ARTSWEEK
Ginette Laurin’s Onde de choc, Design Pop T-shirt contest, historical novella, Coldwater and Art 4M celebrate with a Pecha Kucha party
by MIRROR ARTS
March 31, 2011
ARTISTAT: The number of days that shoppers can revel in nostalgia thanks to the return of Vintage Pop, which opens at Studio Off Interarts (5143 St-Laurent) this Saturday, April 2: 8
DISSONANT DANCE: Onde de choc
Photo by GINETTE LAURIN
DISSONANT DANCE: Onde de choc
Photo by GINETTE LAURIN
Breaking the sound barrier
A symbiosis between movement, sound and image is how O Vertigo founder and choreographer Ginette Laurin describes her piece Onde de choc.
Having created it for last year’s Festival TransAmériques, Laurin uses the dancers’ pulses, amplified with the use of a stethoscope, as a rhythmic device as well as soundscape material. “I want people to connect with the dance in a physical way. I want them to embrace what is happening inside the dancers’ bodies.”
The eight performers interact with a long rectangular wooden box that amplifies their steps, their interactions and their manipulation of objects against its surface. Above, a thin, horizontal screen plays images of the sound wave vibrations.
“The human body is a wonderful machine and I never tire of exploring it.”
After a European tour, the company touches down at Usine C (1345 Lalonde) April 8–9 and 13–16, 8 p.m. Info: (514) 521-4493.
—MARITES CARINO
THE CONTENDERS: Designs by Denis Raby and Rauman
Top Pop t-shirts revealed
Now in its 10th year, the organizers of Pop Montreal wanted to open the festival to the greater Montreal community. And what better way than to let the city’s artists not only design the festival’s swag—namely its t-shirts—but also choose the winner?
“In the past, we’ve had our merch designed by whoever was our graphic designer in-house,” says Puces Pop director Amy Johnson. “We thought we could make it a bit more exciting if people participated.”
From 150 submissions, Johnson and a jury of her peers selected their top 10, all of which will be on display at La (Found)erie (6596 St-Laurent) during the Design Pop Vernissage, Party & T-shirt Sale this Friday, April 1, 7 p.m.
Two winning designs, chosen by celebrity judges like artist Marcel Dzama and designers Renata Morales and Clayton Evans, as well as online voters, will be announced at 8:30 p.m., sharp.
Tyler K. Rauman, who’s worked with Pop in the past, made it onto the shortlist. “So many of the people in the top 10 are friends of mine,” he says. “It’s a fun community, and good exposure for the artists.”
T-shirts with the winning designs will be on sale and Cadence Weapon brings the party with a DJ set. Free.
—CHRISTOPHER OLSON
Erotic, historical,swampy fiction
According to author Jamie Ross, Coldwater is “a piece of historical erotic fiction.” Wrapped up in the narrative are centuries-old mysteries, Metis land rights, acts too horrid to be remembered and some bros making a music video in a swamp.
The first book by the Montreal-based author and multimedia artist deals with Ross’s Metis heritage and its legacy through the last few hundred years.
“There’s a tangent through my work that deals with landscapes and place. Bridging them together across time to the person,” says Ross of Coldwater’s century-spanning storyline.
Though it’s roughly set in a swampy area north of Toronto, the novella was written in Pittsburgh, completed while Ross was in residence at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse writing collective.
With the publishing market for novellas slim-jim-thin, Coldwater is being independently published by the newly founded False Flesh imprint.
The launch party will feature book-content-themed installations by Montreal artists and sets by the Pop Winds, Solar Year, Cop Car Bonfire and others. Festivities start at 8 p.m., Friday, April 1 at Interstice (242 Young). $5 at the door gets you entry and a copy of the book.
—TRISTAN LAPOINTE
Pecha Kucha partyand vernissage
FROM THE ARCHIVE: By Olivares
If you aren’t too busy playing hilarious pranks on unsuspecting friends and relatives this Friday, April 1, head on up to the Atlas Building (170 Jean Talon W., #308) at 7 p.m., for an invigorating evening of Pecha Kucha at a unique vernissage.
Invented by a pair of Tokyo architects to keep presentations to a tolerable length, Pecha Kucha—which, in its “open-mic” incarnation, has become something akin to a party game—has one simple rule: 20 images and 20 seconds per image. From there, it’s pretty much anything goes, which is one of its main attractions.
In addition to checking out and participating in the Pecha Kucha—which requires only that you show up with images and something to say about them—you can also view Sorty, an exhibition of new work by members of Concordia’s Art 4M Collective.
Featuring works by Cynthia Bergeron, Paige McLachlan, Simon Zaborski, Alexandres Nunes, MaryAnne Kuzma, Marie Dauverné, Cam Matamoros, Lys-Ange Leblanc, Justine Lévesque, Denise Olivares and Anne-Sophie Couture, the show examines the archive as medium. Materials relating to practices like performance art, video and installation have been collected, framed and compiled. It runs until April 5.
—STACEY DEWOLFE
IS IT ART?
TRASH ART: Montrealers are no strangers to curbside finds. Come spring, the sidewalks are littered with everything from old mattresses to paint-by-number canvases and taking a photo of that discarded art is all you have to do to be a part of LastExpo.com
Created as a side project by Amsterdam-based advertising firm They, the website is composed of images of art in the trash, everything from amateur canvases in Amsterdam to blurry photographs in Berlin.
Wanting to commemorate the “forgotten human imagination,” anyone can contribute. All you need is a camera and a trash heap.
ARTSHOLE
● ART AND NOISE: Séripop collaborate with Iowa City-based artists Shawn Reed and Ryan Garbes on Partly Excavated, an improvised work that deals with the idea of transmission. It opens at ARPRIM (372 Ste-Catherine W., #426) with a vernissage, Friday, April 1 at 5:30 p.m., followed by musical performances by Hamborgini and Wet Hair at 9 p.m. The exhibit runs until May 7.
● STEVES AND STANZAS: Steve McOrmond and Steven Heighton recite their work at the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater) tonight, Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m., as part of the Atwater Poetry Project.
● VIDEO STAR: Independent curator and artist Miriam Sampaio’s latest video installation Trauma Fragment Series #2 is currently on view at Oboro (4001 Berri, #105), with an artist talk taking place Saturday, April 2 at 3 p.m. ■
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