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NAFTArt Cultural trade between Mexico City and Montreal by KEITH MARCHAND
Well, there is more in common, including a show coming to Oboro gallery (co-produced by 1001 Nations) that aims to expose the affinities between the two metropolises. Hybrid Cultures: Works from Mexico City and Montreal aims to reveal the similarities between younger generations from the two rather different urban milieus and how they are developing and creating art today. The show groups together 10 artists. Five are from Mexico City--Eduardo Abaroa, Daniela Rossell, Melanie Smith, Sofia Taboas and Pablo Vargas-Lugo--and five from Montreal: Brad Todd, Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Kristine Friedmann, Lauren Schaffer and David Blatherwick. This group has been assembled because of the similarities inherent in their attitudes as artists. Many of them combine different artistic practices and are involved in a broad range of pursuits. Most of the featured contributors are involved not only in art making, but also with curating, writing, playing in bands and DJing. Their creative output is diverse and spans a broad range, yet all employ common mediums (painting, photography, installation and sculpture). All share an incorporation of high and low art in their work and in this exhibition the viewer will see an interesting interplay between "popular" and "art" materials. This is clearly demonstrated in works like David Blatherwick's reformulation of the portrait using bubble-gum (among other unconventional materials), Pablo Vargas-Lugo's drawings of cartoonish "monsters" and Lauren Schaffer's sculptures consisting of car parts and over-sized porcelain diamonds (cast at the Crane bathroom fixtures plant). The show's curator, Valerie Lamontagne, refers to the works in Hybrid Cultures as "post-popular." There is a desire to use imagery from popular culture in an easygoing fashion, yet at the same time deal with concerns such as sexuality, the myth of beauty, violence, disease, the ethics of commodity, etc. No answers are offered to the questions posed; rather, the artists are content with the task of expressing a cultural malaise existing in today's world. This type of art, which sifts through and employs the discarded material of the cultural landscape, presents an interesting focal point for both cultures. Hybrid Cultures: Works from Mexico City and Montreal will be at Oboro gallery from April 19 to May 18 |
To your average indigene, it is entirely likely that the only similarities between Mexico City and Montreal are that they both start with the letter "m" and both have world-class roller-derby teams.