Intervening landscapes

A truth worth pondering, in these days of heat and dank humidity, is that at one point in time, the land upon which our fine city is built was deep under water. The Champlain Sea covered much of the St. Lawrence lowlands, and what were once beaches, north-west of the city, are now the stone fields, or “champs de patates,” of Mont-Rigaud.

Jamie Nicholls, a Montreal-born artist and currently a lecturer in visual arts in Turkey, is trying to turn attention to the history of landscapes and their losing ground to urban development. “In Istanbul, you can see the layers of history going back thousands of years in their architecture,” he says. “I’ve realized there that Canada’s equivalent of this is the history of its landscape.”

Nicholls’ plan is to install 20 stone pagodas on the stone fields, arranged to “emphasize the rolling nature of the plain” and contrast with the creeping suburban sprawl. “Surburban developers often neglect the physical and cultural qualities of a landscape and instead opt for plans drafted by someone with little or no grounding in the actual character of a place. These stone fields tell a story of thousands of years.” For info, call (450)458-5063. :
--Matthew Woodley

Heavy media

In an effort to expand their new media and digital offerings, the Lotus Eaters Gallery (372 Ste-Catherine W.) is housing Weight, a multi-media extravaganza centring around Montreal noisemakers and artists Choked. The group will be performing a “stadium-sized show condensed into an installation room, sized 10x10 feet.” After the performance, footage from the succinct and presumably squished show will be projected in the larger gallery. Alongside digital experiments, the gallery will have on hand poetry and lyrics written by Choked members Véronique Soucy, Jenny X and Ollie Smith, and a photographic display featuring models ranging from “industrial landscape to pristine smut.” --Claire Philipson :

DJs Josée B and Lynne T spin as well at the vernissage, Friday, July 5, 8:30 p.m.–2 a.m..

Not a drop
to drink

Climate change, and its various bizarre effects, are on display at the Biosphere’s (160 Tour-de-l’Isle) new show, H20 Variations. Spotlighting the seemingly mundane topic of water levels, H20 Variations is split into two sections: High Water Levels and Low Water Levels. High Water examines the fluctuating sizes of the world’s bodies of water and the effect they can have on human populations, and Low Water looks at the declining quantities of H20 in the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Get wet July 5–April 30, 2003. :
--Mark Slutsky

‘D’ cup
runneth over
Well-aware of the medicinal qualities of a good chuckle, CBC journalist and comedienne Sonali Karnick has put together a solid lineup for the second annual Breast Show in Town, an all-woman fundraiser for breast-cancer patients. On the bill is “enough comedy and music to fill a double ‘D’ bra,” including Wendy Vodudsen, a transplanted Londoner and regular on the international comedy circuit, Montreal folk singer Heather McLeod, the Coeur Maha choir, comedy duo the Giggle Chicks, Second City-trained comedienne Red Rayne, local female choir Out of the Mouths of Babes and “Renaissance-hillbilly banjo player,” Nancy Snipper. Proceeds from the event go to Gilda’s Club, a cancer resource centre founded by the late Gilda Radner, of SNL fame, who died of ovarian cancer. “Bring your friends, bring your breasts, bring your friends’ breasts!” Two shows on July 10, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., at the Comedy Zone (1740 René Levesque W), $10. :
--Matthew Woodley

Everybody
loves Riopelle
Once controversial for co-signing the “Refus Global” of 1948, challenging the authority of the Catholic Church and Quebec government, Jean Paul Riopelle is considered by many to have been the greatest Canadian artist of all time. This summer, the biggest exhibition ever of his work is on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. All of the paintings, works on paper, and sculpture in the Museum’s collection will be presented alongside pieces from private collections and never-before-shown works from the artist’s studio. Until Sept. 29, at the MMFA (1379 Sherbrooke W.), $6–12. :

Is it Art?
Must have stuff: Montreal collective modesdemploi’s designers Itaï Azerad, Antoine Laverdière and Cedric Sportes have given regular household objects a bit of a twist--ranging from the über-convenient to the slightly extraneous. Among them are the “Redneck,” a coffee table on rockers that, with a bit of heel-weight, will rock that can ’o’ beer right back to you. Then there’s an ego-measuring mirror (it has a horizontal extension for checking out your biceps) and glasses you just can’t put down. Some objects are on display at Hébo (356 St-Paul W.), or call Antoine Lavierdière at 281-1072 for info. :

Artistat: Number of acquisitions at the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec (1700 St-Denis) in 2001–02, now available to see in the exhibit aptly named after that very number: 37,546 :

ArtsHole
Freaky physiques: Bodies made out of fibreboard that enclose metal guts and sport metallic tattoos--among various other accoutrements--put together by Frankenstein-artist Mark Garland are on display at Galerie Luz (372 Ste-Catherine W.) as Thriving in Captivity from July 10–27.

Mummy medium: The paintings of Angela Le Sann, John Pohl, Ewa Scheer and the encaustic works--think the portraiture on Egyptian mummy cases--of Susan Fisher are on display at Galerie 418 (372 Ste-Catherine W.) until July 7

Diverse tactics: Eight women, including Adria Collins, Beatriz Lopez Bruneau and Raquel Rivera explore their “internal landscapes” through a multitude of mediums ranging from organic to digitial to multi-dimensional in Intimate Concerns at Arts NDG (5800 Sherbrooke W.) until July 28. :