Polar portrayals

>> >> High art, moving pictures and inter-gallery flirtations to watch for this winter

by SIOBHÀN O'CONNOR

Since there will never be a shortage of smart art for art's sake in Montreal, we can be thankful that this winter also promises a plethora of playful exhibits to partake in or peek at. Kicking it all off, the innovative Casa Obscura space opens its doors this weekend, Jan. 20-21, for an Animation Comic Jam, tossing a little bit of a twist onto the comic jam phenom. Thanks to the NFB's donation of old scrap film, local luminaries (including Suicide, Rupert Bottenberg, d. Bilos, Billy Mavreas, Caro Caron and Henriette Valium) will be able to bring their little 2-D buddies to life in improvised, animated cartoon sequences. The moving pictures will be presented in mid-February--stay tuned for details. While you're waiting, pen March 10 into your mental agenda for a late-winter jaunt through the wildly twisted world of Henriette Valium's Geobbels Family. The Clark gallery is responsible for this showcase of Valium's intricate and nightmarish drawings, which shows till April 21.

The Musée d'art contemporain fulfill their high-art mandate with their upcoming Charles Gagnon, a retrospective (Feb. 8-April 29). Gagnon, who's been making great art for over 40 years, will be celebrated as a forerunner in Canadian contemporary art. Gagnon's oeuvre includes oil paintings, photography, multimedia constructions and short films on 16mm which will screen in the museum's cinema.

This winter Clark, Graff and Articule galleries hook up for some tag-team treats. First up is the latest project from the Kit collective, a mysterious and anonymous group of artists, architects, "urbanists" and computer-game designers who claim to have been "extending their tentacles" all over the world since the early '90s. Appealing to the last living Luddites, their Poi.n-t (till Feb. 25 at Articule) and Passive Restraint Systems (Jan. 18-Feb. 25 at Clark) exhibitions challenge our passive confidence in technology and the notion of progress. Their fascination with physical accidents is intact here: the installations feature engulfed airbags at possible collision sites. The ClarkGraff alliance (at Graff till Feb. 3 and Clark till Feb. 25) brings a multimedia follow-up to an exhibit that took place on the balmier days of May '98. A sextet of artists come together in this unique collaboration, which is documented in a limited-edition book.

From the skilled hands of West-Coaster Diana Lynn Thompson comes a controversial new installation at La Centrale (Feb. 22-March 24), about women artists' experiences with maternity, something Thompson thinks has become somewhat of a taboo in the art world. Thompson creates a space where the lofty ideas of womanhood and procreation confront the down-to-earth realities of abortion, sterility and medical intervention.

Barely making it into the winter catalogue is a late-season exhibit by English artiste Brighid Lowe. In a scathing and funny critique of all things saleable (especially art), Lowe's multidisciplinary exhibit Unedited Confessions challenges you to a battle of the wits, as well as a moral one. Her clever collage and striking photographs are, at first glance, simple and beautiful. A closer look, however, reveals a severely anti-consumerist tinge to most of her art, critiquing not only a "buy more" world, but also you for falling for it. Vox hosts the exhibit for a month starting April 12.