Stories, stories, stories

JAMAICAN TALES VIA MANCHESTER: Jan Blake

Storytelling, one of the oldest of art forms, is being celebrated at the Festival interculturel du conte du Québec with 140 shows across Quebec in French and English. Coordinator of English events (and storyteller) Stéphanie Bénéteau has a simple explanation for its enduring popularity. “It’s a live art and it’s an improvisational art,” says Bénéteau. “Whether you’re two-years-old or 88-years-old, when someone starts a story, your brain is hardwired to want to hear the end of that story.”

The festival features popular gender-challenger Ivan E. Coyote and U.K.-based Jan Blake, a Mancunian of Jamaican heritage. German storytellers Gideon Horowitz and Regina Sommer are presenting a show based on their interpretation of some of the lesser-known works of the Brothers Grimm. The English gala is at Maison de la Culture NDG (3755 Botrel) tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. Free passes available at the MdC. Festival info: festival-conte.qc.ca.

by VINCENT TINGUELY

Mesmerizing at the MAC

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Dark Souls

Three distinct female artists take over the MAC (185 Ste-Catherine W.) in what is one of the most thought-provoking shows of the year.

Montreal painter Francine Savard presents a mid-career retrospective, with over 60 works that span four galleries. Monochrome canvases infused with text (by Rilke or Baudelaire), or numbers (in the style of library code), create a dialogue that grounds the work in these literary or art-historical references.

Tacita Dean’s film installation Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS... plays on the idea of silence and composer John Cage’s composition “4’33” (the two were longtime lovers and collaborators). Throughout the six films, the legendary modern dancer and choreographer—who passed away in July—sits almost motionless in his studio.

Tricia Middleton’s Dark Souls is an immersing installation in which she’s created something between an abandoned house, a bat cave and a child’s fort. It’s cavernous and inviting, filled with baroque-style bric-a-brac covered in glittery dust. This regency-style room connects to a cotton-candy cave via a checkerboard floor, eventually making its way to mountainous peaks dressed with beer cans and a gently babbling creek.

These exhibits are so rich, you have to see them for yourself.

by SACHA JACKSON

Turning 3D to 0D

All manner of theatre-related quotes (Shakespeare, Ibsen, Rush’s “Limelight”) come to mind when thinking about the work of Halifax-based painter Daniel Hutchinson, whose show Zero Dimensions opens this evening, Thursday, Oct. 15 at Push Gallery (5264 St-Laurent).

For the past few years, Hutchinson—who was nominated for the 2009 RBC Painting Competition—has focused on painted reproductions of architectural and theatrical spaces. Though I have yet to see Hutchinson’s work in the flesh, a perusal of the artist’s website has built up my anticipation.

Beginning with a series of digitally created 3D renderings of what look to be stage sets, the images are then painstakingly recreated in a painting with exacting precision. Hutchinson uses one directional brushstroke, which give the works a sort of pulsing dynamism, and the resulting interplay of light and dark makes the images glow, as though lit from within.

Depth and perspective are also transformed by the direction of the brushstrokes. As the viewer moves across the image, their relationship with the image is altered, creating a greater sense of the work as an expressive, performative space.

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Photos and food

Unscramble the playfully titled Slideluck Potshow, and you’ve got a New York-based non-profit that puts on artsy-foodie events across the globe. Begun in 2000 by photographer Casey Kelbaugh, Slideluck has thrown events in over 40 cities, and now makes its way to Montreal. Anyone who’s been reprimanded for sneaking food into an art museum should get a kick out of this one.

Normally an open-submission multi-media exhibition, the first Montreal event focuses on Canadian photojournalists. “Everyone’s invited and encouraged to bring a dish,” explains organiser Arianne DiNardo. “It’s really just about bringing the community together and celebrating photography in a casual way.” Munching and schmoozing commence at 6 p.m. tonight, Oct. 15, at Made of Stills (6250 Hutchison, #302). Slides kick off at 7 p.m., and beers are available by donation.

Participating artists range from established shooters like Roger Lemoyne and Benoît Aquin—who just launched his new book Far East, Far West—to up-and-coming star Dominic Nahr, winner of the 2009 Oskar Barnack Award at the Rencontres d’Arles. “There’s a lot of heavy work being shown,” says DiNardo, “but it’s not all war photography. We’ve tried to keep in mind that people are eating.”

by DAVID LEVITZ

IS IT ART?

MOTORIZED SWEETTOOTH: With the car industry in steep decline and the environment following suit, people are looking for an economical, environmentally friendly way to get around.

Luxury department store Neiman Marcus heard the call of the people and responded by adding The Cupcake Car to this year’s Christmas catalogue. Originally discovered at Burning Man, where it was launched as a cooperative art car project, the department store has since commissioned artist Lisa Pongrace, who will customize each car with a topping of your choice.

Selling at $25,000 a pop, Cupcake Cars are the crème de la crème of single-passenger electric vehicles—though topping out at seven mph, they aren’t actually allowed on the street yet. The cars take approximately three months to build (including your matching driver’s hat) so get your order in now.

neimanmarcus.com/christmasbook

Arts hole

SOUTHWEST ART STARS: The St-Henri Art Walk takes place this weekend (Oct. 15–17) with artists’ studios and exhibits happening all over the southwest. At Site #9 Centre de recherche urbaine de Montreal (83 Ste-Marguerite) you can check out the work of Chris McLeod, Douglas Scholes and Felicity Tayler and artist collective Centre de recherche urbaine de Montreal. For a full schedule, see artsthenri.org • CAUGHT READING: Two small(ish) but mighty publishing houses, Snare Books and Coach House, come together this Sunday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. at the Green Room (5386 St-Laurent) to celebrate the launch of their fall titles. Jeff Parker, Ian Christopher Goodman, Susan Holbrook and Sina Queyras, among others, will be reading.

Artistat

The number of pins that will be exhibited and traded at the fifth annual Pindemonium exhibit happening tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Sky Blue Door (5403B St-Laurent), including pins by Sherwin Tija, Dita Kubin, BreeRee, Billy Mavreas and more: 70+