Corpusse x 1,000
 
SKELETAL: By CorpusseAs befits the season, there is a veritable cornucopia of things to do tomorrow night (Friday, Oct. 9), with Festival du Nouveau Cinéma screenings and musical outings aplenty, but for those with a desire to plunge headlong into the macabre universe of a uniquely creative and prolific mind, there is no better place to be than Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) from 7 p.m. onwards for the vernissage for Daily Ritual: Skull Studio by Corpusse.
The show features at least 1,000 paintings and illustrations, produced every day in the perhaps surprisingly civilized morning hours—a time when one would expect a legendary goth-metal performance artist to be sound asleep. “I get up every morning with the need to create,” writes Corpusse in the snailmail letter, which arrived in my actual mailbox late last week. “It is my exercise for brain and spirit to emerge.”
As the exhibition’s title suggests, there is an emphasis on skulls and skeletons in Corpusse’s visual art, something that will not come as much of a surprise to fans of his dark lyrical musings. Yet Corpusse makes a clear distinction between his “two hats. I don’t like mixing music and art together. I draw until noon, and then Corpusse, my life’s work and passion, takes over.”
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Dancing in air
HANGING BY A THREAD: Surface
After studying contemporary dance, Andrea Legg saw a tissue aerialist in Vancouver and realized she “wanted to be in the air.” Floating Seed, a new Montreal dance company, incorporates Legg’s love of dance with aerial circus arts.
Surface, which is composed of two choreographic shorts, debuts this week. The first solo, created by David Pressault and Jeff Hall, explores the notion of addiction through Legg, who is being folded throughout the piece. “It’s about searching for more and more,” she explains.
The closing piece, Chrysalis, is a duet based in the butoh tradition where Legg is joined by dancer-aerialist Gabrielle Martin. The 20-minute choreography explores the journey of emergence by drawing out movement. Legg says, “we’re slowing it down so the audience can take it all in.”
Five musicians provide the live soundtrack. Take it in at Théâtre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.) to Oct. 10, 8 p.m. Info: $15, floatingseed.ca.
by MARITES CARINO
Homage to oil
The community of Petrolia, Ontario—a small town that, as writer Chris Lloyd explains, “once stood at the centre of the world’s oil industry”—provides the inspiration for a new installation by Colin Lyons at Skol Gallery (372 Ste-Catherine W., #314).
 Entitled Fitzgerald Rig, the collection of kinetic sculptures function as an homage to Petrolia, the artist’s hometown. The show also speaks to the fraught relationship between memory and history, as Lyons’ reconstruction of the rig is based on photographs and remembered images—both personal and collective.
But what exactly is the Fitzgerald Rig? According to Lloyd—whose full essay is available on the Skol website (skol.ca)—though the town has fallen into obscurity, its oil-producing heyday a thing of the distant past, the rig continues to pump, and is still the largest oil rig in the world. Though it only produces a barrel of oil per day, it remains as a living testament to the town and its legacy.
The vernissage is tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 9, 5 p.m., with a “get-together” in the gallery on Oct. 14 from 5:30–7 p.m.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Vietnam vet fiction
Montreal writer Johanna Skibsrud’s debut novel, The Sentimentalists, reflects on the precariousness of memory in a tale that weaves the true story of her father’s experiences as an American soldier in the Vietnam War into fiction. The story, which centres on a father-daughter relationship, includes the partial transcript of Skibsrud’s father’s testimony regarding the murder of a civilian  woman by his superiors in a controversial operation.
Skibsrud says that, like many Vietnam veterans, her father never spoke of his experiences in the war—until a phone call made to Skibsrud in 2003.
“At that time, the Iraq war was escalating,” recalls Skibsrud. “It really brought out a rage in him. It was that rage, I think, that prompted him to tell his story.”
“When he did speak,” says Skibrud, “he often spoke as though [his experience] were a dream. I’ve tried to recreate a little of that dream-like quality in my fiction.”
The book is being launched tonight, Thursday, Oct. 8, along with Kate Hall’s poetry collection, The Certainty Dream, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Café (201 Fairmount W.).
by HEATHER ROBB
IS IT ART?
CANINE COFFEE CUP: A fair amount of tiny plastic toys are made in Taiwan (the rest is made in China, duh), but when they’re not churning out microchips and dollar store trinkets, what are they up to?
 If Taiwanese company Megawing is any indication, they’re out there designing awesome things like bags with real lights, magnets that look like chocolate bars and mugs that have teeth.
Designed by Lee Weilang, the Tooth Mug is a basic white porcelain receptacle with the eerie addition of a bottom row of teeth. With slightly uneven edges and a couple of miniature gaps between some of the teeth (just enough so that coffee dribbles out a bit), the replica is so perfect, it looks like a plaster cast of a real set of pearly whites
You can buy it at mollaspace.com for $24 (USD) and check out their other products here: megawing.com.tw.
Arts hole
AROUND THE WORLD: Photographer William Jans tells his travel tales with multimedia presentations at McGill’s Moyse Hall (853 Sherbrooke W.) for the next two Wednesdays. He presents Tales from Tanzania on Oct. 14 and Solo in South America on Oct. 21, both performances at 8 p.m., tickets $24. • SOLO FOR CANCER: Galerie Kérozene (372 Ste-Catherine W., #420) dedicates its walls to Marcelo Troche’s solo exhibit I/9. Troche will be showing a collection of portraits of female public figures who stripped down and were photographed in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation. The vernissage takes place tonight, Thursday, Oct. 8 at 5 p.m.
Artistat
The cost of a ticket for the privilege of viewing spring/summer 2010 collections up-close-and-personal at Montreal Fashion Week (montrealfashionweek.ca), which runs from Oct. 13–15, sunglasses not required: $25
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