Blade Runner Revisited

“But what can a poor boy do except to sing for a rock and roll band”  The Rolling Stones

Or maybe just follow your imagination with a camera if music is not your talent. So this is my take on Blade Runner. Or should I say my ultra low budget take in an abandoned (now demolished) factory in Lachine with no cast, no crew,  but with a strong, eerie, and sexy feeling that Darryl Hannah might pop out from behind a rusted machine that no one alive remembers what it was used for. Abandoned factories let your mind soar.

There was a lot of water leaking from the roof, like rain, and that area I stood in made me feel like I could have been in this scene.

Life, so totally crazy, so full of horror and pain, yet so totally worth hanging on to with everything you’ve got, every drop of blood alive as much as anything else before or after. There isn’t that much that separates us from everything in the universe beyond Time, and a few random particles here and there.

Do You See The Android? Neither Do I

This image, along with some of my other works, is on display at Cafe Victoria on Wellington street until the end of April.

I would also like to dedicate this post to the memory of Jay Simmons.

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Hidden City Festival 2013

The Dufala Brothers have been selected to be part of the Hidden City Festival in 2013.  Their installation will be at Globe Dye Works, and will feature materials sourced through RAIR.  Check out their video!

We have the dormant, yet exciting Canada Malt Plant along the Lachine Canal in Montreal that would make an excellent art  meets urban exploration cooperative.

It certainly falling in line with my concept of gentrification which is community based as opposed to just individuals making real estate investments. There is room for everyone and everything in a truly democratic city!

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Untitled (The Woman In Red)

This is a work that came about during my recent consolidation of images past, present, (and future?) . The projection happened in the early 90′s when I was experimenting with arbitrary images I had shot on streets, off television sets and so on, then projecting them on houses, walls, backyards, etc. and re photographing them. The columns and woman in a dress were shot in the last two years. It seemed to come together when I noticed how the columns represented an ancient Ideal and the almost impossible task of achieving, and maintaining that,  and how things have really played out despite our best intentions.

Untitled (The Woman In Red)

This picture is currently on display at Cafe Victoria in Verdun until the end of April. It is 20×24 inches, professionally framed and only costs $100.00. If you would like to purchase this, or a print, different sizes available too, please email me at neathatturcot (at) yahoo dot ca

I have become interested in doing a series on the original Woman in Red, Ana Cumpănaș, who apparently fingered John Dillinger to the FBI in the 1930′s. It would probably be a short parody of the urban myths surrounding Ana and Dillinger, but who knows how the ideas could grow if we do it. Any woman who has a markedly red article of clothing, not necessarily a dress, a fun sense of theatre, and a free afternoon or two, and would be interested in collaborating on this is more than welcome to contact me at the email above.

 

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Only art can save us now

The world needs creative interpretations of global issues, not better descriptions of things people are accustomed to.

by Santiago Zabala

 

Perhaps rather than God, as Martin Heidegger once said, it is art that can save us. After all, artistic creations have always had political, religious and social meanings that also aimed in some way to save us. Certainly, they also express beauty, but this depends very much on the public’s aesthetic taste, which varies according to the cultural environment of each society.But when the political meaning is manifest, aesthetics (our sensations and taste) lose ground in favour of interpretation (knowledge and judgment); that is, instead of inviting us to contemplate its beauty, a work calls us to respond, react and become involved. As it turns out, art – as a channel to express reactions to significant issues – has sometimes worked better than historical or factual reconstructions.

“The radical changes brought about in the advent of global society mean that the artist today must respond to a wider public… one that is concerned with the same global issues.“

Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is the example we all have in mind: painted as a response to the Spanish nationalist forces’ bombing of a town in the Basque country, it was used not only to inform the public but also as a symbol of all the innocent victims of war. This is probably why “aesthetics”, a term coined by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in 1735, refers not only to the study of art but also to sensory experience coupled with feelings regardless of the nature of its object. But can contemporary art, whether through music, conceptual installations or cinema actually save us from the damned circumstances, atrocities and injustices we live among?

As an ontological discipline, philosophy must always pay attention to existential claims, whether they come from science, religion or art. Even though this is now possible, since philosophy (and aesthetics) has overcome metaphysics, that is, objectivist-representational nature (which also limited art’s creations), not all philosophers pay attention to the claims these works make.

If such distinguished thinkers as Arthur Danto and Gianni Vattimo have moved beyond aesthetic representationalism and formalism, it is because of their post-metaphysical positions but also their interest in art’s current existential appeal. Both philosophers seem to agree that the end of art proclaimed by Hegel is not simply a matter of art becoming conceptual – that is, “philosophical”. Rather, the radical changes brought about in the advent of global society mean that the artist today must respond to a wider public than in the past, one that is concerned with the same global issues that affect the artist.

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Nun’s Island Is Awesome!

For years I have been an outspoken critic about the rampant development on Nun’s Island. Every time a new highrise goes up there is at least a couple hundred more cars stepping in line to get on that bridge to somewhere. Too much of a money maker for some in Verdun, and a sign that the community over there is completely uninterested in protecting their own interests. So I have visually thrown in the towel and am going to celebrate the development of Nun’s Island in pictures. I figure it’s the least I can do for all those mainland Verduners that have had their view of the Saint Lawrence totally wrecked over the last 50 years.

Here is a start.

Does Anyone Else See It?

Nun’s Island Is Awesome!

Both images are available at Cafe Victoria until the end of April, are nicely framed 8 x 10′s, and very reasonably priced.

Look for more of these coming soon!

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Neath Turcot Exhibition at Cafe Victoria Through April

Hope to see a lot of you at the vernissage this Saturday between 4 and 7, if not, please drop by during the month. I feel this is the best show I have done yet in terms of it’s scope of ideas, blending old projects with new and the ever ongoing.

Neath Turcot

Cafe Victoria

4559 Rue Wellington

Verdun

514-564-8088

Metro de l’Eglise

Vernissage  Saturday, April 6, 4-7

 

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America, Then And Now

In the 1950′s the American economy blew the roof off and this is where it went in 2013.

Ain’t Capitalism  just grand?

From The David Dees Illustration Studio

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Danielle Plamondon at Cafe Victoria in Verdun

Danielle Plamondon is one of the most respected, admired, and loved urban explorers on the planet. From the abandoned factories of Montreal and the rooftops of Europe, through the sewer systems of London and Paris,  she has photographed these locations with a passionate eye and a creative energy that radiates throughout her images.

Her night photographs bring us to the scene as we have never experienced it before, such as this image that shows the Turcot Interchange (obviously a personal favorite of mine).

Below street level is a second home to her as she documents the drains and tunnels she explores using “light painting” techniques to bring out the details while creating an intense sensuality to the forms and materials of our underground infrastructure.

A pile of paint cans in an old long abandoned factory becomes a unique moment recalling the architecture and mysteries  of great cathedrals.

This is the one photography exhibition in Montreal you cannot afford to miss!

Danielle Plamondon – a girl in the dark with a flashlight,  continues until March 31st.

Cafe Victoria

4559 Wellington

Verdun, Metro de l’Eglise, Galt exit

(514) 564-8088

 

 

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The Strange Case Of Vivian Maier

Not a new story but still a spectacular one. How someone who would have been a peer to the likes of Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus and Gary Winogrand was able to take over 100,000 pictures in her lifetime and pretty much keep the whole thing a secret is mesmerizing.

Sept 28, 1959, 108th St. East, New York, NY

Undated, New York, NY

From Wikipedia,Vivian Maier

Vivian Dorothea Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American amateur street photographer, who was born in New York City but grew up in France. After returning to the United States, she worked for about forty years as a nanny in Chicago, Illinois. During those years, she took about 100,000 photographs, primarily of people and cityscapes in Chicago, although she traveled and photographed worldwide.

Her photographs remained unknown and mostly undeveloped until they were discovered by a local Chicago historian and collector, John Maloof, in 2007. Following Maier’s death, her work began to receive critical acclaim.^[1][2] Her photographs have been exhibited in the US, England, Germany, Denmark, and Norway, and have appeared in newspapers and magazines in the US, England, Germany, Italy, France and other countries. A book of her photography titled Vivian Maier: Street Photographer was published in 2011.

Chicago August 22, 1956

1957, Chicago, IL

Untitled, April 20, 1956

1957, Chicago, IL

Undated, Canada

Untitled, November 4, 1955, San Francisco, CA

August, 1958, Churchill, Canada

August, 1958, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

1959, Cochin, India

August 11, 1959, Digne, France

August, 1958, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

1959, Egypt

July 10, 1959, Aden, Yemen

Undated, Canada

Undated, Canada

Untitled, Undated

Self Portrait, February 1955

Self Portrait, 1953

September 10th, 1955, New York City

Looking through these pictures I feel as though I am looking back at the work of one of the most influential photographers of all time, yet none of these images were seen publicly until after 2007!  The images evoke a great passion and identification with humanity. Did she come from outer space and simply preferred  to let others flow with these visual ideas? It’s quite uncanny how these pictures seem so familiar as we have seen so many similar photographs framed by some very talented photographers who were not doing this kind of work in the early to mid 50′s. But strangest of all, perhaps, is that she chose to share these images with no one.

Check out the website for her built by her discoverer, John Maloof.

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Piecing together Vivian Maier’s life can easily evoke Churchill’s famous quote about the vast land of Tsars and commissars that lay to the east. A person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City. Someone who was intensely guarded and private, Vivian could be counted on to feistily preach her own very liberal worldview to anyone who cared to listen, or didn’t. Decidedly unmaterialistic, Vivian would come to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks.”

 

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Sarah Anne Johnson – Arctic Wonderland

All is well as we approach the PostArctic era. Here are some images originally shot at the Arctic Circle in Norway by Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson.

Taken from here.

Sarah Anne Johnson: Alien Arctics

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Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook

Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook

All this reminds me of Alex Colville’s painting, Pacific.

This fellow has evolved to where he now occupies the potential last chapter of history where the only options are waiting and suicide.  He is the typical postarctic human no longer required to take action or even consider it. It’s a nice day, and there may be some more, who knows?

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Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner

Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner

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Circular River by Kahn & Selesnick

PLATE 2: WE REACH THE FRONTIER OF THE BURYAT TERRITORY AND DISCOVER A PYRAMID OF PRAYER FLAGS. Well over a month since we parachuted onto the Siberian Steppe. Flat, featureless country still; it is impossible to judge scale and distance, havoc is wreaked with depth perception. Last week Bindon strode excitedly towards what he thought was a “bloody enormous oak, all the way out here, imagine that”, only to mysteriously lose sight of it and trip over a thorny shrub towering some three feet above the ground. Yesterday several hours were wasted stalking a tundra Grizzly that turned out to be a marmot.* I am reminded of accounts of fabulous Arctic mirages in the journals of early explorers, shimmering images of urban city skylines or distant mountain ranges caused by inversions in the lower atmosphere. So today, when we spot a pyramid of prayer flags on the distant horizon, Bindon insists on approaching it with abnormal caution, constantly reaching out to see if he can touch it. Our sense of awe, when we finally reach the object, is palpable – we appear to have arrived at the Buryat frontier.

*A Swedish explorer travelling in the Arctic in the late part of the 19th century recalled sketching in his journal a craggy headland with two unusually symmetrical glaciers, the whole of it being part of a large island, only to discover he was looking at a walrus. However, the most disorienting optical phenomenon in the Arctic regions is surely the white-out. It occurs most frequently during periods of blizzard or fog, when every perspective yields an unvarying, all-pervasive whiteness.

PLATE 43: WE ATTEND THE FUNERAL OF A SHAMAN KILLED IN THE BATTLE WITH THE NKVD. We put off our search for Westcott to attend Tusput’s funeral. The other world, Balog tells us, is an inverted image of this world. Everything that goes on here is reversed after death. Day on earth is night in the other world; scarce game here means plentiful game in the hereafter; there, the rivers flow backwards to their sources; what is broken here is made whole; Tusput, sad in life, will be happy in the beyond.
The Buryat believe that if certain privileged persons, especially their shamans, are placed on a platform above the circular river, and fire is set to them and their trappings – their drum, mask, quiver, etc.- they will ascend quickly to the heavens with the smoke. It is not so much death as an initiation. All those who die a violent death will mount the sky. Tusput is fortunate not to have died from disease, for disease is provoked by the hungry spirits of the dead.
The top-hatted sect, as masters of the dead, stage the funeral, set Tusput’s sled on stilts in the river and lead the great procession with his coffin. It is their job to lead the dead to their final abode, their faces daubed with soot and guano into a rude skull to convince them into forsaking the land of the living. The top-hats hold a great banquet by the banks of the river, and for this alone many come from far and wide to attend Tusput’s funeral. Much fermented mare’s milk is offered, and the seance gradually becomes more lively, almost grotesque as all the Buryat in their finery take to quarrelling, but Balog assures us that the fighting is only to insure there would be calm and peace to greet Tusput in the beyond.

Kahn & Selesnick

 

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“Three trees and a Mayan Calendar”

Espace les Neuf Soeurs presents:

“Three trees and a Mayan Calendar”

This Friday November 30 vernissage 5-10 PM

Also open Saturday and Sunday 11 AM to 5 Pm *bring kids!*

 Tree no 1 Artist Arpi is back! He has created a tree using discarded objects as a comment on our throw-away society. He will also have several of his paintings on display and for sale. Arpi’s videos will be on view in the new ‘E space en bas’; here’s a preview.

Tree no 2 Musician and acoustic artist Charles de Mestral’s “Acoustic Tree” will be broadcasting familiar and unfamiliar sounds through 20 speakers mounted on the skeleton of a 200 year old nut tree. This work was a joint creation by Paul Mercier, sculptor, and Charles de Mestral, musician. It dates from 1984.

Tree no 3 Your host Pieter Sijpkes’ Christmas tree will , once again, touch the dome overhead and sparkle with the lights donated by the now -closed Hotel de la Montagne.

The Mayan Clock by Keith Daniels is a ludique comment on the current fascination with things Mayan

Espace les Neuf Soeurs, 1900 Wellington Montreal H3k-1W3; tel: 514 933-1725

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New David Fennario Play – Motherhouse

Don’t forget yer pots and pans!

(en français ci-dessous)
 
DAVID FENNARIO’S LATEST PLAY – A PERFORMANCE IN THE POINT FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY
 
 
You are cordially invited to share an afternoon with David Fennario performing his latest play “Motherhouse”, a 65-minute story about the women workers of the British Munitions Factory in Verdun.
 
The factory employed over 4,000 women to do this work, including David’s mother and grandmother.
 
It is a strong anti-war play about the effects of war on Verdun, which had the highest casualty rate amongst its army recruits of any city in Canada in the two World Wars.
 
 
WHEN :   Sunday, November 11^th  at 2 p.m.
 
WHERE : Carrefour d’éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, 2356 rue Centre (metro Charlevoix)
 (Wheelchair accessible)
 
Martine Éloy, spokesperson for Échec à la guerre, will be present to speak about their white poppy campaign.
 

• Fennario requests that everyone bring pots and pans and spoons to bang and clang (on cue !) as sound effects.

 
Lastly, there is a feature documentary film being made about Fennario and the making of “Motherhouse”, directed by Martin Duckworth. A camera crew will be present to capture this memorable performance by Fennario.
 
Please have a look at the attachment. This poster is for the upcoming film to be released in 2013 about David. It was designed and photographed by Thanh Pham, a Montreal graphic designer.
 
Hope to see you on the 11^th !
 
Wear your red squares !
 
 
LA NOUVELLE PIÉCE DE THÉÂTRE DE DAVID FENNARIO
 
Vous êtes chaleureusement invité à écouter David Fennario présenter sa plus récente oeuvre Motherhouse, une pièce de 65 minutes, sur la vie des travailleuses de British Munitions Factory de Verdun.
 
Cette usine employa 4 000 femmes, dont la mère et la grand-mère de l’auteur. Il s’agit d’une pièce résolument contre la guerre et ses conséquences pour Verdun, qui connut le plus haut taux de mortalité parmi ses militaires recrutés au cours des deux Guerres Mondiales.
 
QUAND : Le dimanche 11 novembre (Jour du Souvenir !) à 14 h.
 
OÙ : Carrefour d’éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles au 2356, rue Centre, (métro Charlevoix)
         (Accessible en fauteuil roulant)

Martine Éloy, porte-parole du Collectif Échec à la Guerre, sera présente pour fournir davantage d’informations sur la campagne du coquelicot blanc.
 
 
Note : la présentation sera en anglais
 

• David Fennario demande à tous d’apporter casseroles et ustensiles afin de participer par un tintamarre aux effets sonores de la pièce.

 
Enfin, parce qu’un documentaire de Martin Duckworth sur David Fennario et sur le “making of ’’ Motherhouse est en cours de réalisation, une équipe sera sur place avec caméra pour enregistrer cette mémorable représentation.
 
S.V.P, jetez un coup d’oeil à la pièce jointe. C’est une affiche créée par le designer graphique montréalais Thanh Pham pour le documentaire sur David Fennario dont la sortie est prévue en 2013.
 
Espérant vous rencontrer le 11 !
 
Portez vos carrés rouges
 

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