Despots and
ink pots
COOKED WOOF: From ShenzhenUnlike the Balkan and Palestinian investigations of Joe Sacco, the sociological travelogues of Quebec City-born comic artist Guy Delisle aren’t particularly political. Shenzhen (2000), the first of his books in this mode, was born out of a run-of-the-mill animation gig in China, while 2003’s Pyongyang found Delisle in North Korea.
The most recent, 2007’s Burmese Chronicles, saw Delisle tailing his wife, a Médecins Sans Frontières administrator, to yet another totalitarian Asian state for a further round of his wry, intimate, highly observational efforts. With a simple yet effective graphic style and a knack for capturing telling little details, Delisle paints portraits that no austere foreign policy report could offer.
Delisle showcases this strain of his work with a slideshow and discussion at the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore (211 Bernard) tonight, Thursday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m., free.
by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Myths and car crashes
Galerie SAS (372 Ste-Catherine W., #416) offers up a show of improbable fantasy landscapes and advertising lampoons in Catherine Bolduc’s Le Voyage d’une fabulatrice and Christian Barré’s Car Crash Memories, on view concurrently through Jan. 30.
Bolduc’s large-scale watercolour landscapes represent the topography of an  artist’s teeming imagination. Ravenous Freudian psychoanalysts will not go hungry here, as there’s no lack of geological orifices that smoke, sputter and spurt. Pebble paths lead to nowhere, and mountainscapes often take on a scaly skin and massive amounts of inexplicable hair, revealing a possible follicle fetish at SAS. (If you take a peek at Fred Laforge’s Cousin It-esque women in the back gallery, a pattern seems to emerge.)
Meanwhile, Barré’s photos depict stunned drivers holding airbags against impeccably lit grey backdrops. There’s no car, no steering wheel, no blood—just airbags. Barré appropriates the immaculate studio fantasy world of luxury car ads as the setting for these crashes, recontextualizing the moment of impact within the commercial domain.
Accompanying these photos is an ad-spot-length film of a totalled car, which, though beautifully shot, is ultimately much more reminiscent of Hitchcock than of Audi.
by DAVID LEVITZ
Anti-holidays in two tongues
As it boasts, it’s a “holiday essential” for you snark-hungry Grinches out there. Urban Tales: A Day in the Life of the City is the third annual series of anti-Christmas themed monologues, co-produced by Centaur Theatre and Théâtre Urbi et Orbi.
Actor and director Harry Standjofski adapts Urban Tales for anglos from Yvan Bienvenue’s French version Contes urbains, and this year’s show collects some of Bienvenue’s favourite stories from previous, French-language productions.
Marcel Jeannin, Tristan Lalla, Joanne Sarazen and Standjofski himself take the stage for stories like “Dawn of the Dead” as police investigate a strange smell emanating from the apartment of an elderly giant; and “Head-Splitting Recess,” wherein hungry schoolchildren find an alternate source of nourishment.
“The macabre aspect is the overall view,” says Jeannin, “but underneath it are tales of loneliness and redemption.”
Both plays run until Dec. 19, Urban Tales at the Centaur (453 St-François-Xavier) and Contes urbains (in French) at Théâtre La Licorne (4559 Papineau).
by NEIL BOYCE
IS IT ART?
DELICIOUS DISHES: The saying “finish everything on your plate,” might soon include the plate itself. Diane Bisson, a professor of Industrial Design at Université of Montréal, has created the most eco-friendly tableware ever—edible plates.
 Having tested 400 prototypes, Bisson and her team have narrowed the findings down to 50 recipes that, in phase two of the project, will be turned into stylish, practical and edible tableware complementary in taste to the food they’re holding.
With the goal of being not only tasty and eco-friendly but also ethical, all of the creations that made the final cut are free of sugar, preservatives and artificial colours. Bission shunned corn and potato bases in favour of bean, poppy seed and water chestnut flours, as well as fruit pastes from berries and mangoes to make sure the plates are as delicious and un-cardboard-like as possible.
Édible, the Food as Material, which documents the process, will be published by Les Éditions du Passage in January.
editionsdupassage.com
Arts hole
DRAG RACING: Café Cleopatra (1230 St-Laurent) hosts the grand finale of its 35th annual Drag Queen Contest this Saturday, Dec. 19 at 10:30 p.m. with performances from the finalists, Jade (Miss Cléo 2008) and the Dead Doll Dancers, entry is free. • FRAMED!: Local artists Amiée van Drimmelen, Caroline Désilets, Martin Dupuis, Sara Guindon and Todd Stewart team up with local frame shop/gallery Frame & Canvas (220 Bernard W.) for the atelier’s Christmas Art Sale, which includes framed prints, greeting cards, photographs and gift certificates. Eggnog will be served at the vernissage tonight, Thursday, Dec. 17 at 5 p.m.
Artistat
The highest price you’ll pay for a piece of original artwork by artists Marc Bell, Mimi Traillette, Fred Casia and others, at the fourth edition of It’s Probably Worth More Than That on now at Headquarters Galerie & Boutique (1649 Amherst) until the end of January: $100 |
