Human dramas
MS. MANIA: Still from “The House”DHC/ART (451 and 465 St-Jean) and the Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa) join forces to present a survey of the work of renowned Finnish filmmaker, photographer and video artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila. INT. STAGE–DAY, which refers to the headings used in screenplays to describe the time and place where scenes are set, is comprised of works produced over the last 20 years, including both photographic series and film installations.
Ahtila, who resides in Helsinki and is a professor in the department of time and space-based art at the Finnish Academy of Fine Art, describes her films as “human dramas” because, in addition to their aesthetic and stylistic considerations, they are driven by complex narratives that explore the human condition in all its fragility.
Known for her mastery of multi-screen projection, her work uses these multiple screens to play with the viewer’s perception of space and time, and to help dramatize the psychological aspects of her characters’ inner worlds. This objective is seen most explicitly in films like “The Present” (2001) and “The House” (2002), both of which tell stories about women and madness.
The vernissage takes place tonight, Thursday, Jan. 28, 5 p.m. at the Foundry and 6 p.m. at DHC/ART.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
30 years of Articule
THE SANDS OF TIME: From Marilyn Arsem’s
Jan. 18 performance of “Last Chance”
In celebration of its 30th anniversary, artist-run centre Articule (262 Fairmount W.) takes on a Coney Island freak-beach aesthetic, sand and all. Keep your boots on to view the work from a nifty boardwalk, or toss them off and revel in the art of Steve Topping. The sand is a smidgen warmer because Topping spent several days installing rows of thermostat-controlled, 100-watt light bulbs beneath the floor in the gallery’s primitive basement space.
Other works include a DIY bathing suit kit by Jenna Dawn MacLellan and Jonathan Plante’s giant papier mâché turd, which lies “in dialogue” with his clumping cat litter sculpture.
“Last year we invited the membership to envision the program for this year,” says Michelle Lacombe, who explains that the theme is a play on the phrase “plage de programmation.” The show, entitled Drift Line, comes in three parts: Private Beach, a curated show, which already took place; Members’ Beach, the current group show installed through Sunday, Jan. 31; and Public Beach (Feb. 3–7), when “anyone in the community is allowed to install their own works—or hang out, picnic, lounge, whatever.” Free sand will be available on Feb. 7 to those desiring to transform their bathrooms into a mini Cuba.
by DAVID LEVITZ
One man poetry-house
Like a good second baseman, scholar and poet David McGimpsey covers a lot of ground. He’s got the monthly sandwich beat for En Route magazine, a weekly slot as co-host of The Team 990’s Hump Night sports talk show and writes travel pieces for the Globe & Mail. He brings a similarly lively eclecticism to his poetry practice.
 “It’s infusing the influence of writers like Browning, Baudelaire, Shakespeare,” McGimpsey explains. “Basically taking contemporary culture—television, sports, travel, movies, music—and using traditional gestures from poetry, certain formal strategies like soliloquies, sonnets or dramatic monologues.”
McGimpsey’s poetry is the subject of the soon-to-be-published Population Me: Essays on David McGimpsey, but you can make your own assessment at this Sunday’s Pilot reading, when McGimpsey reads a batch of new material. He’s joined by Boston Review Poetry Prize winner Max Winter, Gillian Sze, Angela Hibbs and Simon Lewsen. Sunday, Jan. 31, 9 p.m., Sparrow (5322 St-Laurent), free.
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Opera, dance and Ulysses
It’s been just over a decade since dancer-choreographer Dominique Porte, originally from France, founded her company Système D here in Montreal. Now when looking back at her creations, Porte says that her style of creating has definitely evolved. She says this was evident in the creation of her new dance quartet Ulysse, nous et les sirènes, which opens next week.
“It’s the first time that I worked one-by-one with each dancer for a group  piece,” says Porte, reflecting on her creative process, which at the beginning of her career focused more on the replication of movement. “Now, it’s more about the connection and I question what is going on with the dancer,” she explains.
Porte, who dances in the piece, links dancers (Marc Boivin, Heather Mah and Victoria May) and singers through music and movement while playing with shadows and light in this choreography that features live vocals by mezzo-soprano Isabelle Ligot and jazz singer Nadine Medawar. It runs Feb. 3–6, 8 p.m. at the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts (175 Ste-Catherine W.).
by MARITES CARINO
IS IT ART?
THE DEAD LIKE PINK: Convening with the dead is a long-standing sleepover tradition. One that generally involves a dark, mildew-y basement, a well-used  Ouija board and shrieking kids. In the years that the Ouija board has been a sleepover fixture, however, the board has always been decidedly austere and relatively gender-neutral.
Hasbro has decided to upset this gender balance with their brand new Ouija for Girls. Marketed to girls aged 9–14, the girls-only board, which retails for $19.99, has a pink and purple colour scheme and comes with a matching carrying case for easy Ouija transport. The game also includes 72 question cards with such questions as, “Who will call/text me next?” and “Will I be a famous actor?”
http://is.gd/71unZ
Arts hole
TIES THAT BIND: A bar in Florida in 1969 is the setting for a once in a lifetime meeting between Jack Kerouac and Michel Tremblay (Kerouac would die a month later). Playwright George Rideout imagines the conversation between two generation-defining writers with Quebecois roots in his play Michel & ti-Jean, which opens at the Centaur (453 St. François-Xavier) Tuesday, Feb. 2. • SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENT: Les Imprudanses, an improvisational dance troupe, invites you check out their latest dance-off, Rouges vs. Jaunes this Sunday, Jan. 31, Petit Campus (57 Prince-Arthur E.), 5 à 7, $8.• 20 YEARS AND COUNTING: Occurrence (5277 Parc) celebrate their 20th anniversary with a work by photographer Raymonde April. Équivalences 3+4 opens this Saturday, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m
Artistat
The number of artists participating in the group show Works on Paper II, which opens with a vernissage at the Red Bird Gallery (135 Van Horne W.) tonight, Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. : 29 |
