PUBLIC POTTIES: Lachapelle’s “Le Toilan”

Two radically different shows are currently up at Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert), drawing focus to the diversity of artists sharing space on the gallery’s roster.

First up is Guillaume Lachapelle’s En pure perte. A big fan of his last show, I must confess to being a little underwhelmed on this particular outing. On the surface, the show, which consists of a series of perfectly rendered miniature tableaus, seems not much more than a continuation of earlier work, though the preponderance of public urinals dotting these urban landscapes is new.

But the real problem has more to do with the space. What Lachapelle does so well is evoke a mood and a sense of place that is at the same time surreal and disconcertingly familiar. But in an open space, with bright sunlight and lots of people milling about, it’s difficult to fully engage with the work.

Nadia Myre’s “Landscape of Sorrow” suffers a similar fate. Though no fault of the gallery, who are simply working with the space available, the impact of this surprisingly straightforward yet deeply affecting piece is lessened by the brightly coloured beadworks on adjacent walls from her series Desire Schematics. Quite simply, “Landscape” deserves its own space.

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Eyes on Montreal

ALL POD CONS: From Demers’s Futuribilia

Expo drew the world’s attention to Montreal and the Olympics kept it here, and it’s this period of the city’s creative boom that’s the focus of the current exhibit at the CCA (1920 Baile). Total Environment: Montréal 1965–1975 explores the changes in the city’s overall artistic landscape in the years leading up to Expo 67 and the ’76 Olympic games.

Over those 10 years, as the city’s new persona took shape, it remained a prominent player on the world stage. And to some extent, outside perception of Montreal is still based on the identity those events helped create.

Based on a research seminar by UdM’s Alessandra Ponte, the exhibit goes beyond the famous buildings and looks at the concept of Gesamkunstwerk (total artwork) as well as the emergence of information technology and how they influenced the art and spirit of the time.

Using archival material, including images from restaurant-gallery-disco “Le Drug,” space age environments from Maurice Demers and inhabitable sculptures by Robert Roussil, among others, the exhibit recreates a time when recreating Montreal’s image was everything.

by SACHA JACKSON

 

Slam playoffs

by VINCENT TINGUELY

Digging up roots

A new show at Galerie [SAS] (372 Ste-Catherine W., #416) opens this evening, Thursday, April 16, featuring the work of two artists, Jannick Deslauriers and Catherine Plaisance. There is much that distinguishes these artists in terms of style and approach, but the show finds its focus in the women’s concurrent desire to explore the ever-changing relationship that exists between us and our environment—both natural and manufactured.

Deslaurier’s Battlefield makes this relationship manifest, compelling visitors to reflect on their own engagement with the world as it exists in nature, and as it is dissected through art. Motivated by a desire to literally “get to the root of things”—the work features a root-like installation—it’s described as an expression of the “helpless vulnerability we feel when faced with the grace and beauty of created forms.”

The photographs in Plaisance’s L’anéantissement d’une promesse investigates the impact of disruptive events on the human condition. As with much o f her earlier work, there is an observational quality to the perspective. Like the camera eye, we engage with the image—watchful, but ultimately aware of the physical limitations of our gaze.

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Is it art?

HELP THE ROBOT?: Will people in New York stop to help a miniature robot? That’s just one of the questions raised by artist Kacie Kinzer’s new project Tweenbots, human-dependant robots that navigate the city with the help of regular pedestrians.

Kinzer, who’s a PhD candidate at the Tisch School of the Arts, started her project with the simple challenge of getting the robot, which travels in a straight line and at a constant speed, from point A to point B with the help of human kindness.

Setting the 10-inch robot down at the Northeast corner of Washington Square Park with a flag attached to it stating the Tweenbot’s destination, Kinzer left her creation to the fate of the streets. Much to her surprise, it survived and was even turned away from traffic by good Samaritans.

Kinzer has since made other, smaller human-dependant robots and continues her study of human/robot interaction.

tweenbots.com.

Arts hole

LABOUR PARTY: Dazibao (4001 Berri, #202) presents Working Images, a group exhibition curated by Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, Toronto-based artists who explore the representation of work in their art. The exhibit, which includes pieces by six other artists, as well as screenings and discussions, opens tonight, Thursday, April 16 at 5 p.m. • TIME AND DANCE: Dancer and choreographer Lucie Grégoire collaborates with Japanese choreographer Yoshito Ohno on Flower, which explores the passage of time and the act of existing. It plays at l’Agora de la danse (840 Cherrier), from April 21–25 at 8 p.m.

Artistat

The number of renowned Canadian textile artists whose work is featured in Textile Art in Canada, the latest exhibit on view until May 22 at the Montreal Centre for Canadian Textiles (5800 St-Denis, #501): 20