Morphing media

UN-REPRODUCIBLE: A piece by Rauman

Local artist, musician and man-about-town Tyler K. Rauman brings his latest project, Transmogrification, to Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) this weekend, with a vernissage tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. If Rauman’s name doesn’t ring a bell, you might be familiar with his gig posters, which have adorned street posts since his arrival in Montreal four years ago. He’s also active with local drawing collective En Masse (led by Jason Botkin and the Mirror’s Rupert Bottenberg).

“Poster design has been great for me,” says Rauman, but in the last few years, his goal has been to move away from it.

“The works that I’ll be showing are designed to be un-reproducible... media and techniques that can’t be photocopied or colour copied… even photographs can’t accurately represent them.”

What this means is introducing new materials—sparkles, metallic pigments, fluorescent glosses and sculptural elements, to name just a few—while still playing with the imagery and iconography that continues to inspire and amuse him. Along with the psychedelia that characterizes his poster art, the show’s title suggests a turn toward the grotesque. “I like things to be fun,” says Rauman, “but in an unsettling way.”

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Road trip fear

OUT OF QUARTERS: Roadkill

A road-tripping couple is barrelling down the highway in the Australian outback when their car breaks down. It’s night. Now stranded, the only thing in sight is a phone booth, which they discover is out of order. Enter a mysterious male figure. That is the bare-bones story of the choreographic work by the collaborative Brisbane-based contemporary dance group Splintergroup, who make their Montreal debut with Roadkill.

The work, which has a cinematic feel to it, caused a stir when it premiered in 2007 because of its ingenuity and physicality. Artistic director Gavin Webber, a former dancer with Ultima Vez, performs with Grayson Millwood, Gabrielle Nankivell and a red Ford.

The theatrical dance piece, which examines isolation, reality versus the imaginary and, of course, fear, wraps up the Australian dance series at the Cinquième Salle, Place des Arts (175 Ste-Catherine W.) Feb. 10–12 at, 8 p.m., and Feb. 13 at 3 p.m.

by MARITES CARINO

A history of stink

There’s more to perfume than that unshakable stench that clogs your sinuses when you walk through the Bay. Sylvain Boucher, aka le Poète Parfumeur, wants to dazzle your senses with a trip into the history of the scents humans have used to mask or accentuate their personal stink over the last 4,000 years.

“We always think the French invented perfume and that everything comes from France, but that’s false. At the time of the ancient Egyptians, perfume was used to enter into contact with the gods,” says Boucher.

Participants will get to sample fragrances old and new, natural and synthetic and will have to identify mystery odours.

Boucher remains a fan of the maison niche: artisanal perfume houses that work on a small scale.

“These maisons niches are going back to the basics of perfume. That is, instead of selling things that are 100 per cent synthetic, they’re making perfume that’s a little more poetic,” he says.

The Olfactive Initiation Workshop takes place (in French) Feb. 10 and March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Centre d’Art la Salamandre (1090 Pratt). Cost is $35. Call (514) 692-9809 to reserve. For details, see poeteparfumeur.blogspot.com.

by MATT JONES

Words as buildings

Counterculture architecture seems like an oxymoron. Architecture by definition is something that works with and for society, but if the ’60s—when this little-known resistance emerged—were good for anything, it was for giving people the courage to go against the grain.

In their latest exhibit Take Note, the CCA (1920 Baile) explores this small oppositional element that turned their attention away from physical structures to sentence structures in an attempt to transform the page into a site for design and to turn the text into its own architectural work.

“This turn toward writing soon engaged architecture with broader questions of pop culture, mass media, advertising... setting in motion a fundamental transformation,” says Professor Sylvia Lavin.

Lanvin, director of the critical studies program at UCLA, will give a talk on the topic at the exhibit’s vernissage, which takes place tonight, Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.

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by SACHA JACKSON

IS IT ART?

THE MONTREAL MYSTIQUE: There’s no denying that this city is a hotspot for creative activity. But this city can also be tough, especially if you don’t speak French, so the real question remains, why do anglos decide to move here? (Other than the obvious—cheap rent and the distance from Victoria, B.C.).

After conquering the indie press scene with Distroboto and Expozine, native Montrealer Louis Rastelli has set his sights on the artistic anglo community in an effort to answer this most baffling of questions.

Making It Montreal is a research and promotion project that will delve into the lives of non-native anglo Montrealers to figure out why they decided to move here, why they’re sticking around and how they’re changing the city’s cultural landscape. It launches tonight, Thursday, Feb. 4 at 8:30 p.m. at le Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent) with a roundtable discussion and performances by Lake of Stew (who, for the record, are mostly native Quebecers) and Tony Ezzy.

makingitmontreal.org

Arts hole

DO IT THIS WAY: Local and international performance-based artists—Fanadeep, Oreet Ashery, Emma W. Howes and 2fik—descend on Studio 303 (372 Ste-Catherine W., #303) to present their works at Instructions. Catch it this Saturday, Feb. 6, at 7 and 9 p.m. • VIDEOS OF A DOUBLE EXISTENCE: Artist Brendan Fernandes explores the experience of a hybrid identity, migration and effects of a diasporic memory in his recent video work Haraka Haraka. The collection of videos is on view at the MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) and opens with a vernissage, tonight, Thursday, Feb. 4 at 5 p.m. It runs until March 13

Artistat

The number of artists taking part in Horror Vacui, a group exhibit that opens at the McClure Gallery (350 Victoria) tonight, Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m., and features illustrated works that are obsessively overloaded: 4