Montrealers captured
SUBTLE INTERACTION: Xavier Dolan by Lam “I’ve always been interested in portraiture, it’s an ongoing project for me,” says photographer Richmond Lam of his latest exhibit Portraits 2, which opens at Ctrl lab (3634 St-Laurent) tonight, Thursday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. “The idea behind the series is to document the many faces of Montrealers. But it’s also about the interaction between the photographer and the subject—they’re another side of me.”
Included in this series of black and white prints are a number of well-known (Denis Gagnon, Xavier Dolan, Think About Life) and lesser-known faces, all of whom are striking and perfectly captured. Like photographers David Bailey and Richard Avedon, whose work inspired and defined a generation, Lam’s portraits capture Montreal now and document the contemporary times of the city.
The photographs aren’t the only attraction for the evening. There will also be a silent auction of his work, as well as an acoustic set by Dirty Wedding and a DJ set by DJ Mitz. “I like to create an overall event,” Lam says. “Not just focus on the pictures.”
by SACHA JACKSON
Existential meditations
BEYOND THE DETRITUS: The Dry Salvages
Though I recently described the bunker at the Parisian Laundry (3550 St-Antoine) as toasty warm, its windowless isolation and concrete surfaces make it an ideal space for meditations of an existential nature. With The Dry Salvages, David Armstrong Six takes his thematic cue from the third of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, creating—as he did with an earlier installation at Articule in 2007—an architectural construct that could easily function as a stage set for Waiting for Godot.
Comprised of concrete pillars and an assemblage of detritus that speaks to a narrative yet to be told, the central structure is uninhabited, though it carries the traces of human existence. But walk to the end of the space and look into the green plexiglass mounted on the wall, and you will see yourself imposed upon this space, hinting further at the story it wants you to contemplate.
Upstairs, away from the wasteland, Rick Leong’s I Am Nature is a celebration of the natural world in all its lushness. There is a Seussian quality to Leong’s work with its bright hues and abundance of curlicues, but his vision is more delicately expressed in the drawings on the second floor.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Contemporary drawing now!
It’s funny to hear people announcing the deaths and rebirths of artistic mediums, yet the phenomenon seems to be hanging on. Drawing is often accorded short  shrift in the contemporary art world, but it got a nice boost last year with a massive exhibition at the MoMA, and now Montreal’s L’art passe à l’Est (3843 Ste-Catherine E.) mounts its much smaller group show Le Grand Dessin Canadien, which, according to gallery co-director Louis-Antoine Blanchette, takes a look at “new contemporary drawing practice often overlooked by galleries and critics.”
The open-themed show features two dozen works by eight emerging Quebec artists—like Montrealers Cynthia Thibault and Karmen Mantha, who cover imagery ranging from wildlife to the English royal family, in their collective work as K et K Plote Inc. et Fils—and Acadian artist Christine Comeau, who deals with dreams and the everyday changes we face in modern life. Also showing are Louis Bouvier and Remi Cosnier of Montreal and Quebec City’s Guillaume Adjutor Provost, Isabelle Demers, Péio Eliceiry and Amélie Laurence Fortin.
It opens tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. and continues through Feb. 14.
by DAVID LEVITZ
Steppes and Rock Steady
First stop for dance in 2010 is 840 Cherrier, for a duo of shows by local movement makers.
 Up the main staircase at l’Agora de la Danse, prolific choreographer Pierre Lecours, LADDMI graduate and now assistant director to Hélène Blackburn (Cas Public), opens his new work Les Steppes. His piece for eight dancers swirls together fiction with reality using rhythms, words and movement (Jan. 20–23, 8 p.m.). Tonight’s performance (Thursday, Jan. 21) is followed by a talk.
On the main floor at dance space Tangente, independent choreographer and dancer Katie Ward transports us into her scientific world Rock Steady, which is part of the Impulsions series that spotlights visceral and physical dance. Ward focuses on energy and matter by zooming in to the molecular level and playing with the push and pull of particles and emotions (Jan. 21–23, 7:30 p.m.). Ward’s turn to chat with the public is tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 22, after the performance.
by MARITES CARINO
IS IT ART?
GO ZAMBONI GO! With the most depressing day of the year barely behind us, it’s about time we had a mid-winter perk-up. Enter the Desk Zamboni. Modelled  after the real thing that clears and perfects the ice between hockey periods and Sunday afternoon free-skates, this little Zamboni has been fitted with a vacuum, enabling you to clean up your desk in the same way the pros clean the ice.
Developed by Urban Trend, a consumer products design and development company based in Hong Kong, the Zamboni vac is almost 100 per cent true to the original, with one glaring flaw—it’s missing the driver (though surely there’s a Lego man out there in a leather bomber and newsboy cap to pilot this thing?). Missing driver aside, the Zamboni is a productive way to procrastinate while at your desk and likely more entertaining than last night’s Habs game.
http://is.gd/6xmlB
Arts hole
OH, YOKO: If the closing of last year’s larger than life expo Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko at the MMFA has left an unfulfilled void in your John/Yoko appreciation, then you should head over to the CCA (1920 Baile) this coming Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. for a free viewing of a number of short films by the couple. UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith will be on hand to present The Films of John Lennon and Yoko Ono 1970–1972, which includes the deceptively titled Erection. • MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE: Chuck Samuels presents Before Photography at Dazibao (4001 Berri, #202), an exhibit in which he reorganizes his personal history by looking at it through fiction, using everything from old family photographs to popular cinema. It’s on until Feb. 13. • NORTH COMES SOUTH: The Chicoutimi Kid—a love story, tragedy and ode to Quebec—is a new work by Alain Mercieca. It’s at Théâtre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.) and runs Jan. 21–23 at 8 p.m., tickets $8.
Artistat
The number of years since the Musée national des Beaux-arts du Québec exhibited Conjunctio, a series of digital prints by Irene F. Whittome, inspired by patterns drawn from anatomical charts of the 1930s, which was recently acquired by the Université de Montréal and is now on view at the Centre d’expositions de l’Université de Montréal (2940 Cote Ste-Catherine, #0056) until March 21: 10 |
