THOR: THE DARK WORLD

     THOR: THE DARK WORLD
Based on a MARVEL comic this exquisite feature film is extremely elegant! I enjoyed so many aspects of the movie. First were the scenery and costume design that captured my esthetic sensibilities right away. Then the perfectly balanced performances by all the players made it even more delicious. The evil characters are so well embodied I found it hard not to like them. The evil Loki for example, played by TOM HIDDLESTONE, is a simmering character with a twinge of sadness in the eyes, or is he a refined sociopath?  NATALIE PORTMAN shines again as Jane Foster, a scientist and the true love of Thor played by a very seductive CHRIS HEMSWORTH. To add to this, ANTHONY HOPKINS looking very good as the patriarch Odin. The scenery is emotionally satisfying: the huge columns, the immense castles, the mountains, the birds, the views of contemporary London.
I so strongly recommend that you go see this movie at the theatre and in 3D because it is just too good! And you must stay until the very last second to experience the extraordinary 3D art as the credits roll in the end and the very last surprise scene!
I LOVE IT!!!!

-LENA GHIO

P A METHIOT PLUS GROS QUE NATURE! EN TOURNÉE

Pour toutes les informations sur son étinéraire, suivez le lien
www.entourageinc.ca

Un Québécois issu de la Gaspésie, PA METHIOT est franc et naturel. Son humour se compose autour des expériences cocasses et moins cocasses de sa vie. C’était la première se son tout premier One-Man-Show et il n’a pas déçu. Sa mise en scène est composée du Rocher Percé sur lequel sont projetées les images appropriées qui soutiennent ses propos comme quand il parle des femmes et de leur amour pour le vin, on voit des verres se faire remplir, quand il imite Rocky, on voit la scène du film de SYLVESTER STALONE et alors cela devient encore plus drôle!

On ressentait un peu le frémissement de ses débuts, mais on pressentait aussi qu’un sensible comique commence un nouveau pallié professionnel prometteur.

BIEN JOUÉ!

-LENA GHIO

BEAT NATION : ART, HIP-HOP AND ABORIGINAL CULTURE

En Français plus bas

I have always felt deep regret whenever a group of humans treat other cultures than their own with disrespect and disregard the value of the knowledge gathered by other people. Although North America has not known intense warfare like our European counterparts the continent has managed to recreate genocides and unparalleled injustice. The cost to us has been lost wisdom, style, and ancient art forms that were directly linked to the mystic side of our land. The price to those that were victimized, our own aboriginal people, was a huge disassociation from their ancestral heritage and identity.

The healing power of art, its capacity to repair the soul, is at work in this exciting show presented at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art until January 5 2014.

KATLEEN RITTER, formerly of the Vancouver Art Gallery and TANIA WILLIARD, artist and designer, curated the exhibition with support from MARC LANCTÔT curator at the museum.

The artists come from many aboriginal nations and geographic locations in North America and express themselves in just as many mediums. In the corridor before the main entrance I sat in KEVEN LEE BURTON’s Nikamowin (song) 2008. The theme of the video is reclaiming the language of one’s ancestors. A repeated motif in human history is the elimination of a conquered people’s language. This leaves the vanquished people with a fragmented soul. The modern artist is in a quest for a voice in a rapidly evolving, technologically complex new world where everyone’s ancestral ways are being challenged by the speed of global communications. With the musical collaboration of D’ARCY O’CONNOR the video retraces the journey from the reservation to the city. The sounds and images are mesmerizing and resume well the subtext of the entire exhibit: how do aboriginal people return to their roots and advance with the times?

Another work that reveals the creative solutions brought forth by artists is the piece Thunderbird (2011), one frame of the Tautology installation that won the artist a Sobeys Art Award in 2013. It is a red neon bird on black support realized by DUANE LINKLATER. The curators positioned it at the entrance the exhibition hall to evoke the doorway into a bar, like a fixture in many modern establishments where people create community.

KC ADAMS interestingly addresses the theme of fashion in her reinterpretation of technological accessories like the I Pod by covering it with  white beads. She then poses with these objects like many young people do today looking for identity confirmation from the camera. SKEENA REECE, the stunning woman in the exhibitions outside poster at the Museum and on the link to the Museum in the column on the left, is also the designer of the outfit she is photographed in. Every component of the clothes has been thought out and is a conversation on identity and character. She has assembled elements from many tribes to phrase her intent to be a whole and unique person. On the back of her cape for example is the design of a hand grenade, a symbol that she is a warrior woman, that she is capable of fighting. Finally DANA CLAXTON portrays fashion and style by juxtaposing Aboriginal people with modern objects like a Mustang car in her photographic series The Mustang Suite (2008). The prevalent use of the color red is a reminder of her race.

One of my favorite pieces goes beyond language to generate a sense of wordless wonderment! It is the stroboscopic light installation Still Life (2004) by RAVEN CHACON. The work is constructed to react to any change in light in the outside world, like day and night, like cloudy atmospheres, and also to light and motion inside the room where you enter to live the experience. Although there are many works and many artists, this is the one that sums it all up for me. We are sentient ephemeral beings who have created the habits of war, politics, and cultural injustices. All cultures have their myths about how life emerged from the void and the myth that we will return to the void regardless of our origins and lifestyles. That is the ultimate truth the great equalizer we too often forget but that should be the foundation of a better life for all human beings.

There is a 96 pages publication that accompanies the exhibition and presents the work of the 28 participating artists. There is also a special 6 hours presentation of Dana Claxton’s On Set: The Mustang Suite at Concordia’s Media Gallery from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 4:00 pm.

-LENA GHIO

FRANÇAIS

J’ai toujours ressenti un profond regret n’importe quand qu’un groupe d’humains traite les autres cultures que la leur avec irrespect et négligence envers la valeur  des connaissances accumulées par d’autres personnes. Quoiqu’en Amérique du Nord nous n’ayons pas connu de guerres intenses comme nos homologues Européens nous avons tout de même réussi à recréer certains génocides et injustices sans parallèle. Le coût pour nous a été des pertes de sagesses, de style, et d’anciennes pratiques artistiques qui étaient directement liées au côté mystique de la terre. Le prix payé par les victimes, nos propres peuples aborigènes, est une extrême dissociation de leur héritage ancestral et de leur identité.

La force thérapeutique de l’art, sa capacité de guérir l’âme, est visible dans l’exposition excitante présentée au 

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 

jusqu’au 5 janvier 2014.

KATLEEN RITTER, autrefois à la 

Vancouver Art Gallery 

et TANIA WILLIARD, artiste et stylicienne, sont les commissaires de l’exposition avec le soutien de MARC LANCTÔT commissaire au  musée.

Les artistes sont issus de plusieurs nations autochtones et locations géographiques de l’Amérique du Nord et s’expriment avec autant de médiums. Dans le corridor qui mène à l’exposition, j’ai regardé et écouté Nikamowin (song) 2008 de KEVEN LEE BURTON. Le thème de la vidéo est la réappropriation de la langue parlé par ses ancêtres. Un motif qui se répète dans l’histoire humaine est l’élimination de la langue natale d’un peuple conquis laissant ainsi les vaincus avec une âme fragmentée. L’artiste contemporain est dans une quête pour sa voix dans un monde inédit qui évolue rapidement avec des technologies toujours plus neuves qui mettent à l’épreuve les manières ancestrales de tous les peuples à cause de la vitesse des communications globales. Avec la collaboration musicale de D’ARCY O’CONNOR la vidéo retrace le parcours de la réserve à la grande ville. Le son et les images sont hypnotiques et résument bien le sous-entendu de l’exposition entière: comment les peuples autochtones retournent-ils à leurs racines tout en marchant de l’avant?

Une œuvre qui révèle une autre solution créative proposée par les artistes est la pièce Thunderbird (2011), un cadre de l’installation Tautologie qui a mérité à l’artiste le Sobeys Art Award in 2013. C’est un oiseau en néon rouge sur support noir réalisé par DUANE LINKLATER. Les commissaires l’ont situé à l’entrée de la salle d’exposition pour évoquer un luminaire de bar comme on peut en reconnaître dans bien des lieux publiques où les gens se réunissent.

KC ADAMS adresse la question de mode vestimentaire d’une façon très intéressante en réinterprétant les accessoires technologiques tel l’I Pod en le recouvrant de perles blanches. Ensuite elle se pose vêtue avec ces objets, comme le font tant de jeunes personnes de nos jours, pour y voir la confirmation de son identité par la caméra. SKEENA REECE, la femme éblouissante qui figure sur l’affiche géante qui est au-devant du musée et sur le lien vers le musée dans la colonne gauche est aussi la stylicienne du costume dans lequel elle est photographiée. Chaque détail des vêtements a été réfléchis et constitue une conversation sur son identité et son caractère. Elle y réunit plusieurs pièces de différentes tribu pour phraser son intention d’être une personne totale et unique. Sur le dos de sa cape, par exemple, il y a le design d’une large grenade, un symbole qu’elle est une femme guerrière, qu’elle est capable de combattre. Finalement DANA CLAXTON illustre la mode et le style en juxtaposant des personnes autochtones avec des objets de consommation  telle une voiture Mustang dans sa série photographique The Mustang Suite (2008). L’usage copieux de la couleur rouge est un rappel de sa race.

Une de mes pièces favorites dépasse la langue pour générer un sens d’enchantement sans parole! C’est l’installation de lumières stroboscopiques  Nature Morte (2004) par RAVEN CHACON. La pièce est construite pour réagir à n’importe quel changement de la lumière dans le monde extérieur, tel le jour et la nuit, les atmosphères nuageuse, et même la lumière et les mouvements dans la chambre où l’on entre pour vivre l’expérience. Quoiqu’il y a beaucoup d’oeuvres par plusieurs artistes, celle-ci résume le tout pour moi. Nous sommes des êtres éphémères et conscients qui ont créé les habitudes de la guerre, de la politique, et des injustices culturelles. Toutes les cultures ont leur mythe de comment la vie est émergée du néant et le mythe que nous retournerons au néant qu’importe nos origines et modes de vie. Cette vérité ultime est le grand égaliseur  que nous tendons oublier trop souvent au lieu de s’en servir comme fondation d’une vie meilleure pour tous les êtres humains.

Il y a un catalogue de 96 pages qui accompagne l’exposition et vous y découvrirez les 28 artistes participants et leurs œuvres. Il y a aussi une présentation spéciale du film Dana Claxton 

On Set: The Mustang Suite à Concordia’s Media Gallery du lundi au jeudi de 10hre à 4hre pm.  

-LENA GHIO

SPLENDORE A VENEZIA

Giovanni Antonio Canal, dit Canaletto (1697-1768)

Intérieur de Saint-Marc, Venise

Vers 1760

Huile sur toile

44,1 x 31,5 cm

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

Legs Adaline Van Horne

Inv. 1945.871

Photo MBAM, Brian Merrett

Français en bleu

Art permits us to travel in time. What a delight to find ourselves in Venice at the summit of the city's glory where people enjoyed art, music, theatre, dancing!

L’art nous permet de voyager dans le temps. Quel délice de se retrouver à Venise au sommet de sa gloire alors que les gens s’amusent et font de l’art, de la musique, du théâtre et de la danse! 

Art collectors and museums from around the world contributed to this recreation of a long ago Venice under the direction of NATHALIE BONDIL the museum's director and the curatorship of HILLIARD T. GOLDFARB. 

Des collectionneurs et musées d’autour du monde ont contribué à la récréation de cette Venise d’antan organisée par NATHALIE BONDIL la directrice du musée et le 

conservateur HILLIARD T. GOLDFARB. 

The paintings I chose to give you a sample of the beautiful art works you will see are from GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL aka Canaletto. He was the most popular painter of this genre of painting and among his customers were many English tourists who wanted to show their friends and relatives the splendors of Venice. Because of this the Queen of England is now the most important collector of Canaletto's work.

Les toiles que j’ai choisi pour échantillonner les belles œuvres d’art que vous verrez sont réalisées par  GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL  dit Canaletto. Il était le peintre le plus populaire de ce genre et parmi ses clients il y avait beaucoup de touristes Anglais qui voulaient montrer à leurs amis et parents les splendeurs de Venise.  À cause de cela, la plus importante collectionneuse de C est maintenant la Reine d’Angleterre!

Throughout the exhibit you will hear a selection of musical arrangements from some of musics greatest composers, like VIVALDI and MONTEVERDI to name a few.

Tout au long de l'exposition, vous entendrez une sélection d'arrangements musicaux écrits par certains des plus grands noms de la musique tel VIVALDI et MONTEVERDI pour en nommer quelques-uns.

Giovanni Antonio Canal, dit Canaletto (1697-1768)

Venise : la fête de saint Roch

Vers 1735

Huile sur toile

147,7 x 199,4 cm

Londres, National Gallery

Inv. NG937

Photo © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY

There is a lot going on for you to appreciate fully the Venice of old. There will be 20 concerts, 7 conferences and 2 movies presented by Fondation ARTE Musica. Many conferences and movies are also offered free by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and will take you closer than ever to some of the worlds finest creators. And of course there are magnificent catalogues richly illustrated and commented. I strongly recommend using either a guided tour or an audio guide so you can grasp all the nuances of the city, the social hierarchy, the meanings of certain paintings and documents.

Il se passe bien des choses pour vous aider à vraiment apprécier cette Venise de jadis. Il y aura 20 concerts, 7 conférences et 2 films présentés par la Fondation ARTE musica. Plusieurs conférences et films sont offerts gratuitement par le Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal et vous transporteront  comme jamais auprès de ces illustres créateurs. Et bien sûr il y a les magnifiques catalogues richement illustrés et commentés. Je recommande fortement de faire soit une visite guidée ou avec l'audio-guide pour comprendre les nuances de la ville, de son hierarchie sociale, du sens de certaines toiles et documents.

The exhibit will go on until January 19 2014.

L'exposition se poursuivra jusqu'au 19 janvier 2014.

-LENA GHIO

Conclusion 42e Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal (FNC)

Yann Buxeda, Sylvain Attal, Thierry Fournier, Pierre Carnieux, Katerine Lefrançois, Pascal Plante, Rémi Fréchette

FNC PRO
Français en bleu + lien TRANSLATE à gauche 

Last October 16, I enjoyed one of the privileges of having a FNC + pass or a FNC PRO pass for the festival. I got to spend the day with some very exciting innovators. These ingenious film makers, whether we are talking about documentaries, inter-active web series, short-films, or feature films, use all the means available by the internet and our current technology to create content.

Le 16 octobre dernier, j’ai savouré un des privilèges d’avoir une passe FNC + ou une passe FNC PRO pour le festival. J’ai savouré une journée avec des innovateurs excitants. Ces cinéastes ingénieux, qu’on parle documentaires, webséries interactives, courts-métrages, ou longs-métrages, se servent de tous les moyens disponibles par l’Internet et notre technologie courante pour créer du contenu.

The first speaker was SYLVAIN ATTAL from FRANCE 24 an international news website. He showed us various ways to present documentaries that would not otherwise be seen on television. YANN BUXEDA  the producer of  IRANORAMA, also on France 24, an interactive web-documentary/interactive game where you are a journalist in a war torn country. Then spoke PIERRE CARNIAUX and THIERRY FOURNIER creators of a complex piece of interactive art LAST ROOM / DÉPLI. I discovered PASCAL PLANTE, RÉMI FRÉCHETTE and KATERINE LEFRANÇOIS Concordia University film graduates who founded Nemesis Films then proceeded to put their dream in motion with the webseries LES JAUNES.

Marco Frascarelli, Roberto Mei, Eric Piccoli, Thomas Kimmerlin, Marc Lustigman Darjeeling, Jean-Sébastien Defoy

I discover another ingenious web series from the team at Productions Babel: ERIC PICCOLI, MARCO FRASCARELLI and ROBERTO MEI: PROJECT-M. This is a science-fiction thriller based in an independent Quebec available on www.ztele.com. A team from France presented us another type of live content with the documentary web series A SUMMER WITH THE FRENCH KIDS OF LARRY CLARK. Done in real time with the actors from the movie you see the Kids evolve as you share a slice of their growing up. This is a concept of THOMAS KIMMERLIN and MARC LUSTIGMAN DARJEELING. Finally JEAN-SÉBASTIEN DEFOY from NFB gave us the complete scoop on how to create a successful app! But that was not all! A panel of four representative from our country's film financing institutions also came to give us the latest information on available resources and what it is they are looking for!

It does not get better than this!
Ça ne peut pas être mieux que cela!

-LENA GHIO
Photos Lena Ghio © 2013

Sophie Bernard, Claire Dion Fonds Bell, Serge Thibodeau Fonds Québecor, Roxane Girard Fonds des médias du Canada et Benoit Beaudoin Fonds TV5

42e FESTIVAL DU NOUVEAU CINÉMA
PALMARÈS   2013  AWARDS

The winners of the 42nd edition / Les lauréats de sa 42e édition :

FEATURE FILM / LONGS MÉTRAGES
The jury / Le jury : Louise Archambault, Violette Chauveau, Pierre Even, Robert Gray et Daniel Grou (Podz).
LOUVE D’OR - présentée par Québecor / presented by Québecor
Meilleur long métrage de la Compétition internationale (15 000 $ en argent remis par Québecor)
Best feature film in the International Competition ($15,000 cash from Québecor)

 HELI, Amat Escalante (Mexique/Allemagne/Pays-Bas/France)

The jury accords a special mention to / Le jury tient également à accorder une mention spéciale à :

L’INCONNU DU LAC, Alain Guiraudie (France)

Prix spécial du Jury (Compétition Internationale) / Special Jury Prize

IN BLOOM,  Nana Ekvtimishvili et Simon Gross (Géorgie/Allemagne/France)

Prix de l’innovation Daniel Langlois / Daniel Langlois Innovation Award

MISS VIOLENCE, Alexandros Avranas (Grèce)

Prix d’interprétation (Compétition Internationale) / Best Actor or Actress Award

Samantha Castillo dans PELO MALO de Mariana Rondón (Vénézuela)

Prix de l’AQCC (Association Québécoise des Critiques de Cinéma) / AQCC Award
Le jury longs métrages/AQCC était composé de Serge Abiaad, Luc Chaput et Nicolas Gendron.
Meilleur long métrage de la Compétition internationale / Best feature in the International Competition

L’ESCALE, Kaveh Bakhtiari (Suisse/France)

Grand Prix Focus présenté par Air France / Focus Grand Prize presented by Air France
Le jury longs métrages/Focus était composé de Sophie Bourdon, Georges Goldenstern, Vanya Kaludjercic, Michel La Veau et Sébastien Pilote.

GERONTOPHILIA, Bruce LaBruce (Québec/Canada)

Prix spécial du Jury (Focus Québec/Canada) / Special Jury Prize

DIEGO STAR, Frédérick Pelletier (Québec/Canada)

Prix d’interprétation (Focus Québec/Canada) / Best Actor or Actress Award

Isaka Sawadogo dans DIEGO STAR de Frédérick Pelletier (Québec/Canada)

Prix du public Temps Ø - Présenté par TFO / Temps Ø People’s Choice Award - Presented by TFO

WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? (JIGOKU DE NAZE WARUI), Sion Sono (Japon)

COURTS MÉTRAGES / SHORT FILMS
Le jury courts métrages/Compétition internationale était composé de Mélissa Bouchard, Eve Duranceau et  Scott Miller Berry.

Loup argenté
Meilleur court métrage de la Compétition internationale /Best short film in the International Competition

MILLE SOLEILS, Mati Diop (France)

Grand Prix Focus court métrage présenté par Post-Moderne / Grand Prix Focus Short Film presented by Post-Moderne
Le jury courts métrages/Focus était composé de Jukka-Pekka Laakso, Samuel Prat et Ramzi Choukair.

QUELQU’UN D’EXTRAORDINAIRE, Monia Chokri (Québec/Canada)

Prix créativité présenté par MAtv remis à un court métrage de la section Focus Québec / Canada pour l’œuvre la plus originale  / Prix créativité presented by MAtv Awarded to the most original short film in the Focus Quebec/Canada section 

MALODY, Phillip Barker (Canada)

FNC LAB
Le jury FNC LAB était composé de  Mylène Chollet, Matthieu Dugal et Antoine Le Bos.
Prix innovation FNC Lab – Œuvres interactives / Projets web

JOURNAL D’UNE INSOMNIE COLLECTIVE, Guillaume Braun, Bruno Choinière, Thibaut Duverneix et Philippe Lambert (Québec/Canada)

Mention spéciale / Special Mention

LAST ROOM / DEPLI de Pierre Carniaux et Thierry Fournier (France)

Winners will receive a wolverine created and sculpted by Pierre Dupras / Les lauréats se verront tous remettre une louve créée et sculptée par l’artiste sculpteur Pierre Dupras.

See You next year / Rendez-vous l’an prochain for / pour le 43e FNC!

From October 8 to 19 2014 / Du 8 au 19 octobre 2014

The Thing About Anarchy

 THE FIFTH ESTATE Dreamworks new movie about JULIAN ASSANGE's rise and fall as the brains behind Wikileaks is a fast paced drama with a lot of style. The score is very contemporary and sustains the visual design of the film that is right out of our computer screens. Certain scenes evoke the work of New York based artist JENNY HOLTZER as words and events swirl on the screen. Emotions are expressed using the visual language of contemporary art like the scene where everything is unravelling between the two lead characters, Julian Assange and Daniel Berg AKA DANIEL DOMSCHEIT-BERG, played by DANIEL BRÜHL, the latter finds himself in a large office space filled with work desks, a recurrent motif in the film, but the ceiling is blown away by menacing storm clouds. I enjoyed the whole project under the direction of BILL CONDON. BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, well known for his modern interpretation of the classic Sherlock Holmes, does justice to the complex person that is Julian Assange, a person with a troubled youth and good intentions who nonetheless does not hesitate to compromise others security to attain his own goals. At a deeper level the movie had me questioning the whole point of anarchy because too often the anarchist becomes the new institution and the new executioner.

It must be noted that the film is based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website" and DAVID LEIGH and LUKE HARDING's book "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy". Julian Assange asked Benedict Cumberbatch to not play him in the movie, and also opposed the contents of the books mentionned.

-LENA GHIO

CHRISTOPHER D’ARCANGELO
ANARCHISM WITHOUT ADJECTIVES: ON THE WORK OF CHRISTOPHER D’ARCANGELO, 1975-1979

Christopher D'Archangelo, Peter Nadin, Daniel Buren- Wall Street circa 1978

I begin my visit to ANARCHISM WITHOUT ADJECTIVES: ON THE WORK OF CHRISTOPHER D’ARCANGELO, 1975-1979 in the enclosed space furthest from the entrance at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery on the Concordia University campus. On the wall to my left as I face the video installation screening hands, I read the descriptions of the rules of engagement for what constitutes Conceptual Art. Even anarchists must exist within the boundaries of specific conventions.

My mind thus refreshed I began listening to SILVIA KOLBOWSKI 1998/1999 video ‘an inadequate history of conceptual art’. The version displayed at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery is an excerpt of a much longer work. The artist had invited 60 artists who had been active during the historical period of Conceptual Art from 1965 to 1975 to describe a piece without giving their names, the names of the artists that they would talk about, or the titles of the pieces they were describing. 40 artists responded to the request. As I listened to the stories, of which I no longer remember the details, I was reminded of a childhood experience that occurred every time we would travel long distances in the family car. An adult interview would be playing on the car radio and I found myself listening to the adult voices describing adult scenarios without any beginning and there were never any ends. I was drawn in by the voices and the images the stories conjured up even if I could not quite get what they were talking about.

My next stop was at one of the 6-computer screen installations in the entrance hall. Very engrossed people with open notebooks already occupied most screens. Once I put my earphones on I could relate to their frame of mind. I was listening to BENJAMIN H.D. BUCHLOH, a German art historian now associated with Harvard University, describe the importance of D’Arcangelo’s work and philosophies and how the same questions he had asked himself and the world in the 1970s still needed to be asked today. I experienced the same absorbing effect at each video installation. Other personalities featured are STEPHEN ANTONAKOS, NAOMI SPECTOR, BEN KINMONT, LAWRENCE WEINER, DANIEL BUREN and PETER NADIN who were friends and collaborators of D’Arcangelo and who are now both well established artists.

Also participating in the show are PIERRE BAL-BLANC, SOPHIE BÉLAIR CLÉMENT, SIMON BROWN, PIERRE LEGUILLON, FRANÇOIS LEMIEUX, ÉMILIE PARENDEAU, NICOLINE VAN HARSKAMP and RAINER OLDENDORF who presents a large painting made in collaboration with Concordia University and UQAM students.

The exhibition is an ongoing work inaugurated at the CAC Brétigny in 2011. In this installment, the curators DEAN INKSTER and SÉBASTIEN PLUOT collaborated with MICHÈLE THÉRIAULT to invite local and international artists, some already involved in the initial project, to contribute original or new works to continue the conversation on the contemporary significance raised by Christopher D’Arcangelo’s practice.

D’Arcangelo was concerned that his work for survival outside the boundaries of creating art should be included into his art practice. He earned a living as a carpenter and contractor renovating lofts in New York City. He achieved the integration of his two careers by creating detailed archives of the home renovation projects he did with Peter Nadin. When the projects were completed they would invite people to the "show". For this reason D'Arcangelo's work is only accessible through archives.

All this being said, I cannot help leaving the show with the sense that D’Arcangelo has once again been left out of the institution of art. For all his anarchic behavior, he was expressing a deep desire to belong to the art world. That is where he manifested his frustrations, where he subversively inserted his art, and where he was dragged away from. The art world does not look kindly on wannabes, which is probably what the experts of those times thought of him and his interventions. However now that he is gone, the experts can apply their own speculations and spins on what he intended to say, accomplish or become. He left us too young and under much too tragic circumstances to put his own original concepts into the larger context of the complex world of art and politics. Now professionals who are well integrated in the institutional art world against which he was protesting are forming conclusions for him, earning a good living in the process, producing clean conceptual art that merely echoes the original ardor the artist stood for. Some professionals are teaching the rebellious concepts to current art students who are not out breaking stifling rules or questioning them, they are safely taking notes from the establishment and acting along already defined parameters.

The show is on until October 26 2013
www.ellengallery.concordia.ca
http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/en/expositions_darcangelo.php

-LENA GHIO

Water, Consciousness and the Prophecies of Nostradamus

Emerge Art © Lena Ghio, 2013

FRANÇAIS app de traduction à gauche

PART 1: WATER  

July 23 2013 I intended to work on watercolors. I began the day setting up exercises to warm me up and spark my inspiration. I prepared an installation with several OMIs and a bowl of water. I have always been fascinated with the refraction of light and color in glass and water. I proceeded to sketch the composition when it occurred to me that I could photograph it and exercise from the photos. I got my camera, took several shots and proceeded to download the images so I could pick a few to work on. Suddenly an unexpected phenomena stunned me!

Inside the water images of people, places, animals, nature spirits and angels had emerged!

After a few weeks I developed a process of working with the photographs so the mysterious phenomena inside the water could be revealed. For the content to be visible I need to photograph the water without a flash. When I open the image with Photoshop the bowl can be quite dark. In the example below, you can see the five steps I took to create the final image, the one of the puppy on top. I had noticed a vaguely white form resembling a dog inside the bowl before taking the photo, but it was only after the first screening that I was shocked to see that what I had observed in a flash was correct: there was a dog shape emerging from the water.

The first few images showed me another startling feature that I call vignettes. They appear like tiny storyboards inside the water bowl. The first two photos I shot provide a perfect example. You have from left to right, the original image, the same image screened , a crop of the upper right hand corner of the bowl from the image that has been screened, the second image taken 10 seconds later screened, and a crop of the second image's upper right hand corner of the bowl. In the first one, a man appears to be sitting in a bar or a café. His head is split in two directions. This gives us the impression that he is conflicted, trying to make up his mind. In the second shot, taken 10 seconds later, he is putting on his jacket and leaving!

One would expect that whatever is refracted in the water would remain stable for two shots. But the evidence shows us that even the content of water is affected by the speed of the Earth's rotation and the effect of the natural light as it bends to this endless motion. Since then I have taken many photos and observed that they do not all manifest complex images. Many photos are what I expected to find in the first place, naturally occurring refraction of light and objects. Some photos are cloudy or jumbled. Then there are those that reveal stunning complex compositions like the image below that is entitled The Angel and the Man. I am sharing this mysterious phenomena that my art practice has revealed with you but for now I am still in the experimental and research mode. The art world has also remained unable to characterize my work to this date.

 Part 2: Consciousness / 2e Partie: La Conscience
Part 3: Nostradamus / 3e Partie: Nostradamus

-LENA GHIO

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