2001 - 2002 PROGRAMMING — Galerie VAV Gallery

GALERIE VAV GALLERY

2001 - 2002 PROGRAMMING

TRES (THREE FOREIGN PERSPECTIVES)

tres is an exhibition that groups the work of three Iberamerican artists working in Montreal.

Through video-installations, photography and writing, the author take the banal moments of their everyday wanderings and deconstruct them (extracting the essence that gives life and meaning to broken and work out objects, empty highways, dead rabbits, a tree or a pile of photographs). Yuri Berger, Vítor e. Rodríguez Barca and Nicolás Villegas-Hernández make an attempt to portray their personal experiences for a new audience, as they search for meanings in the images and sounds of their homelands.

tres is also an attempt to bridge the gap between cultures, or even the opposite, to show that such a cultural gap, experienced by the exile (whether forced or voluntary) is never fully bridged, and all that is left is an unsettling feeling of discomfort; both the artist and the viewer remain lost in the clash with everyday reality.

The artists have decided to pick the banal moments of their wanderings and crumble them, to extract the essence that gives life to broken and worn out objects, to an empty highway, a dead rabbit, to a tree or a pile of photographs. It is also an attempt to bridge the gap between cultures, or even the opposite, to show that such a cultural gap experienced by the exile (whether forced or voluntary) is never fully bridged, and all that is left is an unsettling feeling of discomfort; both the artist and the viewer remain lost in the clashing of the experience with everyday reality.

The exhibition will be open from April 30 to May 5, 2001 between 10:00 am and 9:00pm. There will be a vernissage on May 18, 2001, at 7:00pm, where the artists will be in attendance.

EXHIBITION: APR 30 - MAY 5, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 1

GROUP
NICOLÁS VILLEGAS-HERNÁNDES
VITOR RODRÍGUEZ BARCA
YURI BERGER

Yuri Berger, Vítor e. Rodríguez Barca and Nicolás Villegas-Hernández, Tres (Three Foreign Perspectives), 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Tres (Three Foreign Perspectives), 2001.

BLANC CASSANT

VAV Gallery presents:

BLANC CASSANT
May 6th to 26th, 2001

Cynthia Dinan-Mitchell
Véronique La Perrière
Amélie Pomerleau

OFF WHITE is a collaborative show between three young artists. They will be presenting prints, sculptures and installations. The title of the exhibition refers to the qualities of a color that is the result of aging or over use. The color title depicts a sensitivity and delicateness towards material while evoking tension that is common to each individual's artistic preoccupation.

Cynthia Dinan Mitchell's work entails a research in print for visual sensitivity. The pieces are large acrylic and water based mono-prints done in screen-printing. The prints represent a purely formal close up of texture and color.

In the form of wall installations and projected images, Véronique La Perrière's recent work deals with souvenirs, that of childhood and of memory Her work questions the interplay between past and present and how the present is a construct of the past due to sensitive recordings through the accumulation of souvenirs.

Inspired by biblical references, Amélie Pomerleau's sculptural work delicately reinterprets and positions old themes in practical and contemporary form.

The three artists are originally from Quebec City but are currently finishing their Bachelors of Fine Arts at Concordia University.

Opening the 8th of May at 19h

EXHIBITION: MAY 6 - 26, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 8

GROUP
VERONIQUE LAPERRIERE ARCOUX
AMELIE POMERLEAU
CYNTHIA D. MITCHELL

Cynthia Dinan-Mitchell, Véronique La Perrière and Amélie Pomerleau, Blanc Cassant, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Blanc Cassant, 2001.

Cynthia Dinan-Mitchell, Véronique La Perrière and Amélie Pomerleau, Blanc Cassant, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Blanc Cassant, 2001.

PAINTINGS BY STÉPHANIE BERTRAND AND STÉPHANIE CHABOT

We both feel the need to represent our immediate environment and to situate our imagery in a present-day context. In our approach, we both project our personal and emotional response onto a chosen object or scene of urban life. This response can be motivated by memory and/or autobiographical issues. As a result, the controlled and the spontaneous, the constructed and the natural are forced to coexist and address each other, which creates a tension in our works. For example, in "View of Montreal with Bridge" (slide 3), though the work represents a cityscape, the expressive manner in which it is depicted defies urban structure. Furthermore, in "The Four Seasons" (slide 8), the title emphasizes the tension between the painting and its subject matter.

Painting is our unique mode of artistic expression and we both value the tradition this medium carries. We decided to exhibit together because we want to call attention to the painterly aspect of our works. The main reason why we want to exhibit in the VAV Gallery is to show our work to the students and faculty members with whom we work and evolve in our practice. We both feel that we have found a sense of direction in our work and hope, with this exhibition, to create a stimulating environment of exchange on
painting.

EXHIBITION: JUN 18 - 30, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: JUN 23

DUO
STÉPHANIE BERTRAND
STÉPHANIE CHABOT

Stéphanie Bertrand and Stéphanie Chabot, Paintings by Stéphanie Bertrand and Stéphanie Chabot, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Paintings by Stéphanie Bertrand and Stéphanie Chabot, 2001.

Stephanie Bertrand
2001

My work is centered around the theme of familiar landscape. There has been an important tradition of landscape painting in Canada, dealing especially with national identity and environmental concern. Though I am aware of these issues, my work is more personal. I represent urban scenes from Montreal and its surroundings, which are places that I have seen ever since I was a child. Though these places have been backdrops to incidents throughout my life, they are at the forefront of my images. They encompass my recollections of events that have taken place there. They are interior landscapes as opposed to the impenetrable, exterior nature scenes of the Group of Seven; not only are my images contained within the island, or views of the island of Montreal, my birth place, they are reconstructions from various memories. This explains the thickness of the paint. It signifies both my struggle to get the image right, as well as an indication of the layers of meaning that I attribute to these places. Most of my pictures are somewhat abstracted yet they have an important element of figuration. This creates a dichotomy between the emotional, expressive nature of my marks, rendering elements of the view metaphorical, and the references to the actual scene represented.

Stephanie Chabot
2001

My work addresses aspects of modern life in relation to ideals, dreams, passion and memory. While the paintings act as a window onto a world, dislocation and fragmentation is emphasized by contrasts in scale, depiction styles and "real" and imaginary spaces. Objects of urban life such as cars or buildings often represent an established structure while the expressionist approach reveals what that same object or structure cannot contain. In some cases animals coexist with urban reality, representing an invisible and uncontrollable force. A dialogue between the tamed and the untamed, social order and explosive energy is engaged and as a result issues of modernity, gender and upbringing are being addressed. Oil paint is my chosen medium and the support varies according to size, process and subject matter.

PAINT! AN ABSTRACT VIEW OF MATERIALS

Paint

The idea behind the exhibition paint is a visual exploration of our process in painting. Most all of the works shown here are not representational to exploit the properties of the paint and the process of the painter. The collective pieces do not follow any theme other than that of the physically of paint. Its goal to demonstrate that the artist's placement of objects, patterns, brushstrokes and colours of paint are the only single visual stimuli giving the viewer the choice to interpret the piece on their own. The titles of each painting only adds another piece to the puzzle, but does not state a specific meaning, again allowing more room for interpretation. Allowing the viewer to explore visually how paint and the artist create depth of field, the texture of the surface, the combination of colours, which results in viewers particular likes and dislikes of their own personal association to the work.

EXHIBITION: JULY 12 - 17, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

DUO
MIGUEL RIOUX
KATSUMI BRUCE KIMOTO

Miguel Rioux and Katsumi Bruce Kimoto, Paint! An Abstract View of Materials, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Paint! An Abstract View of Materials, 2001.

TEAM FRENCHIE

EN
Montreal, July 16th 2001

VAV GALLERY
is pleased to present the exhibition

Team Frenchie at the VAV
by young artists
Dan Brault, Annie Descôteaux, Nicolas Fleming, Daphné Karras and Julie Lequin

July 23rd to August 3rd, 2001
Opening on Tuesday, July 24th 2001 at 7pm

Materials and interests of the five artists are very distincts. A multidisciplinary practice and a desire towards openness comment the event. The young artists confront their most recent pieces in a common space. Formalist research wether it be installation or pictoral are neighbours to photographic experiments with slight connotation and strongly narrative, as well as little secrets surprisingly transparent and full of irony.

These diverse pieces demonstrate the different processes explored by each artist and their questioning and reflexion on art and culture but also on the everyday.

The public is invited to come and talk with the artists on July 24th, 2001 for the opening.

Team Fenchie united in order to celebrate a few years of working side by side.
The artists have completed or will soon end their stay at Concordia University in Montreal.

Lauren Nurse and Beth Stuart, VAV Gallery co-directors.
GALERIE VAV GALLERY
1395, Rene-Levesque W., Montreal, Quebec H3G 2M5

FR
Montréal, 16 juillet 2001

La Galerie VAV
présente

Team Frenchie at the VAV
Oeuvres d'artistes de la relève
Dan Brault, Annie Descôteaux, Nicolas Fleming, Daphné Karras et Julie Lequin

23 juillet au 3 août 2001
Vernissage mardi, le 24 juillet 2001 de 19 à 22 hrs.

Dan Brault, Annie Descôteaux, Nicolas Fleming, Daphné Karras and Julie Lequin, Team Frenchie, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Team Frenchie, 2001.

Les matériaux et intérêts des cinq artistes varient énormément. La pratique multidisciplinaire et le désir d' ouverture caractérisent ainsi l'événement. C'est l'occasion pour ces jeunes de confronter dans un même espace leurs plus récentes productions. Des recherches formalistes, maniées en installations ou procédés picturaux, côtoient des expérimentations photographiques plutôt connotées et fortement narratives, ainsi que de petits secrets étonnamment transparents, remplis d'ironie et de candeur. Ces oeuvres diversifiées témoignent des parcours empruntés par chacun et sont, par leurs questionnements, des propositions et réflexions menées à la fois sur l'art et la culture, mais également sur le quotidien.

Le public est invité à rencontrer les artistes le soir du vernissage.

Ce collectif est formé exceptionnellement afin de célébrer et clore des années d'échanges et de collaborations entre ces artistes.
Ils complètent ou ont terminé leur baccalauréat, avec Majeur studio arts, à l'Université Concordia de Montréal.

Lauren Nurse et Beth Stuart, co-directrices de la Galerie VAV.
GALERIE VAV GALLERY
1395, René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, Québec H3G 2M5

EXHIBITION: JULY 23 - AUG 3, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: JULY 24

GROUP
DAN BRAULT
ANNIE DESCOTEAUX
NICOLAS FLEMING
DAPHNE KARRAS
JULIE LEQUIN

Dan Brault, Annie Descôteaux, Nicolas Fleming, Daphné Karras and Julie Lequin, Team Frenchie, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Team Frenchie, 2001.

[UNTITLED]

EXHIBITION: JULY 23 - AUG 3, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
HAIG AIVAZIAN
REMI ARORA
MELANIE AUTHIER
STEPHANIE BERTRAND
NICOLAS BEAUPRE
MAYA BOWERING
CARRIE BRADISH
LOUIS-PHILIPPE COTE
MICHAEL FARNAN
SANDRA GOLDIELAN HEMINGWAY
CLARK HODGSON
NALEDI JACKSON
ALLISON KATZ
JENNIFER LEFORT
HOANG NGUYEN
PAHL O’DONNEL
NATALIE REIS
JEAN RIDDLE
EMILIE RONDEAU
MICHEALA SLIPP

[Untitled], 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

[Untitled], 2001.

[Untitled], 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

[Untitled], 2001.

THIS IS.

Friday September 7th, 2001

VAV Gallery

This is., an exhibit introducing ideas of alternate realities and abstract space, has been put together by two emerging Canadian artists, Jennifer Lefort and Shannon Pawliw.

Jennifer Lefort's latest work is a series of large scale gestural paintings, objectifying space through abstraction and mark making. Ribbons of colour weaving their way back and forth through the environment created by the artist.

The installation by Shannon Pawliw addresses human attachment to material possessions and the potential fantasies that may be created around items that have been discarded. Pawliw has created an alternate reality of fictional memories through a collection of objects, clothing and photos.

This is.

This is. will be held at the VAV Gallery, 1395 Blvd. Rene Levesque, from September 16th to the 22nd. The opening is on Tuesday the 18th of September from 19h to 22h.

EXHIBITION: SEPT 16 - 22, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: SEPT 18

DUO
JENNIFER LEFORT
SHANNON PAWLIW

Jennifer Lefort and Shannon Pawliw, This Is., 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Jennifer Lefort and Shannon Pawliw, This Is., 2001.

GARDEN PARTY

EXHIBITION: SEPT 20, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
DIDI BEIGNE
THE UNICORNS
COBRA
DJ GREENSWEATER

GALÉRIE VAV GALLERY
Concordia University
1395, René Lévesque W. Montreal, Quebec H3G 2M5

Project name: VAV Gallery Welcome Week / Garden Party
Department/Association: VAV Gallery
Contact Person: Lauren Nurse

Person responsible for this project or event: Lauren Nurse and Beth Stuart, Gallery Co-Directors

The project will consist of a Welcome Week event held in the VAV building courtyard (corner of Rene-Levesque and Crescent) on Thursday, September 20th.

The VAV Gallery will officially launch its programming season by inviting new and returning students to socialize and enjoy food, drinks, live music, and pertormances.

Gallery staff and volunteers will greet new students and distribute promotional material describing the gallery programming, mandate, and services for the years 2001-2002. Members of various student associations and services such as the People's Potato, Reading Room, Rose cafe and Slide Library) will be present to promote their services.

Following last years' tradition, the event will be held outside, in the VA building courtyard. Our theme this year will be that of a garden party, and students will be encouraged to attend in formal dress. Gallery employees, volunteers, food servers and other members of the Concordia community will be in costume, A welcome dinner will be held under a 20 x 20 foot tent, and will be catered by Concordia's own food collective, the People's Potato. Various student organizations such as the CSU, Right to Move, pirg, and the Blood Sisters have been invited to participate and distribute information. Three art collectives composed of Fine Arts students will perform music and video performances that evening.

The main event will take place over the course of one afternoon and evening. However, the gallery will be producing promotional materials for distribution to new students throughout the first two weeks of September. This material will consist of posters and pamphlets describing the VAV's programming and mandate for the 2001-2002 year, and outlining the various ways in which new students can participate in the Gallery's activities and exhibitions. It will also include a call for submissions to the gallery annual publication, and important information about awards, submission deadlines for artist-run centres, dates for the gallery's protessional development workshops, etc.

The project will enhance the transition and first year experience of new students by providing them with an opportunity to participate more fully in Concordia's Fine Arts community. The events of September 2oth will provide a social basis for new students to get to know each other and break the isolation that often accompanies first year studies.

The intended participants are new students and returning Fine Arts students. Non-Fine Arts students will also be encouraged to attend through promotional posters and flyers distributed throughout all Concordia campuses. The event will also be announced during classes by faculty members, and press releases will be sent to Concordia publications such as the Link, and the Thursday report.

The VAV Gallery plays an important role in supporting student s, as it most often serves as a first exhibition venue for these emerging artists. Promotional material will ensure that students are aware of upcoming exhibitions and submission deadlines; of social events such as vernissages; of volunteer opportunities juries, etc.); and of workshops, artist talks, etc. Finally, the project will help introduce new students to the services of other Fine Arts students associations. In this way the project is also designed to help integrate new students into the VAV and the greater Fine Arts community, all the while providing them with protessional experience thai will assist them in their future artistic careers.

STILLS

Stills,
Sept. 22-28, 2001

The aim of this exhibition is to showcase art derived from animated films, to display stills from films as art objects that function on their own, and to contrast the 2D work with the actual films. The importance is to capture pictures that could not be created with out the connection to time, narrative, movement, and transition. The large printouts displayed in this show are only one twenty fourth of a second from each film. Stripped of their context and original form they hold an ambiguous intrigue.

These are not just film stills or photographic stills, (which can display a similar aesthetic), but are animated film stills which hold moments where representations are exaggerated, highly subjective, stylized, or where special effects have taken place, thus if the animated film is frozen at specific moments the imagery is given an extraordinary quality. "Stills" focuses on moments of ambiguity, fleeting subjective pictures that have been frozen to reveal their character developed out of the limitless art form of animated film.

EXHIBITION: SEPT 24 - 28, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: SEPT 25

GROUP
THE ARCADE FIRE
SAM EMIOJOHAN
BRIGITTE ARCHAMBAULT
MANUEL VALLELUNGA
JASON GOUGEN
JOHANNE STE-MARIE
GUILLAUME TURCOTTE
SHELTON DEVERE
JACK KHOURI
DARREN PARSEMKO

Stills, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Stills, 2001.

MONTREZ-NOUS UN PEU DE PEAU

Montre Moi Un Peu de Peau/Show Me Some Skin
Allison Katz

My older sister is a sailor.
I threw up after twenty minutes on a waterbed

The distinction is necessary to understand the nature of our relationship: that of opposites. In an effort to find out who she is, I ask about her life at sea. I am shown pictures of the most recent sail throughout the Caribbean. Immediately I am drawn to the image of West Indian sailors in black and white striped shirts, parading on deck, dwarfing the pale figures of my sister and the other two women in their white uniforms. The formal contrast of black and white stripes is graphic and bold, and exciting for its power of expressing polarity, pattern and conflict in minimal terms.

While in Italy, I was repeatedly drawn to early Christian images of the Baptism. In Ravenna, a tiny ivory carving attempting to show the Christ submerged resorts to inscribing horizontal lines across his legs, as though he were wearing striped pants. The instinct to simplify a very complicated visual pattern (that of someone under water) leads to abstraction, pattern, code. Stripes thereby index water. The sailor's shirt becomes a manifestation of her surroundings, a visual reminder that she is at sea. The figures are abstracted by their uniforms; repetition in one's man shirt, multiplied by a cluster of men, suggests a design that reflects the rhythm of the waves.

Water, sailors, the ocean, the beach: an alternate reality that hangs suspended over the more earthy values of weekdays and winter nights. The bourgeois obsession with the idea of a vacation as the requirement for peaceful relaxation. I paint the family trips to Florida, when my father is happiest, away from the machines at work, surrounded by his wife and daughters. My sisters tan, my mother wears skirts. While both frequent the same seascape, the characters of the sailor and the bather commit to opposing purposes: the sailor works, the bather plays. The sailor is brave and romantic in her interaction with the sea; the bather uses water like Narcissus: for vanity, for fear, he stays at the edges.

EXHIBITION: OCT 1 - 6, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: OCT 2

DUO
ALLISON KATZ
DAVID LAFRANCE

Allison Katz and David LaFrance, Montrez-bous un peu de peau, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Allison Katz, Montrez-bous un peu de peau, 2001.

David Lafrance, 2001.

Where are we? Wrapped up in muscles, seduced by plastic- is there someone inside the body.

Since the very beginning humans have been at war. This state creates winners and losers. By contrast there is love and carnal pleasure. Strangeness, a form of contact with ourselves and each other, an experience with our intimate secrets. In my art, time is up for confrontation. Rather than words, a crash of bodies express ideas of beauty, what is bad, what is good. In this realm wrestling matches and love making are equal. I am puting myself in an ambivalent position by working on two extreme themes simultaneously; wrestling as a symbol of violence and pornography as a symbol of love.

Figuring the body in an abstract choreography questions our need for competition and call attention to the dubious forms that love can take, the ambiguity of our relations and the infamous dichotomy of love and hate. By addressing two conflicting levels of emotion in the same work of art, everything becomes possible for the viewer. Nothing is clear even when it is detailed: expressive portraits, colors contrasts or well painted skin. All is open, the public must add their own variations, create an introduction or put an end to something in movement. The viewer must assert his of her own position within this chaos by defining the boundaries of aggression and seduction. The subject of these paintings circulate around the destruction and construction of the body.

David LaFrance, Montrez-bous un peu de peau, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

David LaFrance, Montrez-bous un peu de peau, 2001.

FEED ME...ART

EN
An exhibition of Kim Ilhareguy's sculptures and Claude Tessier's acrylics will be held at the VAV gallery of Concordia University, 1395 René Lévesque west in Montreal between October 14 and 20 2001.

The opening is on October 16, at 19:00

FR
Une exposition des sculptures de Kim Ilhareguy et des tableaux de Claude Tessier se tiendra à la galerie VAV de l'Université Concordia, 1395 ouest, René Lévesque, du 14 au 20 octobre 2001.

Le vernissage aura lieu le mardi, 16 octobre, de 19:00 à 22:00 heures.

EXHIBITION: OCT 14 - 20, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: OCT 16

DUO
KIM ILHAREGUY
CLAUDE TESSIER

Kim Ilhareguy and Claude Tessier, Feed Me...Art, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Kim Ilhareguy and Claude Tessier, Feed Me...Art, 2001.

Feed Me

La bouche est le lieu le plus sacré et le plus profane à la fois . De mordre à vomir, de gentiment sourrire à lécher vicieusement la bouche est la porte de l'appétit et du dégout. La bouche est une entité indépendante (enfin, la mienne !) La grande vorace tente milles moues et sourires pour attirer les regards ou choquer l'oreille. Tant de simagrés pour se sustenter , se gaver, se nourrir du regards des autres, de l'attention des autres. Sa satisfaction vicieuse à bouffer de l'energie sexuelle , amoureuse , amicale peu importe il faut se gaver... Choquant , seulement si on n'admet pas que nos instincts nous échappent parfois. La bouche est l'image de la prédominance de ceux-ci. Gourmandise...

Une émotion passe, un tableau apparaît

Le pinceau me permet d'exprimer des émotions et la couleur représente pour moi un chemin vers l'infini. Je pose la couleur sans dessin préalable pour me guider et je chercher à créer une atmosphère. Mes toiles deviennent habitables quand la lumière les pénètre.

Comme je ne sais jamais à l'avance ce que je vais produire, ce qui compte, c'est que j'arrive à exprimer ce que je sens à un moment précis. Chaque tableau a sa propre vie, sa propre émotion.

Kim Ilhareguy and Claude Tessier, Feed Me...Art, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Kim Ilhareguy and Claude Tessier, Feed Me...Art, 2001.

UNNECESSARY ROUGHNESS

Hazel Meyer and Richard Parry present Unnecessary Roughness at Galerie VAV Gallery, 1395 Rene Levesque W. October 29 - November 2, Vernissage Tuesday October 30, 7pm.

Unnecessary Roughness is an audio-intestinal sports opera: a multi-disciplinary performance experience, aiming to redefine gallery space and draw links between mass sports culture and internal organs; linking the cultural to the corporeal. This week-long show will be set inside the VAV Gallery, on a downscaled football field (endzones, bleachers and side benches included). The show will include the knitting of a football field-length replica of an intestine, continuously changing, self-arranging soundscapes and anthems, daily knitting machine and double bass musical duets on the field, as well as video and slide projections, referees and huge mobs of sports fans. The vernissage wil include all of the above mentioned happenings, as well as free beer and hot dogs, and performances by a cheerleading squad and a marching band. Come out and show your team spirit. GO TEAM!!.

EXHIBITION: OCT 29 - NOV 3, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: OCT 30

DUO
HAZEL MEYER
RICHARD PARRY

Hazel Meyer and Richard Parry, Unnecessary Roughness, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Hazel Meyer and Richard Perry, Unnecessary Roughness, 2001.

Note: (The text and images provided above and below do not correspond directly to the slides presented. They are included solely to showcase the artists’ written documentation).

Unnecessary Roughness
an audio intestinal sports opera
October 29th- November 3rd, 2001
Galerie VAV Gallery
Hazel Meyer and Richard Parry

Field goal Uncontrol Punting without a ball
Intestinal malaise Football days A juxtaposition without relief
An interrupted view A play gone askew There's a colon on the field
Reassess what you see And come close to me Necessity wins the game

These slides document a week long Gesamkunstwerk. For this reason, slide documentation only captures a small breathe of what this show sought to create. Not being able to smell the cool fresh smell of grass emanating into the stale halls of Concordia is really not being able to experience the show at all. But that's unfair. So, while viewing these slides please imagine yourself having just followed your nose to the entrance of the gallery, and upon entering, being accosted by a larger than life slide projected referee signaling diarrhea warnings and touch downs. To your side, standing in dangerous opposition is a bully sized goal post made out of drain pipes and a knitted intestine that could house enough sausage for all of Montreal. Further gallery a video projected crowd cheers relentlessly, while a trio of horn speakers externalize the symphony intestinal unrest can cause. Part Fantastic Voyage, part NFL showdown, Unnecessary Roughness sought to appropriate and replicate venues of cultural and corporeal misunderstanding, thus attempting to demystify one with the familiarity of the other: digestion as a touch down, diarrhea as a time out, and an ulcer as a serious call of unnecessary roughness.

Slide one
view from entrance
sod, PVC tubing, knitted cotton, Gearhart knitting machine, side benches, music stand, (out of sight, not mind) horn speakers, slide projection, video projection, bleachers

Slide two
view towards entrance

Slide three
view of goal post and bleachers with video projected crowd

Slide four
(we are all about intestinal misconceptions),
one of the three side benches painted with our inspiring slogans the others included:
we are all about the cultural and the corporeal
we are all about turf

Slide five
detail of the 110 yard plus two end fields long knitted intestine, painted field marks and sod

Slide six
the players
Hazel Meyer- Gearhart Knitting Machine
Richard Parry- Double Bass
duets were played through out the week, in which Hazel would increase the length of the intestine while Richard would create sounds of the intestinally defunct

Slide seven
home game
the vernissage brought together a plethora of football necessities such as a marching band, referee, cheerleaders (The Ulcerettes), concession stand operators, beer n' hotdogs and two players

PRESS

IS IT ART?
MIRROR
October 25 - 31, 2001
p.67

Gonna make you sweat: the wide world of sports rarely instersects with the art world. Dedicated art snobs generally steer clear of stadium sports events and rarely is a jockstrap-type spotted within the confines of a hoity-toity gallery. Unnecessary Roughness, Hazel Myer and Richard Parry’s “audio-intestinal-sports-opera,” has come along to change all that. Combining the thrill-a-minute, ultra-physical, heart-pumping action of a major-league sports event with the cheekiness and ingenuity of contemporary art installation, it should be a hoot! Some highlights: a huge, knitted intestine, a mini-football field, music, slide projections, video, cheerleaders and a marching band! Oct. 29 - Nov. 2 at the VAV Gallery (1395 Rene Levesque W.), vernissage Oct. 30, 7 p.m. (free hot dogs and beer!).

Hazel Meyer and Richard Perry, Unnecessary Roughness, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Hazel Meyer and Richard Perry, Unnecessary Roughness, 2001.

GODLINESS IS NEXT TO CLEANLINESS

EXHIBITION: NOV 11 - 18, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: NOV 13

DUO
JESSICA ALICE MACCORMACK
CHAD LEE YOSHIO SATA

N/A

PERFORMANCE WEEK

the symbol formerly known as
{PERFORMANCE WEEK}

November 18-24, 2001
Vernissage Tuesday, November 20, 7pm
Galerie VAV Gallery
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
1395 RENE LEVESQUE W. MONTREAL H3G 2M5

November 5, 2001

VAV Gallery's 3rd annual PERFORMANCE WEEK is being held November 18-24, 2001. As in previous years the week is devoted to showcasing performance based as well cross-disciplinary work. This event, with contributions from visiting and resident artists in the Montreal community, and students from a range of disciplines, is dedicated to the ephemeral, spontaneous, tactile, interactive nature of performance art.

This year's PERFORMANCE WEEK will feature programming by visiting curators Jessica MacCormack and Zoe Kreye. Programming will include:

electro-acoustic vocal manipulations
public memory exchange
venomous Cobra attacks
office workers in bubbles.

Devora Neumark is giving a performance workshop exploring public gestures and care. Kinga Araya and Karen Spencer are giving exchange-based artists talks. Nadia Myer is also inviting students to assist her in beading the Indian Act, which will be shown at Oboro Gallery next year and Mindy Yan Miller is (re)performing a "Coke Dump". Graffiti artist Luke and members of the all women breakdance troop Solid State will be performing with a live DJ.

Please consider including these artists and events in your next issue. Accompanying this letter is the PERFORMANCE WEEK schedule and invitation.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Zoë Kreye & Jessica MacCormack

Guest Curators, PERFORMANCE WEEK

EXHIBITION: NOV 18 - 24, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: NOV 20

CURATION
ZOË KREYE
JESSICA MACCORMACK

GROUP
KAREN SPENCER
JEN RAZO
KINGA ARAYA
COBRA
MINDY YAN MILLER
ADAD HANNAH
DEVORA NEUMARK
MICHAEL DOERKSON
BRIDGETTE DAJCZER
LUKE
NADELI JACKSON
BERANGERE PARIZEAU
MEL AUTHIER
CHLOE GERMAIN
JENNIFER VIVIAN
AMY DROVER
ROBIN SIMPSON
JONATHAN SHATZKY
BOO JUPITER
NESSA PALMER
CHANG NOTHING
JULIE LASSONDE
MATT LAW
JESSICA MACCORMACK
ZOE KREYE
TANIA HVERTA
DID BEIGNES
NED SCHWARTZ
BOB ROSS
SOLID STATE

Third Annual Performance Week Funding Application/2001-2002
November 18th to 24th, 2001

Performance Week will be a weeklong exhibition in the VAV Gallery devoted to showcasing an array of artistic talent at Concordia in the performing arts. Scheduled performances will take place in the gallery throughout the week, featuring students from Music, Dance, Theater and Interdisciplinary studies. The performing arts are currently underrepresented at the downtown campus as well as at the VAV Gallery, due to the fact that these departments and facilities are located at Loyola. This event will serve to address this problem, as well as providing a venue for showcasing the talent of the Concordia Fine Arts community.

We have taken steps to ensure that, as well as providing a service to Concordia students, Performance week will be an attraction to the broader Montreal community and create publicity for the University itself. We have sought publicity in a number of periodicals including a feature advertisement in the November 17 issue of Saturday Night Magazine as part of an Absolute Vodka arts event feature.

During the week of November 18th to the 24* the VAV Gallery will be a space for an open forum of performance art. Throughout the five days of Performance Week, student work will be displayed and performed, as well there will be performances and artists talks by professional artists from the community. This is an important experience for young artists to strengthen and push the boundaries of their work by engaging with student artists from other disciplines, artists from the community and the public as viewers. This opportunity for exchange is rare in the Concordia student community and it is essential for students to have this chance.

The week is organized so that there is ongoing student performances happening in the gallery throughout the week. This will be in the form of installations, scheduled daily performances, time-based performances spanning the whole five days, spontaneous collaboration and video presentation. There will be two artists talks and two evening performance events, where professional artists will be showcased. The vernissage will include guest performances by visiting artists Adad Hannah of the Human Faux Pas and Calgary based Brigette Dacer, both of whom are currently in the Open Media Graduate Program. Other visiting artists from the community include performance artist Devora Neumark, recently feared in Parachute magazine; Nadia Meyers currently working on beading the Indian Act; Karen Spencer, a Montreal based artist who recently performed Rambling Man' for Gallery DareDare; Kinga Araya, who has performed internationally and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Concordia; Luke, a Montreal based graffiti artist will perform in collaboration with members from the all female breakdance group, Solid State. Possible other artists, depending on the generosity of funding parties, are Mindy Yan Miller, lowan Majdan, and Karen Guttman. By inviting guest artists to perform and give talks and workshops, Concordia students will have an opportunity to be exposed to a wide range of artistic practices in the performance community at large. Students will also have an opportunity to access networks and collaborations outside the academic setting.

Performance week will benefit the Concordia community in several ways. Above all, it will provide an important opportunity for fine art students at the Loyola and downtown campuses to collaborate and to perform their works for a diverse public audience. As stated above, Fine Arts students (in Music, Theatre, Performance, etc.) based at Loyola campus have far less access to the VAV Gallery by virtue of their distance from downtown. Performance week will enable students in these departments to create and perform original works, as well as to play an active role in organizing performance week. Students who study at the VA building will be able to present performance and time-based works, which are often difficult to perform outside the classroom due to a lack of appropriate venues and facilities. A result of the cross—pollination between departments in the Fine Arts will be a healthy degree of dialogue and collaboration among students from a range of disciplines at both campuses. This will benefit the Concordia community as greater links are forged among students, hopefully leading to future cross-disciplinary collaborations. Thanks especially to the Saturday Night Magazine/ Absolute Vodka feature, as well as the strength of the past two years events, Performance week will also attract attention to the University from the public at large, who will be able to see original and innovative works by Concordia students.

We would greatly appreciate and benefit from any financial contribution that you could make in helping fund this event. We are seeking funding from the CSU, CCSL, the Rector's Cabinet Special Projects Fund, FASA, and the heads of the Studio Arts departments. We are however still in need of your help to ensure that the event has adequate publicity, materials, equipment and vernissage. If you have any questions or would like more information about this event, do not hesitate to reach us via phone or e-mail.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Zoe Kreye and Jessica MacCormack.

{PERFORMANCE WEEK}

November 18-24, 2001
Vernissage Tuesday, November 20, 7pm

Throughout the week in the gallery,
Ongoing performance installations by Michael Doerkson, Jennifer Vivian, Matt Law, Tania Heurta, Nessa Palmer, and Chang Wong Wee.

Monday, Nov. 21
8pm
Boo Jupiter (comparison of early feminist movement with contemporary feminist concerns.

Tuesday, Nov. 20
12:30-2:30
*Devora Neumark* (performance workshop exploring public gestures and care)

7-10pm
Vernissage
Adad Hannah and Bridgette Dajczer, Berangere, Chloe Germain, Nothing, Mel (Are we consuming or being consumed?)

Wednesday, Nov.21
11-4pm
Nadia Myer (beading the Indian Act)

7-10pm
Amy Drover (take a swing at the PlayBoy bunny pinata), Valerie LaMontagne
*Karen Spencer* (artist talk - she works from a low/no tech perspective, and is currently exploring loitering and ramblin' as movements of intense pleasure and slight subversion.)

Thursday, Nov.22
10am-6pm
Naledi Jackson (healing intervention to address the current war situation)

5:30-6:30
*Mindy Yan Miller* (Coke Dump)

7-10pm
members of *Solid State & Luke * (performing a graffiti, break dancing extravaganza)
Jonathan Shatzky & Robin Simpson (2 handsome boys making harsh noise you can bring home to mom

Friday, Nov.23
12-5pm
Zoe Kreye (cushioning hearts for unhappy homes, in the courtyard)

ZERO_ONE

Zero_one was organized as an attempt to create an exhibition of 2-D digital work by a variety of undergraduate students from the studio arts department. By seeking a variety of examples of from studio arts, the organizers hoped to create a space for discussion and exploration of the different approaches to this very broad medium.

A jury of faculty members as well as the three students organizing the exhibition - Chris Heldt, Kate Greenslade and Anna Gunaratnam chose the submissions.

The exhibition ran from December 9th 2001 till December 15th 2001 in the VAV gallery.

EXHIBITION: DEC 10 - 15, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: DEC 11

GROUP
FELICITY TAYLOR
KATE GREENSLADE
KATRINA SUTCLIFFE
ART GRANHAM
LAURA MCDONALD
CYNTHIA EDOLH
CHRIS HELDT
MARILOU LEMMENS
ANNA GUNARATNAM
NICOLAS GRENIER
STÉPHANIE CARLE
RICHARD IBGHY
MARTIN SCHOP
ANNE RENÉE HOLTE
ETIENNE BELANGER
DENISE XENOS

Zero_one, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Zero_one, 2001.

LIST OF WORK

(Note: The list below is presented in no particular order and does not correspond to the image documentation)

· Felicity Taylor,“R", 2001, Independent Study.
· Kate Greenslade, Situation I and Situation II, Photography.
· Katrina Sutcliffe, Under Construction, Photography.
· Art Graham, Thank ya, thank ya very much and Ibid. (close-up), Photography.
· Laura McDonald, Untitled, Ibid. (close-up #1), and Ibid. (close-up #2), Art History.
· Cynthia Edoph, Fly Love, Ibid. (close-up #1), andIbid. (close-up #2), IDYS.
· Chris Heldt, Untitled, Photography/Design.
· Marilou Lemmens, Untitled, Ibid. (close-up #1), and Ibid. (close-up #2),
Photography.
· Anna Gunaratnam, Sri Lankan Reconstruction, Ibid. (close-up #1), and Ibid. (close-up #2), Photography.
· Nicholas Grenier, Alone with a bag, Painting and Drawing.
· Stéphanie Carle, Migrations, Ibid. (Full view), Ibid. (close-up #1), Ibid. (close-up #2), Ibid. (close-up #3), and Ibid. (close-up #4), Photography.
· Richard Ibghy, Aquariums.
· Martin Schop, Untitled, Ibid. (close-up #1), Ibid. (close-up #2), Ibid. (close-up #3), Ibid. (close-up #4), and Ibid. (close-up #5), Photography.
· Anne Renée Holte, Dimenti, Photography.
· Etienne Belanger, Division Novataire, Ibid. (close-up #1), and Ibid. (close-up #2), Photography.

· Denise Xenos, The Queen of the Night, Ibid. (close-up #L), and Ibid. (close-up #2), Studio Arts.

· Art Graham, Untitled, Ibid. (close-up #1), Ibid. (close-up #2), Ibid. (close-up #3), and Ibid. (close-up #4), Photography.

Zero_one, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Zero_one, 2001.

BETWEEN LAYERS

EN
Between Layers, an exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints by Fiona Smith and Jessie Brugger, will be showing at Concordia University's VAV Gallery from December 16" to 22nd The vernissage will be held on December 18th from 7-10 p.m. The gallery is located at 1395, René Levesque West, Montreal.

Vessels, hot air balloons, waiters, soldiers and shifting spaces are used to create images of freedom, beauty and tension.

FR
Between Layers est une exposition de peintures, de dessins et d'estampes exécutés par Fiona Smith et Jessie Brugger. L'exposition sera presentée a la Gallerie VAV, située au 1395, René Levesque Ouest, à Montréal et se déroulera du 16 au 22 décembre. Le vernissage sera le 18 décembre de 19h à 22h. L'exposition présentera des contenants, des montgolfières, des serveurs et des soldats utilisés pour créer des images de beauté, de tension et dse liberté.

EXHIBITION: DEC 16 - 22, 2001
OPENING RECEPTION: DEC 18

DUO
JESSIE BRUGGER
FIONA SMITH

Jessie Brugger, Between Layers, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Jessie Brugger, Between Layers, 2001.

Jessie Brugger
2001

Summer of 2000, I land myself a job at Cirque de Soleil, being an usher for the show Saltimbanco. I watch the circus show 59 times. September 2001, circus clowns mixed with army soldiers and parachutes appear in my paintings. I am influenced by my surroundings and my art reflects what is happening right now in my life and the world around me. I find myself asking questions constantly. Questions about society and the way the world works, questions about my life personally, questions about humans and the way we interact with one another and the world around us. I create art to keep my mind critical and creative. I want my art to challenge my viewer and my own thoughts. I am very influenced at this time in my life by other artists and images that affect me. Iric Rogoff writes about the affect of images and the way that images reflect "our experienced journey and our unconscious." Images surround us all the time and impact the way we think. My goal with the art I produce is to choose images that will set up a dialogue with my viewer in a way which will cause them to stop and reflect and think about a time in their life. The image doesn't have to impact them the way it has influenced me, but it must be an image that will cause any kind of reaction from my viewer. I try to create art that puts a twist on the normal or mundane taking images that are visually loaded to create a dialogue.

One influential and incredible artist that I admire is Coco Fusco, a speaker we were privileged to hear at a conference at the Contemporary art museum. Coco Fusco's work deals with exhibitionism and voyeurism. As a visual artist, I feel that every time you do a work of art you put yourself on display and ask for a response to your thoughts and images. Coco Fusco literally puts herself on display with her piece in which she dresses up as the "other." She takes on a persona of a primate and jumps around in a cage representing a character that we have created through imperialism. This image is on display for the viewer to critique and interact with, through a representation. Within my own work, I am trying to represent a question of certain events in my life through images that I feel are appropriate. I like to look closely at issues such as homelessness, the Catholic Church, gender, and war. I try to use images that are powerful and will catch the viewer's attention. I find that when I am addressing a certain issue it is not because I have a feeling of anger or hate with the issue, it is because I am questioning the issue.I do not understand why things are the way they are and through the use of images I want the viewer to also question why things are the way they are.

Coco Fusco writes in an article, "....Those are moments when I am glad that there are real bars. Those are also times when even though I know I can get out of the cage, I can never quite escape." This quote is in response to her interaction with a man who abused her rights as a human being. She speaks in this quote of her relation to her art work, that her art is also her life. I believe this response is very accurate to the way I work and create art. I become very involved in what I am doing that it is hard to separate what is art and what is my life. They are one and the same. My art becomes my thoughts, my words, and my actions. I too feel that as Coco used the metaphor of the cage, that I can get out the cage as well, but never really escape. I am using art as a tool to talk about issues that I do not have the power to completely change. I as an artist and person am part of a society that has so much power over my own destiny and choices. I can seek control and power, but I will always somehow have a couple strings attached like a puppet trying to get rid of its strings.

I also find the theorist Homi Baba very interesting. In his lecture he addressed the September 11' tragedy, talking about creation and constructing. He talked about the visions of the unbuilt and the need to wait and be patient. I feel that patience is an issue that I must deal with as an artist. I find myself reacting right away to an issue and saying something could be said a lot clearer with time and reflection. Homi Baba talked about process from the ground, "Even when we believe we are vainly standing at the top of the tower." To create an image that is profound and has impact it takes time and thought. There are times when I will create something within a few minutes and know it is right, but it is only because I have created that same image 100 times wrong previous to that image. In my art there are so many unbuilt images. So much I want to say, yet am trying to find the vocabulary and technical abilities to address those issues and images.

I feel like I am so new and young in the world of art and image making, I am taking on a trade that has existed for thousands of years. I find myself overwhelmed with history and technical opportunities to research and learn. Sometimes I wonder where other artists end and I begin. I can become so fascinated with another artist approach to image making and dealing with an issue, that I wonder how I can deal with that issue in a completely different way but yet address people and demand a reaction the way that that artists did it. I feel that in order for me to produce art that is educated and thought- provoking, I must be aware of the world around me. In order to be aware means that I have to live and experience life through my own eyes, letting my hands create what I am experiencing visually. I don't know the answers to my questions, but for me questions are more important right now than answers. It is through my questions that I have been able to explore different areas and parts of life that are important to me. Am I looking for an answer? Yes, I believe I am, but I also believe that my answer will come in the form of
another question.

Fiona Smith
2001

The human form is central to my work. In my images, I explore gestures and body language; I record movement, actions and labor.

I am interested in the idea of communication and in the possibility of distorting the human form to produce emotional impact. I have developed a series of images in which the body functions as a vessel with an interior and an exterior which are connected by actions such as speaking, breathing and eating.

Vessels as objects have also become important elements in my narratives, symbols for giving, receiving and containing. They are objects that can function as extensions of the human body and as elements within a theatrical setting. I am interested in developing narratives surrounding characters interacting with vessels in ambiguous settings. I am drawn to places where different realities collide.

I am interested in responding to observed realities, but also in working from my imagination. I want to create images that are in some sense general and universal, but that still have a personal feeling. I want to produce shifting, ambiguous spaces; images that work as a whole, but in which there is also tension between the elements.

Fiona Smith, Between Layers, 2001. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Fiona Smith, Between Layers, 2001.

INSTALATION PEINTURE

MOUVEMENT TOWARDS
RESEARCH FOR
DYNAMICS OF
FORCE IN
LINEOUT

painting as a space
painting as an experience
minimalism as a conscious aesthetic and philosophy above all, LOVE

EXHIBITION: JAN 7 - 11, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: JAN 8

GROUP
DAN BRAULT
HOANG NGUYEN
OSCAR VARESE

Dan Brault, Hoang Nguyen, and Oscar Varese, Instalation Peinture, 2002.Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Dan Brault, Hoang Nguyen, and Oscar Varese, Instalation Peinture, 2002.

Oscar Varese
2002

My artwork has gone through a number of changes over the years, but most recently finds it working on the abstract level. At first seeming like a drastic change from previous figurative work I came to realise that the minimalist paintings I'm now investigating hold the same formal issues and spiritual questionings that were always contained in the subconscious.

Breaking a constructed three dimensional shape with two contrasting colours the pieces aim to find a balance and harmony while at the same time subtly hinting at the unexpected or the unknown which lies underneath everything around us

Dan Brault, Hoang Nguyen, and Oscar Varese, Instalation Peinture, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Dan Brault, Hoang Nguyen, and Oscar Varese, Instalation Peinture, 2002.

STRUNG OUT

A body of wok

T oday
A nd
P erhaps
E ven
S ometime
T omorrow
R andom
Y arn

January 14th-19th, 2002
Concordia University, VAV Gallery
1395 Rene Levesque (corner of Crescent)
Monteal, Qc.

VERNISSAGE / Live performance / DJ evening
January 17h 5pm-11pm

Throughout the week artists will weave a collective body on a tapestry loom. This performative, durational piece, from traditional materials to innovative parts will blend and bleed into the final object to be raffled off at the end of the exhibition. Samples fill the space as participants weave.

Can tapestry weaving be contemporary through the process as well as the materials? Viewers are invited to exchange with the weavers, bring materials to be woven, suggest and participate.

Tapestry Raffle - $1
Supporting the Fibres Student Association.

PLEASE ANNOUNCE TO YOUR STUDENTS

The Fibres 240/B structures class are weaving a collective body on a tapestry loom all week in the VAV Gallery. We welcome all donations of interesting materials to enhance our tapestry. There is a drop off bin in the gallery. We are raffling off the completed tapestry at the end of the exhibit. Raffle tickets are $1. All revenu is going to the Fibres Student association. Ask the person weaving about it.

All fibres structures classes are presenting their weaving samples. If you have any samples (small size) come pin them up in the gallery and sign our participant list.

Thursday night from 5pm on there will be an opening reception with
DJ dance at 7pm and weaving until 11pm.
Come join us!

Strung Out, 2002, Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Strung Out, 2002,

We have a comment box and a participant's wall.
Come see what Fibres is up to now!

EXHIBITION: JAN 14 - 19, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: JAN 17

GROUP
VANESSA JOTHY
CHRISTINA KARAMALIS
HILA CHARSZAN
KAIME BAZAR
ISABELLE CHAPMAN
EROPHILI DEMOPOULOS
JENNIFER RASO
KIRSTEN BOEHM
BRIANNE BURNETT
MARIA-CHRISTINA PATTICHIS
EMILIE CARON
KIM WHITE
LEYLA GOODARZIFAR
SAMANTHA COMBALOZIER
BESSY MANDADIOTIS
KOPSCREW DJS

Strung Out, 2002, Click to expand the image

DOLL FACE

A SERIES OF 12 PORTRAIT PAINTINGS
CATTO V. HOUGHTON

The series of portrait paintings that I am currently involved in producing represents an amalgamation of my interests in the decorative arts, colour and structure, idealism and obsession, and melodrama. I am involved in a process of merging formal concerns such as structure and composition, application of colour, explorations in dynamism and movement versus static rigidity with notions of glamour, theatricality, satire, psychology and banality.

Formally, I am seeking to successfully integrate drawing and painting practices to create a balance between tension and harmony, surface versus depth, and complexity. I am interested in power, impact and intensity of colour, as well as aspects of design art, pop art, and conventional portraiture. This work represents my attempt to iconize the characters that I am painting by referencing both traditional approaches to portraiture and contemporary media/popular culture imagery. An important notion that I am seeking to explore within my work is the relationship between the repetitious banalities of the ordinary and the illusory ideals of fame and glamour.

EXHIBITION: JAN 21 - 26, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: JAN 22

DUO
HAIG AIVAZIAN
CATTO HOUGHTON

Catto V. Houghton and Haig Aivazian, A Series of 12 Portrait Paintings, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Catto V. Houghton and Haig Aivazian, A Series of 12 Portrait Paintings, 2002.

Haig Aivazian

Everything is inevitably a sign for something else in our visual society, yet no two people read a symbol in the same way. It is this ability to attribute personal meaning to signs that I explore in my work. I encourage the open-ended aspect of their reading by using mainly two methods of confusion:

· using signs that cannot be understood by most viewers, such as Arabic script for example.

· using comprehensible signs, but nullifying their content by taking them out of their context and pairing them up with equally out of place elements.
The result is a web of signs, a language of sorts, that is so vague and so open to interpretation that no viewer is able to come away with a satisfactory sense of understanding. The paintings could basically mean whatever one wants them to mean.

I, however, choose the elements on a canvas very precisely: they signify very personal and important aspects of my life. I try and choose symbols that are vague enough to reference more than one aspect of (my) reality. For example, a telephone could mean a lack of communication with a certain partner, or between two governments or two cultures... A red button could refer to intimacy (unbuttoning a shirt) or censorship (buttoning one's lip) or even aggressiveness(having one's finger on the button). These are just a few of the links that I make in my mind according to the reality I live(d) in knowing full well that the links made by others will differ according to their relationship with those elements.

My choice of signs is absolutely vital to me. I alienate the viewer: accentuate the differences between him/her and myself using a language that I know will not be understood by most. I provoke him/her by playing on cultural stereotypes. On the other hand, I open- up to the viewer putting myself in a vulnerable position, where personal issues are treated publicly. Those issues are dealt with, in a very vague fashion in order to bring out their universal aspect. What I am really trying to bring across is that despite all the differences (be they cultural or other) between the viewer and myself, there is a universal human condition which holds us all hostage.

In terms of the rythm created by the placement of the elements, I am most influenced by free jazz: a sort of stream of consciousness effect, composed of silent moments (or white spaces) of rythmic repetitions (visually translated by the same word repeated over and over again or by the gesso gestures of the ground) moments of peaking intensity ( highly rendered "juicy" and "high- profile" objects) as well as solos (I would say that my "poems" would fill- in the role of solos).

Jazz is also a source of inspiration for the way that its musicians have dealt with identity: referencing tradional music from their native land and and mixing it with jazz thus transforming both their culture of origin and the western culture which they were born into. it is this sort of exchange that I try and re-create in my work, coming up with a hybrid language, or a cultural bastard: This is the language that I speak.

Catto V. Houghton and Haig Aivazian, A Series of 12 Portrait Paintings, 2002. Click to expand the image

SEPARATE GROUNDS

Gallery VAV Gallery, E. Dawit L. Petros & Cynthia M. Edorh
Separate Grounds, An Exhibition of Photo Works

Mon. Feb.4-Sat. Feb.9
Opening Reception: Tue. Feb. 5th 7:00-9:00pm
1395 Rene Levesque W. (corner of Crescent)

Separate Grounds

The photo exhibition that is being displayed draws upon both of our diverse experiences and identities. At the center of the exhibition are issues of gender, masculinity, femininity, race, culture and the process through which these often conflicting demarcations are comprehended. An important element which threads through both the works are sets of propositons as opposed to final prescriptions. The propositions that are raised speak to the multiple modes of perception that exist within differing structures of community, society and ultimately individuality. The exhibition is composed largely of colour photographs though a small selection of black and white images will be included. Separate Grounds is composed of student works and is presented in conjunction with the student run VAV Gallery.

EXHIBITION: FEB 4 - 9, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: FEB 5

DUO
CYNTHIA M. EDORTH
DAWIT L. PETROS

Cynthia M. Edorth and Dawit L. Petros, Separate Grounds, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Cynthia M. Edorth and Dawit L. Petros, Separate Grounds, 2002.

separate grounds
Cynthia M. Edorh
e.Dawit L. Petros

A critical aspect of communities, societies and individuals, and which composes them, are numerous modes of perception. Perception shapes and informs our notions and understandings of reality. The manner in which individuals actively interact with the world, therefore, reflects the inherent differences and similarities that exist within the fabric of those societies and communities. Consequently, it follows that in order to appreciate the various layers composing the larger groupings, starting from family and extending outwards, it is necessary to appreciate the significance of the individual identity; what composes it and impacts upon it. To that end, the bodies of work, which are exhibited draw strongly upon our experiences and our diverse identities. A range of issues intersects within the works. The dynamics of cross cultural and gender politics, masculinity and femininity serve as a starting point for an ongoing process of critical engagement. Sets of propositions abound within the work and are offered as challenges to conventional perceptions that are created and perpetuated by fixed ways of looking and classifying. The means by which we attempt to comprehend the constructed demarcations and the dialogue that ensue, set the parameters within which the works are aimed. The images investigate these multitude of places from which a process of engaged and conscious comprehension of ourselves begins and continues. A strong belief that we share, present within both our works, is an awareness of the personal responsibility that we carry in terms of choosing to remain rooted within our various communities. These connections bear upon how we forge our identities. The result of having our feet simultaneously on separate grounds, as it were, has been an invaluable lesson towards the recognition of the multiplicity of individual and communal identity.

SPACKLE

EXHIBITION: FEB 10 - 16, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: FEB 12

GROUP
REMI ARORA
CLARK HODGSON
GRAHAM THOMPSON

Documentation for the artworks in this exhibition is not currently available; our archive contains only written statements.

Art Exhibit.
Spackle.

Remi Arora, Clark Hodgson, Graham Thompson.

VAV Gallery
1395 René Lévesque W.
Open to the Public
Opening: Feb. 12th 2002, 19:00
Runs: Feb. 10 - 16.

***

Spackle.

A group exhibit showcasing the selected works of artists from within Concordia University's Fine Arts Department, featuring works created using a variety of techniques and media. The work is multi-disciplinary based, incorporating skills acquired from Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking, Photography, Video and Electroacoustics, into a diverse yet cohesive installation.

Spackle, runs from Monday February 11th through February 16th 2002, at the VAV Gallery, 1395 René Lévesque, W, Montreal. The public is invited to attend the vernissage on Tuesday, Feb 12th from 19:00 till 22:00.

Remi Arora, Interdisciplinary Studies major, has selected works that transmit his interest in Process. His work focuses, primarily upon the relationship between object, theory, and the process of its realization. The influence of Combines, conceptualism, minimalism and a passion for the low-fi permeate his practice.

Clark Hodgson, a Studio Arts major, will exibit work that involves a wide range of materials including painting, intaglio prints, screen prints, photography and sculpture. Through the combination of these mediums he portrays instances of banal life which are often overlooked.

Graham Thompson, Printmaking major, is exhibiting a series of two and three dimensional works that display his interest in the relationship between music and art as an object. His work depicts the dichotomy between these methods of artmaking, and is influenced by his experience and theoretical background in both these fields.

Spackle, as a whole, has a broad range of thematic concerns, yet its integrity is maintained by the common aesthetic, shared by all three artists.

***

Graham Thompson
Spackle
February 10 - 16, 2002

The works I have chosen to exhibit encompass a range of ideas as well as mediums. I chose these works in attempt to strengthen the cohesive ‘multi-media’ exhibit. Spackle, by definition, is not found in the english dictionary, however I’ll assume that a “wall-filling compound” is definition enough.

Concerns dealt with in my work can be based on honesty. More specifically, a real approach to my feelings and thought process. This can be seen in the photographic works aswell as the print works.

The recording of any musical piece can never reach the quality of the live performance. As a musician and a printmaker I have made an attempt to convey this. Working within the monoprint process (non-silver traditional-print) is the most obvious answer I could find for the individuality of each print. A musician may play a well rehearsed piece several times in the same time signature aswell as with the same instrument, however never sound exactly the same. The hand, the feel and the emotion of the player are all factors that will change the piece.

Music Series prints are an attempt to activate an honest approach to understanding music itself. Without music and art, this world would be a mess.

Circles, Lights, and Spottings (silver gelatin prints) is an excerpt from a larger body of work which deals with appropriating images. As artists, we are taught to view images with a critical eye. How can images be appropriated in this days' age? These works question the dichotomy between uncertain subjects and the photographic process (which has become more and more skewed by the introduction of
computers).

Clark Hodgson
2002

Much of my work and images are taken from modern day to day life with a focus on blue collar work and the mundane.

I incorporate the use of found objects to create a composition that expresses the beauty of the overlooked things not appreciated by the people who walked by them on the street. In these combines I show how these objects can be used instead of going with our consumer instinct and buying the newest or latest trend in merchandise. Although mostly made from trash and discarded items there is an elegance present which contradicts the nature of the objects.

These painting absorb the space around them and pull attention to other objects in the room such as ventilation grates, socket plates and moldings. They become almost sculptural because encompass so much of the surrounding area.

The pieces relate to each other and cause the viewer to try to make connections between them. The overall aesthetic is familiar and is related to a rural, banal way of life.

KANE

NOESIS MEDIA
Michael Amin to present interactive design piece Kane at VAV Gallery, February 18h, 2002.

MONTREAL, February 13, 2002 - Michael Amin, founder and lead creative at marketing firm Noesis Media, will be presenting Kane, an interactive video installation piece at the VAV Gallery on February 18, 2002.

Kane works as follows: the user controls a two video clips and a soundtrack, all playing simultaneously. The concept is deceptively simple; one can get caught up for hours in it.

Kane has been in development for over a year. Collecting the video clips and programming the interface was the main challenge. The culmination of all this work can be viewed in all it's glory, February 18 to 23 at Concordia University's VAV Gallery.

The Gallery is located at 1395 Rene Levesque West. Admission is free, and viewing hours are from 9am to 9pm.

EXHIBITION: FEB 18 - 23, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

SOLO
MICHAEL AMIN

Michael Amin? No, he’s not artist. At least, he doesn’t consider himself to be one. With works ranging from online experiments to robotic installation pieces, he could have fooled us.

“I try and create things that I consider appealing to the eye and to the brain”, Amin concedes. This is certainly true, and can be seen through his own business and website, http://www.noesismedia.com.

“Why shouldn’t commercial work be as visually attractive as a museum or gallery piece? Pushing the limits is what it’s all about”. Push the limits he indeed does, creating electronic work that challenges the user while engaging them at the same time. It is not always immediately apparent how to interact or even view the work Amin creates. One thing is certain: the work created is simple yet stunning, and blurs the lines between commercial and experimental design.

Michael Amin, Kane, 2002. Click to expand the image

FASTWURMS

February 20, 2002
VAV Gallery Visiting Artists FASTWURMS

The communications department of FASTWURMS virtual genetics lab, building
awareness and understanding of the "Anacowda" project, the worlds first trans-genetic super snake and the superior futuristic all in one source of utopian material abundance and distribution, wishes to inform you that:

The FASTWURMS will be visiting Concordia University's VAV Gallery from March 3-9, 2002.

The VAV Gallery has invited FASTWURMS, a multidisciplinary/collaborative duo from Toronto, to be this years' visiting artists. They will be installed in the Gallery from March 3-9, 2002, executing an exhibition project in direct collaboration with Concordia Fine Arts students.

EXHIBITION: MAR 3 - 9, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
LAUREN NURSE
BETH STUART
KIM KOZZI
DAI SUSKE

Lauren Nurse, Beth Stuart, Kim Kozzi and Dai Suske, FASTWURMS, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

FASTWURMS, 2002.

Formed in 1979 by Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse, FASTWURMS is the trademark and joint authorship of these multidisciplinary artists whose work mingles high and popular cultures in a politicised and often humorous sensibility. FASTWURMS has exhibited and produced public commissions across Canada and in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Please find a brief descriptionof FASTWURMS' gallery activities below.

Anacowda Activity Center - The Anacowda project will be inscribed on the gallery walls as continuous schematic drawings and outlines including expansive linear sculptural projections, with divisions of labour and new product proposals up for public interaction and representations.

Ditch Witch Travel - A travel agency dedicated to the exchange and dissemination of information regarding the worlds best, low cost, high quality, "ditch" accommodations. Comes complete with FASTWURMS information package.

Lotto 666 - Occult gambling casino; an infinite system of axioms, algorithmically random. Have fun, try out your pet intractable non-linear equations, win prizes, lose your mind and your soul!

Pant Pollen - A social and fully independent interactive system of soft sculpture exchange and display that has a unique interspecies vector.

Syntax Sappers - Syntax Sappers is the international umbrella organisation for various speciality cells, for, example the famous Sauna Sappers, and the New Garage Sappers. Potential new recruits will be shown aesthetic displays of the various virtual explosives in action, such as the ubiquitous "pretty plastique", special tools of the trade, valuable tips and insider information, custom uniform designs and samples, dress codes and protocol.

House of Bangs: Nails - An outreach program from the Unisex House of Bangs with a special focus on free flashy glitter fingernails. You work hard. Give yourself a treat. Get your nails done sparkly good.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT LAUREN NURSE OR BETH STUART

Lauren Nurse, Beth Stuart, Kim Kozzi and Dai Suske, FASTWURMS, 2002. Click to expand the image

ROCK: HIT MAKERS

EXHIBITION: MAR 11 - 15, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
N/A

Rock: Hit Makers, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Rock: Hit Makers, 2002.

L’ACCIDENT / THE ACCIDENT

exposition de | exhibition by
Simon Brown | Julien Diehn | François Lemieux

FR
"L'Accident" est une installation-performance qui, se déroulant sur une période de deux semaines, prépare ou suggère une impossibilité; un accident. Le projet s'est mérité la toute première bourse de production de la galerie VAV. Un vernissage aura lieu le soir du 27 mars, dans la deuxième semaine de l'exposition.

Les trois artistes ont poursuivi des formations en scénographie, en musique et en histoire, et étudient présentment au programme d'études interdisciplinaires des Beaux-Arts de l'Université Concordia à Montréal.

EN
"The Accident", is an installation which is performed over two weeks, in preparation for, or trying to prevent, an accident from happening. This work is the first recipient of the annual VAV Gallery Production Grant. The vernissage will take place on the evening of March 27th.

The three artists, coming from backgrounds in set design, music and history are currently studying Interdisciplinary Studies in Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montréal.

du 18 au 29 mars, 2002 | March 18th to 29th, 2002

Vernissage : Mercredi, 27 mars a 19h
Wed. March 27th at 7 PM

EXHIBITION: MAR 18 - 29, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: MAR 27

GROUP
SIMON BROWN
JULIEN DIEHN
FRANÇOIS LEMIEUX

Simon Brown, Julien Diehn, and François Lemieux, L’Accident / The Accident, 2002. Click to expand the image

Simon Brown, Julien Diehn, and François Lemieux,L’Accident / The Accident, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Simon Brown, Julien Diehn, and François Lemieux,L’Accident / The Accident, 2002.

PRINT MEDIA EXHIBITION

EXHIBITION: MAR 31 - APR 6, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
N/A

Print Media Exhibition, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Print Media Exhibition, 2002.

Print Media Exhibition, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Print Media Exhibition, 2002.

L’ART POUR LA VIE

HIVIAIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic
Office: FB 319

April 25, 2001

Attention: Lauren Nurse and Beth Stuart
VAV Gallery Co-directors
VAV Gallery
VA Building, Concordia University

EXHIBITION: APR 7 - 13, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: APR 11

GROUP
SELENA LISS
N/A

Proposal for an Exhibition of Works by Students of the Course
HIV/AIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic
at the VAV Gallery April 8 - April 15, 2002

HIV/AIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic is a course unique within Concordia University and far beyond. Entering its eighth year, the interdisciplinary course offers undergraduate students the opportunity to combine classroom learning, covering a broad range of cultural, social and scientific topics, with hands-on volunteer work relating to HIVIAIDS. The course emphasizes the importance of cultural responses to the pandemic, thus students are offered the choice of a final project which takes the form of an academic term paper or a major creative project. This project is the culmination and extension of classroom and volunteer learning experiences.

Approximately fifty students are expected to be registered in the 2001/2002 class. Instructors for the class in the past have included Dr. Ross Higgins (Anthropology), Dr. Donald Boisvert (Dean of Students), Dr. Thomas Waugh (Cinema), and Julie Larouche. Of the fifty students enrolled in the course, approximately one quarter choose to do a creative project. Because the course is interdisciplinary, students come from a variety of backgrounds, including Fine Arts, Communications, Film, Economics, and other departments. Creative projects in the past have included installation, dance, music, photo, documentary video, web design, digital photo, painting and creative writing. Additionally, each year students in the class are presented with a 1"x 1" piece of canvas so that everyone, regardless of their choice of a paper or creative project, can submit a small work around themes related to HIV/AIDS. These works are displayed at the final event/exhibition as part of a class quilt project.

The creative project component of the course work accounts for approximately 50% of a student's final grade, and is taken very seriously by students and instructors. During the development of the projects students submit a proposal, followed by a more detailed statement of intent. This gives ample opportunity for feedback and criticism. Additionally, students are required to complete a research text and artist's statement, situating their work in a larger milieu. As a result of these guidelines, the quality of work produced is high.

Two years ago we were thrilled to have the opportunity to present student work in the VAV Gallery. One of our students (Sophie Wertheimer) worked as an intern with Julie Keller and Michelle Bush, then co-directors of the VAV gallery, and the experience was a huge success. While our application for a show in the VAV gallery was accepted for the 2000/2001 season, the dates we were granted unfortunately fell well after the end of term. As many of our students would have returned to their home provinces by this date, we opted to hold the show in the Graduate Student Arts Association Building. We were pleased, however, to work in tandem with Lisa and Vanessa at the VAV for Day Without Art 2000.

While our final event in 2001 was very successful, we would love to have the opportunity to utilize the VAV Gallery next year. Not only does the VAV Gallery act as a wonderful space to make this important issue more public, it also serves to raise awareness of the course within the student body. In addition, the support we have garnered for the course through various University departments, outside sponsors, and a public lecture series, warrants the use of a larger space. Finally, an exhibition at the VAV would continue to raise the profile of HIV/AIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic to help its struggle for funding outside the University in order for the course continue to exist.

Fortunately, we have been able to document aspects of past shows, and include some of this work with this package. The teaching team for the 2001/2002 year has yet to be hired, but I submit this request on their behalf, in accordance with the new application date I understand has been instituted at the VAV Gallery. Having only just learned of this change, I hope that you will consider this application, and look forward to working with you in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further information.

Sincerely,

Selena Liss
Teaching Assistant, HIV/AIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic

on behalf of the 2000/2001 teaching team:
Dr. Ross Higgins
Julie Larouche
Candis Steenbergen

ELSEWHERE

printemps
Sunday afternoon Art Auction
2-6pm, May 19, 2002

Your presence is requested under the leafy canopy of the VA courtyard for a celebration of the V.A.V. Gallery! Bring in the new season with an Art Auction and support the digital expansion of Montreal’s unique student-run Gallery. Enjoy an afternoon with a stringed trio and delightful treats while you place bids and take home diverse art objects and services by local artists. We invite you to mingle with artists and offer you an opportunity to help build a vibrant arts community.

EXHIBITION: MAY 5 - 11, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: N/A

GROUP
LISA RODGERS
BENTE HALSNES
LIISA KARINTAUS
CHLOÉ GERMAIN-THÉRIEN
GEORGES REULAND
ARIANA GARCIA-FIALOINI
VICTOR RODRIGUEZ BARCA
EMILIA SAARENPAA
LEILA EL-KAYEM
ALI SHAKER
JUBA RISSANEN
KATRINA SUTCLIFFE
NICOLÀS VILLEGAS HERNANDES
JOHN LONDONO

Elsewhere, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Elsewhere, 2002.

Elsewhere, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Elsewhere, 2002.

TOO BIG TO STAY SMALL / TROP GRAND POUR RESTER PETIT

EN
MONTREAL MUSEUM’S DAY

Sunday, May 26, 2002, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

On Montreal Museum’s Day, Sunday, May 26, 2002, the gallery invites the public to take a look behind the scenes, by attending an exhibition installation (the Annual Undergraduate Student Exhibition). Art dealer Hélène Couture, and Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery Interim Director, Lynn Beavis will be on hand to explain the process.

Vernissage: Thursday, May 30 at 6 p.m.
May 30 - July 6, 2002

A tradition at Concordia for over 20 years, the Annual Undergraduate Student Exhibition gives the public a rare and exciting opportunity to see the work of emerging artists in a museum setting Organized by the VAV Gallery and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery on behalf of the undergraduate art community at Concordia, the exhibition represents a selection of the accomplished art works from the 2001-2002 academic year. The art work promises to reveal the interests of a new generation of artists.

FR
JOURNÉE DES MUSÉES MONTRÉALAIS

le dimanche 26 mai 2002, de 9 h à 18 h

Le dimanche 26 mai 2002 date de la Journée des musées montréalais, la Galerie invitera le public à jeter un coup d'oeil en coulisse, en assistant à l'installation d'une exposition (l'Exposition annuelle des étudiants-es). Hélène Couture, marchande d'œuvres d'art et Lynn Beavis, directrice intérimaire de
la Galerie d'art Leonard et Bina Ellen seront présentes pour expliquer le processus.

vernissage : jeudi le 30 mai à 18 h
du 30 mai au 6 juillet 2002

L'exposition des étudiants-es du 1er cycle, une tradition vieille de plus de vingt ans à l'Université Concordia, offre au public l'occasion rêvée d'admirer les œuvres des artistes de demain dans un environnement muséal. Organisée par la Galerie VAV et la Galerie d'art Leonard et Bina Ellen, elle présente quelques-unes des œuvres les plus accomplies de l'année universitaire 2001-2002. Les œuvres, révèlent les intérêts
d'une nouvelle génération d'artistes.

EXHIBITION: MAY 30 - JUL 6, 2002
OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 30

GROUP
SEFI AMIR
REMI ARORA
JESSIE BRUGGER
STÉPHANIE CHABOT
CAL CRAWFORD
MIA DONOVAN
CYNTHIA EDORTH
JEREMY ELIOSOFF
IAN GAMACHE
STÉPHANIE GLADYSZEWSKI
SANDRA GOLDIE
NICOLAS VILLÉGAS HERNANDES
ALISON HONEY
KIM ILHAREGUY
NADELI JACKSON
ZOË KREYE
JENNIFER LEFORT
FRANÇOIS LEMIEUX
SIMON BROWN
NATSUKI MATSUI
HOANG NGUYEN
RASA PAVILANIS
SHANNON PAWLIW
E. DAWIT L. PETROS
CARLOS SANCHEZ
JASON SANCHEZ
ROBIN SIMPSON
JEAN-MARC SUPERVILLE SOVAK

(Slide 1)

Alison Honey
Made/Memory
2002

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.
- Salvador Dali

If we remember our Greek myths, Mnemosyne, the Titan of memory, was the mother of the Muses, the goddesses of the arts: thus calling attention to the intrinsic union between memory and creation. Memory is uncanny, imaginative, a world of fantasy in the guise of fact, or vice versa. Déjà vu, false memories, the repressed, nostalgia, romanticization, dreams, chance, encounters, all of these comprise the strange and frightening world of memory.

The work enacts the very distortions, fragmentations, innovations and transformations of memory. Instead of viewing memory as the product of a prior experience, the work foregrounds memory as a process, as a producer of experiences.

A chest filled with family and found photographs, a postcard wrapped in rubber: these objects exemplify both the heterogeneous/composite aspects of memory and its very materiality (memory's sensuousness, its tactile nature).

Alison Honey, Made/Memory, 2002. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Zoë Kreye, tuck-in. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Jessie Brugger, This Land Was Made For You and Me and Me and ME and Me, 2002.

Too Big To Stay Small/Trop Grand Pour Rester Petit, 2002.

Sefi Amir, Happy Together, 2002.

Natsuki Matsui, The Prayer, 2002.

(Slide 3)

Jessie Brugger, This Land Was Made For You and Me and Me and ME and Me, 2002.

(Slide 4-6)
N/A

(Slide 7)

Sefi Amir, Happy Together, 2002.

(Slide 8)

Natsuki Matsui, The Prayer, 2002.

(Slide 2)
Zoë Kreye
tuck-in
2002

This photographic, text and sound based work is the documentation from my most recent performance tuck-in. I began this project by giving out invitations to friends, acquaintances and classmates to partake in a performance where I would arrive at their homes at bedtime and tuck them in before they went to sleep. Those who were interested (which was about one third of those invited) made arrangements with me for a date and time that would fit our schedules. For each tuck-in I would arrive at the arranged time, usually visit with the participant, ask them to take a photograph of me at their bedside, offer to read them a story, tuck them into bed, making sure that they were cozy, turn off the lights, see myself out and lock the door behind me. The tuck-in appointments ranged from 8:00pm to 12:30am and my travels varied from a 5-minute walk to an hour metro ride. Everyone that asked got an appointment. To date I have tucked-in 20 participants over two months, and the project is still ongoing. This is the documentation of my first 20 participants.

(Slide 1)
Mia Donovan
Boys
2002

As an artist, I have become more and more pre-occupied by the notion of an untarnished female gaze and whether or not this can in fact exist. Contemporary popular culture offers a huge amount of material for the 'visual pleasure of a heterosexual male audience, where an equivalent for heterosexual women is not so obvious. With this new, ongoing series "Boys", I am exploring the notion of 'visual pleasure' from an often denied female perspective.

The notion of the adolescent sexual awakening and the imprints that this definitive period leaves on one's sexual identity has been explored gratuitously from a male- heterosexual perspective. For men, this discovery of the object of one's desire is often marked by the act of looking. How many times have we seen representations of teenage 'peeping-Toms' in cinema peeking into the girl's locker room or spying on a neighboring girl undressing; reciprocally, so familiar are scenarios of adolescent girls preparing themselves to be 'looked at'-- images of pre-teens stuffing their training bras and putting on lipstick in front of the mirror. For women, memories of our own sexual awakening have often been overshadowed by memories of 'body angst'. The constant presence of idealized images of women in the media serve to arouse the male-gaze, while at the same time serve as a constant reminder of the threat of physical inadequacy and rejection based on such standards of vanity instilled in us from that impressionable age. With the series "Boys", I want women to share in this act of ‘looking’.

With the series "Boys" my intention is to create images that are instantly gratifying, and yet contain deeper layers of meaning. Typically, pornography and advertising models remain anonymous, as do the models in my photographs. I take pictures not of individuals but of a fictitious character who can only live in fantasy, in representations. I am not looking for the 'Gap boys' or 'Calvin Klein models' who are monumentalized by billboards in the shopping centers of St. Catherine street; for this project I am looking for the archetype of my first adolescent fantasies of desire for the 'other'sex. I am looking for the mythicized bad boys; the leader of the pack, the contemporary 'rebel without a cause', the type of boy that I wouldn't have wanted to bring home to my mother when I was in high school.

In producing sexualized images of men this work offers a critique of the excessive imaging of women to which is so commonplace in our culture that we cease to question how and what these images mean. I feel that this work is important in that it both implicates a conventionally neglected female audiences, yet also raises questions about the impact of visual culture on identity formation.

Mia Donovan, Boys. Click to expand the image and swipe for additional views

Alison Honey, Made/Memory, 2002.

Zoë Kreye, tuck-in, 2002.

Jessie Brugger, This Land Was Made For You and Me and Me and ME and Me, 2002.

Sefi Amir, Happy Together, 2002.

Too Big To Stay Small/Trop Grand Pour Rester Petit, 2002.

Cal Crawford, Something Presented May Be False, 2002.

Too Big To Stay Small/Trop Grand Pour Rester Petit, 2002.

Ian Gamache, THE EMERSON FAMILY, 2002.

Too Big To Stay Small/Trop Grand Pour Rester Petit, 2002.

Kim Ilhareguy, LES MADAMES, attitudes de à 5 secondes, 2002.

Nicolás Villegas-Hernández, () objetos encontrados, () found objects, Selenium-toned silver gelatin prints, wooden frames, Variable dimensions (aprox. 8 x 10 in each)

Too Big To Stay Small/Trop Grand Pour Rester Petit, 2002.

Natsuki Matsui, The Prayer, 2002.

(Slide 2)
Alison Honey, Made/Memory, 2002.

(Slide 3)
Zoë Kreye, tuck-in, 2002.

(Slide 4)
Jessie Brugger, This Land Was Made For You and Me and Me and ME and Me, 2002.

(Slide 5)
Sefi Amir
Happy Together

Happy Together is a cataloguing project. It is a catalogue of looks, the clothes we wear, the style of our hair, the aesthetic projection of the self. We write our social identities on our surfaces by our choice of look. We try to decipher one another, reading superficial signs like clues to a more profound understanding. The portraits in Happy Together express personality not only through such obvious markings as expression, gait or gesture, but also through the trappings of style.

The pairing of subjects reinforces the nature of the look - two studded leather belts speak louder than one identifying certain aspects as distinct markers or symbols. But this doubling raises other issues. If the paired subjects are intimates (friends, partners,...), what then? Are the similarities born of that intimacy, or were the relationships initiated by a pre-existing aesthetic sympathy (birds of a feather flock together ...)? The platitudes are there for a reason; that couples grow to look alike, or that friends come to school in the same outfits. The pairs in Happy Together manifest this - they are remarkably alike.

Casual preps, suburban B-boys, glammy club-girls, eighties punks, new romantics and so on (as well as looks that are not so easily tagged) are like species in the genus of human identity. The things that draw us to one another have always been a matter of sympathy and mutuality. How do aesthetic sympathies interact with traditional ones - class, creed, culture? What changes in the psychology of identity when identity can be picked off the rack?

Drawing on traditional portraiture and empirical observation, the portraits inspire associations to both the fashion industry (Klein's CK One ads) and the natural sciences (Darwin's painstakingly illustrated finches). This convergence is not coincidental. The search for identity has become an intrinsic feature of human behaviour, and so it follows that an investigation of personal style fits comfortably within the realm of the natural sciences. The portraits combine the visual languages of both fields.

Happy Together is a project that defies a real sense of completion. Looks cross-pollinate and create hybrids at the pace that mass media and popular culture transmit new ideas, images and influences. The closer you get to the finish line, the further it draws away.

(Slide 6-10)
N/A

(Slide 11)
Cal Crawford
Something Presented May Be False
Ticket Stubs, Digital Photographs, Itinerary, Glass Frames

The documents displayed imply a past action. In Montreal on January 11th 2002 boarded American Airlines flight 646 at 8:08 am bound for London England. I arrived back in Montreal January 11th at 9:40pm. My stay in London was 1 hour and 42 minutes. The results of this trip are 2 ticket stubs and ten digital photographs.

The title, Something presented may be false, immediately forces all provided components into a state of uncertainty. The truth of the action and its resulting documents can never be secure.

Questions arise: has this action taken place, are these documents from the implied action, is the information correct, is the title statement itself false? When actions are documented a primary intention is to display and communicate the event to others. As an action the trip from Montreal to London was taken for no other reason aside from documentation. By allowing the legitimacy of the action to remain in question the artist's and the action's prestige are reduced. The representations and the representer are both know and unknown. By allowing the presence behind the visual documents to be completely unstable the identity of the artist is also made unstable. A secure foundation is unavailable for evaluation. My status as creator becomes irrelevant along with the facts of the trip, resulting in a display of artifacts with no secure history and an artist with no secure identity.

(Slide 12-16)
N/A

(Slide 17-19)
Ian Gamache, THE EMERSON FAMILY, 2002.
(Slide 20)
N/A

(Slide 21-22)
Kim Ilhareguy, LES MADAMES, attitudes de à5 secondes, 2002.
(Slide 25)
N/A

(Slide 23-24)

Nicolás Villegas-Hernández
() objetos encontrados
() found objects
Selenium-toned silver gelatin prints, wooden frames
Variable dimensions (aprox. 8 x 10 in each)

A collection, a visual inventory of the remains of a snowstorm, the debris of a conversation, a film preview, a broadcast, a toy, the obsessive archeological wanderings of a vagrant. A voice repeats itself until it becomes a loose phrase that begins a dialogue with the images we have collected in our memory, with other voices from other conversations, from other experiences.

These images (those of the objects, as well as those of the broken dialogues are arranged in an unfixed and permutable order (a grid, a line, scattered throughout a room or stacked one on top of the other under a whim of the artist, the curator or a random visitor). They rest in such a way that the different phrases and objects engage each other in the fabrication of mutating narratives. The viewer's personal experiences, as well as their understanding, or ignorance of the different languages in front of them fuel the evolution of their own stories.

(Slide 26-28)
Natsuki Matsui
The Prayer

"The Prayer" is originated from the Japanese superstition of folding one thousand origami cranes when you wish to have a dream come true. Today, however, it is considered as a prayer for peace, after the tragic death of a second-generation atomic bomb victim in Hiroshima; she developed leukemia, she and her friends folded origami cranes wishing for her recovery. Even though her dream did not come true, people continue to make cranes to wish that there would be no more victims of wars in this world. Unfortunately the peace has not yet come. Perhaps one thousand cranes does not seem to be enough, so I decided to make two thousand birds to wish our dream for peace.

Instead of paper cranes, I chose to make clay doves to convey the message of peace. I used ceramics to convey the fragility of peace, but if not broken can last forever.

The process of making this piece is also imperative. By hand building each bird, as opposed to creating them from a single mold, the finished installation avoids creating a feeling of overwhelming mass production but rather an intermittent rhythm of harmony with variety of birds. Each bird represents each individual in the world. The installation is a symbol of harmony of the many different people in the world.

This installation uses a prayer stool on which the strings of one thousand birds drape. The usage of the prayer stool leads the viewers to associate the ceramic birds to the prayer for peace. The strings of one thousand birds are the traditional reference point representing reflection on the death and misery of past wars. The other one thousand birds on the ground in circle represent the future of our world in harmony.