirts, which will be made-to-order and mailed to the buyer, two to four weeks after the show.
In true co-op nature and because this is a fundraiser, the artists involved donated their designs and in return their contact information and name will be printed on the label.
But be forewarned: each design has a limited run of 50, so arrive early and bring cash.
by SACHA JACKSON
Acting intimate
Gleams Theatre always wanted a “different type” of company, as co-founder and actor Ira Sokolova puts it, where they would professionally stage first-time or seldom-produced plays.
Ira’s director-husband Constantin Sokolov suggested to a bookstore owner friend that they use the place to host afterhours events. Thus began a partnership  with Diamond Bookstore in forming Theatre 21—there’s space for just 21 people—and a unique experience for actor and audience alike.
“We feel like we’re on a film set,” Sokolova says, referring to their European approach to theatre, which uses the environment as-is, with minimal props and recreating the story for the audience close-up.
Their new weekly production Twisted Plots is a collection of three new American short plays: Mrs. Sorken by Christopher Durang, Anything for You by Cathy Celesia and China by Scott Organ.
All shows include refreshments with the director and cast afterwards.
Saturdays only until April 19 at Diamond Bookstore (5035 Sherbrooke W.) info: (514) 481-3000.
by NEIL BOYCE
Best of Naharin
This week, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal returns from touring their crowd pleaser Minus One, created for the company in 2002 by Israeli-born choreographer Ohad Naharin.
Now back on home turf, the company perform the world premiere of Naharin’s  Danz, a choreographic best-of retrospective that weaves excerpts from five of Naharin’s pieces created between 1999 and 2007.
Longtime company dancer Jeremy Raia, who has worked with the choreographer several times, says, “Ohad is constantly changing his own work.” This year, Raia celebrates a decade of work with Les Grands and continues to enjoy performing Minus One.
“With Ohad, it always feels new. He doesn’t want anything to get stale. It’s not just him telling you the steps and you doing it. You go on a discovery, a journey with yourself and him.”
Montreal audiences may already be familiar with Naharin’s two short works, Kaamos and Arbos, which kick off the evening at the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts until April 12. For info, call (514) 842-2112.
by MARITES CARINO
Is it art?
DENTAL CARE: Forget your grills and your diamonds, Tooth Tattoos are the latest and greatest in dental adornment. The designs, which can be ordered over the Internet and which any dentist can apply, come in a variety of styles.
 Classics like the heart, the dragon and the eagle are all available alongside more recent tat trends like “tribal” designs and Asian characters.
The best part? They last forever.
The company behind the phenomenon, K-art Dental Laboratory Corp. out of Long Island, not only specializes in typical dental cosmetics, like whitening and crowns, but also pioneered the Tooth I.D. system.
Recommended for children, insurance customers, people suffering from dementia, or those who have a “risk job” (firefighters, soldiers, mountaineers etc.) the Tooth I.D. system works by imprinting personal information (a name or identification number) on the lingual surface of a tooth and is “the most successful method of identifying human remains.”
Though having a monarch butterfly on your left incisor is also a pretty good identification mark.
www.toothtattoo.com
Arts
hole
RADIATION VIBE: Artist Ben Williamson celebrates the opening of his latest exhibition The Chernobyl Narrative at Zéphyr gallery (2112 Amherst) with a vernissage tonight, Thursday, April 3 between 5–8 p.m • CLASS OF THEIR OWN: Concordia’s most recent MFA grads show their stuff at a group show STRATA, which opens tomorrow night, Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m at Espace Artefacto (3520 St-Jacques W.) and is so chock full of talent you have to see it to believe it.
Artistat
The weight of the lobster in kilograms that has recently joined the St. Lawrence Marine ecosystem exhibit at the Biodome having been rescued from a vat of boiling water by Marlene Casciano who won the 50-year-old crustacean in a Super Bowl draw in Boston: 8 |
