Raucous art

Rock ’n’ roll, Warhol, the Group of Seven
redefined and children with magical powers

TABLE TURNER: “Gesture” by Christian Marclay

by STACEY DEWOLFE

The Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art has the Canadian premiere of Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 opening on Oct. 10. Curated by Dominic Molon of the MCA in Chicago, this multimedia exhibit investigates what Molon calls the “intimate and inspired” relationship between rock music and avant-garde art.

Starting in the 1960s with Andy Warhol’s New York, and travelling across four decades, the show is centred around four key cities: New York, London, Los Angeles and Cologne, Germany. In addition to the music videos, album covers and show posters that you would expect from a show of this nature, there are numerous works that in their own way respond to and reflect the energy and passion of rock ’n’ roll.

TRAGIC GLAMOUR:
By Emily Bennett Beck

There are also several pieces by artists working in both the visual and sonic realms such as Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice, whose image graces this week’s cover, video artist and DJ Christian Marclay and Vancouver’s Rodney Graham.

From there, Warhol fans should head to the Museum of Fine Art, whose curators show some major love with Warhol Live from Sept. 25. With an ear to the fundamental role that music played in Warhol’s art, the exhibit takes us through his oeuvre, juxtaposing more emblematic works with lesser-known artifacts such as illustrations and Polaroids. Also on display is local enthusiast Paul Maréchal’s collection of Warhol record covers.

While the museum show is designed to give visitors a sense of what it was like to be in Warhol’s world, the Factory Project by Studio 303 and Out Productions goes one step further with a series of “happenings” in the spirit of Warhol’s Factory from Sept. 20–27. Hosted by a group of Canadian artists, the project endeavours to bring Warhol’s spirit to life, moving into Eastern Bloc (7240 Clark) for five nights of performance and installations.

Projex Montreal (372 St. Catherine W., #212) plays host to Mexico City artist Emilio Chapela Perez whose 3,725 km opens Oct. 8. Though not explicit in its reference to music, Perez’s examination of our nation’s cultural icons has resulted in a series of abstract renderings of Canadian musicians including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.

And for those of you who dig the Christian Marclay pieces on view in Sympathy for the Devil, DHC/Art (486 St-Jean) has the acclaimed video artist’s first Canadian solo show opening on Nov. 29. Described by Interview magazine as “music like you’ve never seen before, and art like you’ve never heard before,” the videos that comprise Replay fuse audio culture with fine art. Marclay reaches new heights with “Video Quartet,” a stunning four-channel collage that offers a spectacular take on the Hollywood music machine.

VEILED VIXEN: “Lady 5” by Robyn Cummings

SEVEN TRANSFORMED

For something entirely different, Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert) has new shows opening on Oct. 2. The images in Diana Thorneycroft’s Group of Seven Awkward Moments are delightfully strange as reproductions of Group of Seven paintings serve as a backdrop to her own fabricated scenarios. The resulting contrast is striking as she subverts the tranquillity of these iconic landscapes with scenes both humorous and tragic.

Janieta Eyre’s In the Scream of Things is a photographic series in which children seem to possess the ability to move solid objects. Mysterious and fantastical, the work speaks to the power of childhood imagination.

Gallery Push (5264 St-Laurent) opens with their inaugural show, today, Sept. 11. The audaciously entitled Everything You Ever Wanted features the “eerie and humorous” work of four emerging artists: Robyn Cummings, Jody Hargreaves, Daniel B. Hutchinson, and Vitaly Medvedovsky.

Over at Articule (262 Fairmount) on Oct. 3, In Reverie, In Sympathy features the paintings of Emily Bennett Beck, which begin as images of women, both famous and imaginary, who are then transformed by her brush. Described as “uncomfortably intense,” the visages are pushed past their breaking points, the excesses of glamour and fame transforming them into the awkward and the grotesque.

CLEARLY CANADIAN: “Jack Pine” by Diana Thorneycroft

MIXING MEDIA

The Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa) opened last week with Unclassifiable, a series of four video programs designed to shatter all of our preconceptions about video art, documentary, cinema and pop culture. Curated by a team known as “Insert Name Here,” the screenings run to Oct. 4 and include the work of video artists from Montreal and around the world.

An exhibition of sound and textile work is up at MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) until Oct. 4. Behind Walls, by Montreal-based Khadija Baker combines fibres, shadows, and audio in its exploration of how the renaming of Kurdish villages with Arab names has impacted these communities. As a bonus, Baker will conduct a workshop on traditional Kurdish weaving on Sept. 27.

Over at Oboro (4001 Berri, #301), the Goethe Institut presents Christina Kubisch’s Electrical Walks. Here, participants discover the existence of things outside of the visible, her electromagnetic tracks revealing a layer of unseen reality that can be experienced only at the level of sound.