Craftmas
FELTED FINDS: Blanket by Lilou & SUF,
and Miss Agonie’s La puce à l’agonieDecember is upon us and so is an onslaught of local craft fairs and sales. Here’s what’s on this
weekend, Dec. 4–6.
Besuto Craft Show at the Trinity Memorial Church Hall (5220 Sherbrooke W.) takes an
untraditional route and features fair trade goods, international fundraising initiatives (for
orphanages in both Tanzania and India) and Afghani food, courtesy of the Afghan Women’s
Centre of Montreal, next to work by local crafters and designers. It’s on, Friday, 12–8 p.m., Saturday,
10 a.m.–7 p.m. and Sunday, 12:30–6 p.m.
Rusty Plum & Puces Pop pool their resources for Christmas Bazaar, Saturday 11 a.m.–7
p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at St-Michel Church Hall (105 St-Viateur W.). Alongside the 60
participants, they’ll also be collecting clothing and non-perishable food items for Herstreet.
Les Ateliers Quartier Général bring 10 distinct artists together at the equally distinct Bain
St-Michel (5300 St-Dominique) for Expo-vente de Noël au Bain St-Michel Saturday and
Sunday, noon–6 p.m. with a vernissage Saturday at 2 p.m.
The biggest show of all, Le salon des métiers d’art, starts at Place Bonaventure tomorrow
at 11 a.m. and is open daily until Dec. 22. Make sure to check out the foodie gifts and the international
vendors.
by SACHA JACKSON
Dancing in the bag
WELCOME 2070: Horsey
Performance artist/choreographer Steven Horwood has two obsessions he likes to explore through his art: science fiction and man’s obsession with technology to save himself.
His latest exploration is Horsey, a “space opera that takes place in a paper bag.” Set in the year 2070, the piece, which developed from a work he performed in the spring, involves two rival inventors, Benny and Fritz, who are on the verge of completing a lifechanging invention when things suddenly go awry. The lab blows up and is transported in its entirety into Benny’s lunch bag.
Horwood and his team, which includes a small choir, transform Studio 303 (372 Ste-Catherine W., #303) into the inside of a paper bag. “I want to share what it’s like to be in a brown paper bag floating around in the andromeda,” laughs Horwood. Beam up into his quirky world Dec. 11–12, 7 p.m., $15, (514) 393-3771.
by MARITES CARINO
Humorous conceptualism
One of the city’s more mysterious and wordily-named art spaces,
We Left the Warm Stable and Entered the Latex Void, is an artistrun-
centre in the truest  sense of the word in that it’s run by a single
artist from his Mile-End apartment
(264 Bernard W.).
Established by François Lemeiux in
2008, WLTWSAETLV can be understood
as a community-based art project,
collaborating with a variety of local
and international artists to produce a
series of lectures and vernissages.
Tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.,
WLTWSAETLV presents a new show
by Montreal-based artist and writer
Simon Brown. Inspired by what
Brown describes as the “most banal
aspects of life as well as the most abstruse manifestations of its
essence,” the exhibition—a collection of “unassuming objects in a small
room with a powerful strobe light”—is a humorous poke at conceptualism.
Entitled In Latent Praise of Multiplous Singularity, the project
also speaks to Brown’s affection for inspired verbage.
The vernissage will be preceded by an artist talk and conversation
with fellow artist and critic Vincent Bonin.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Island girl
QWF’s Carte Blanche prize-winning poet Julie Mahfood has been
boosting her area’s creative writers for a couple of years with the West
Island Readers Electric series
(WIRE). “I try and pair things,
so there’s some prose, some  poetry,”
says Mahfood. “It’s had a
great reception on the West
Island. It’s been pretty packed,
sometimes overflowing.”
This Tuesday Dec. 8th’s edition
of WIRE features three winners
of a contest aimed at introducing
emerging writers to some
of Montreal’s many literary
event organizers. The line-up
includes fellow West Island
poets erika n. white and Louise
Carson, Poetry Plus organizers Susan Dubrofsky and John Fretz,
Yellow Door series host Ilona Martonfi and writer and editor Jon Paul
Fiorentino, all at Café Aurora (552 Beaconsfield), at 7 p.m., for free.
Fiorentino is also part of a great line-up tonight, Thursday, Dec. 3, 7
p.m. at the Yellow Door (3625 Aylmer), including Canadian poetry icon
rob mclennan reading from his new novel missing persons. Tickets $5.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
IS IT ART?
BUILDNG WEAR: If you’ve ever
looked at a building and thought, “I
wish I could look like that,” then artist
Joshua DeMonte is your man.
 Based out of Philadelphia, DeMonte
creates outrageous jewellery pieces that
mimic regular old structures like aqueducts,
cathedrals
and arcades and
architectural elements
like windows
and staircases.
Despite their
antique inspiration,
the pieces are
moulded in a bold
white plastic, making
his bracelets and collars—which
look like something out of the Elizabethan
era and stay on by balancing on
your shoulders—look surprisingly
futuristic. They’re also unisex, so you
don’t have to sport your ode to Notre
Dame look alone.
coroflot.com
Arts hole
MOTHERLY LOVE: A photographer,
a choreographer, a video artist, a sound
artist and a couple of dancers come
together to present cAvA, an inter-disciplinary
show that reflects on the
theme of the womb. It opens with a
vernissage tonight, Thursday Dec. 3 at
7 p.m. at les territoires (372 Ste-
Catherine W., #527) with performances
on Dec. 17 and 18, at 8 p.m., tickets
$15. ? SING ALONG: Forty people get
together this Sunday, Dec. 6 at 9 p.m.
at the MainLine (3997 St-Laurent)
armed with iPods to form Arcade
Choir, an impromptu choir who will
sing the entire Arcade Fire album
Funeral without any previous practice.
Tickets $5 at the door. ? LAST
CHANCE ABSTRACT: This is the last
chance to check out the work of
abstract painter Jean McEwen before
they are handed back into the hands of
museums and private collections. Jean
McEwen is at Galerie Pangée (40 St-
Paul W.) until Dec. 7.
Artistat
The number of women artists who are exhibiting
work in 20 ans d’actions depuis le 6 décembre at Le Centre
d’exposition de l’Université de Montréal (2940 Cote Ste-
Catherine) until Dec. 20, in remembrance of the 20th anniversary
of the Polytechnique tragedy: 14 |
