Steve Bates, Concertina

Howdy!

Dangerous art,
Be still me heart.
This one is quite smart.

An accordion, radios and razor wire.
If touched, the consequences are dire.
Mr. Bates properly used the preterite of “to inspire.”

Juxtaposition of homonyms is a nice
And simple way to get people thinking.
A built in method to make them think twice
I could go on for a while, but it’s Friday and I want to go drinking.

Dean Baldwin, Ship in a Bottle, Barbados Rhum

Howdy!

Fish out of water, sailboat on land.
Serving drinks on Wednesday evening, I understand.
I wonder what cocktails he has planned?

Allow me to correct myself, sailboat in a museum.
I presume that Mr. Baldwin knows how to carpe-diem,
Everytime I saw it, it seemed more like a mausoleum.

I can’t figure out the “h,” maybe he didn’t know in French it’s “Barbade.
Getting it into the space must have been an interesting feat.
English-style rum (sans le “h”) isn’t half bad.
When it comes from Martinique or Haiti it can be sipped neat.

Magali Babin, Bruits de fond

Howdy!

Bruits de fond translates into English as background noise.
To make it work four pairs of headphones is what it employs.
When I listened to them on the benches I discovered that it annoys.

Mumble mumble, gurgle gurgle, tweet tweet
Natural background noise can be very sweet.
When computer generated I want to hit delete.

The headphones had wires,
The benches were hard.
The MACM needs iPod suppliers
Sitting in one place for 25 minutes is not avant guard.

Jean-Pierre Aubé, 31 soleils (dawn chorus)

Howdy!

I presume that the dawn chorus sings thirty-one times
Cause I didn’t stick around longer than it took to find some rhymes
Watching an orange pretend to be a sun is not a victimless crime.

An orange blob moving slowly from bottom to top
With a dull throbbing noise that just wouldn’t stop
My eyes glazed over and my head began to drop.

Jean-Pierre Aubé is probably a really nice guy
But he uses way too much technology
More than enough cables and gadgets to get by
Next time I see him, I’m asking for an apology.

numa amun, Citadelle des sens

Howdy!

Numa amun; artist in the Triennale Quebecoise
Did an anatomical drawing that was
An isometric cross section of a face that made people pause.

Done up in green
Felt more than seen
Could’ve been made by machine.

The others in the series
Were drawings of other body parts stuck on a wall
There must’ve been theories
Because Citadelle des sens didn’t impress me at all.