Realist painter's
siren call

"If things don't pan out in two years I'm going to become a fireman," says David Macleod. For a second it comes off as a joke - he's a funny guy, we've been talking over beers. But he's quite serious.

Since moving to Montreal from his native Halifax, Macleod has been honing his photorealistic touch, taking shots of people, mostly of friends, and turning them into bigger-than-life canvases that feel at once ultra-accurate and entirely new in paint. The methodical approach behind the work comes from the same personality that has devised the back-up plan. Though he doesn't go out of his way to peg meaning on his work, there's definitely a reflection of the maker within.

These days you could call it a need for perspective. Macleod has taken a couple of steps backward in his new series - running at Galerie Gora (460 Ste-Catherine W., #305) until Oct. 17 - zooming out from close-cropped images of people's faces to bring whole bodies into frame. He's also stepping out of Montreal in a few weeks to explore whatever horizons Vancouver may hold. The jobhunting-as-anglo thing has been tough here, as has been breaking into the commercial art scene. But when it comes to production, Macleod is on a roll and hoping that the bucks in B.C. will do more good for his painting career. If that doesn't work there's no shortage of fire. » Matthew Woodley

Installation
Stupa-fies

Time to go on a little trip at Oboro (4001 Berri, #301) compliments of Richard Purdy. For 27 years Purdy has been travelling to Buddhist temples and, through a collection of videos, photographs, journals and performances, has reflected on the Stupa.

A symbolic piece of architecture, these solid temples are made to be walked around but not entered. Purdy's new bookwork, Stupa: Built and Unbuilt, explores at his long relationship to Stupas but without, as he puts it, "the dry material required in my recent PhD dissertation."

Oboro invited Purdy to be artist in residence and to build an installation to coincide with the launch of his book. The piece, which plays on the voyage-as-destination concept, is especially worth seeing as the sun goes down, when you can see it lit by both natural and artificial light. Also on view is a selection of video clips, as well as some of his truly quirky past publications. The exhibition runs until Oct. 18. » Christine Redfern

Endless gabber

The fall edition of the Perpetual Motion Roadshow rolls through Zeke's Gallery (3955 St-Laurent) tonight on the Montreal leg of a seven-city tour. Chicago's Jessica Disobedience will be dispensing a few urban folk tales from her Safety Pin Girl zine. Dr. Wred Fright comes straight outta Cleveland with an indie rocker lifestyle and readings from a serialized novel about a rock band called The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus. And hip hop recording artist More Or Les will be dropping some socially conscious lyrics from his latest disc, I Only Stop for the Red Ants. It happens on Sept.18, 7:30 p.m., pay what you can.

Also, don't forget the first Words and Music at the Casa (4873 St-Laurent) Sept. 21, 9 p.m., $5. » Vincent Tinguely

Boogie for blood

This Sunday, get ready to throw your dirty old tampons away and dance for health education. Blood Sisters, the well-known local feminist organization, will be launching their month-long fundraising drive, Fuel Elle Corazon, with a rockin' evening starring Connecticut noise sensations the Magic Markers.

Fresh off a tour with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and getting ready to go back on the road again with Kim Gordon, these kids may well be one of the greatest bands you've never heard of. But who cares if they're any good or not anyway? Not when admission is only five bucks, and you know that all monies collected will be going to support the very worthy cause of menstrual activism.

And if you don't know what that is, then all the more reason you'd better head down to Sala Rossa at 9 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 21. » Chris Barry

Is it Art?

RAW IS PEACE: Not in the mood to cook tonight? Neither is David Wolfe. The California-based raw-food guru is scheduled to appear at the top of the mountain on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. to deliver his gospel in Chalet Mont Royal. Wolfe supports the idea that cooking food contributed to humanity's fall from grace, that it fills the body with waste and causes spiritual separation from nature, leading to cities, ugly art, pollution and government. He also says that his raw diet has increased the size of his penis. The motivator - who, by the way, denies evolution - has worked with the likes of Playboy's Miss August '99 Rebecca Scott, infomercial superstar Anthony Robbins, and influenced the likes of Woody Harrelson. Get the raw truth for $25.

ArtsHole

1525 ALIVE: It's a hip hop hoedown of mega proportions at Hold-up Mental, Terminus 1525's multifaceted party featuring DJs, breakdancing, live painting and projections, photos, spoken word and more, this Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 p.m. till the wee hours, at the SAT (1195 St-Laurent), $5. • HOOFIN' IT: Music and freedom are celebrated through tap as the KlaXon Dance Company puts on Tappin' Through, featuring 30 dancers stepping along to rock, disco and swing, as well as a capella and improvised performances. It's at Theatre Corona (2490 Notre-Dame W.), Sept. 20, 8 p.m., $15–$20, 817-3877 for more info.

ARTISTAT: Width in feet of photographer David Askevold's inkjet mural in his exhibition What Is Church?, a dynamic, digitally arranged assembly of rural Maritime churches, pop-culture images of devotion, and smoke: 18

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