I wonder if Mathieu Beauséjour knows about Ichabod Crane
His picture is of a hockey player without a brain
Possibly telling a story in the same vein.
Sounds from the sun are played on an expensive turntable
Let me remind you that Icarus and Crane are both fable
Making a connection between the two is something to which I am unable.
A headless hockey player with a modified stick
Combining ancient Greek myths with early American stories
Everything is a little too slick
I’m certain if I look hard enough I can find the allegories
A video in German projected on something like a maze.
Completely incomprehensible no matter what he says.
I didn’t stick around for any replays.
Living in Montreal it helps to bilingue
Speaking two languages is part of the local Sturm und Drang
But dreisprachig just makes my brain hang.
Reading the catalogue it “probes porosity, problematizing the relationship between model and reality.”
A sentence that only someone with a PhD in art history could write and love
Reading it makes my mind wander and removes all vitality
After looking at it for hours I think I understand the phrase, sort of.
Colorful frames surrounding shiny black stuff
“They are photgraphs.” I bluff.
Then look closer, sho’nuff.
Photocopies of something by Hank Bull.
It would be nice if there was attraction or pull.
Looking at the art makes my head empty, not full.
Documentary Photographer next to Cut Ups/Cut Offs,
How To Sell Burroughs Paintings in another room.
Almost as great as Microsoft’s
Windows Millenium Edition I presume.
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.
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.
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.
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; 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.
Montreal’s bureau d’art public has a Facebook page where they announce things (why they don’t do it on their website, I have no clue! Kind of like buying a Cadillac and then leaving it at home at taking taxis everywhere). And recently they’ve been publicizing the repairs that have been done on various pieces in the city’s collection.
Somehow, someone decided to prioritize the sculptures in Lachine over a sculpture on Sherbrooke. My best guess would be that Obélisque en hommage à Charles De Gaulle gets seen by at least ten times as many people each day, if not 50 times more people.
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréObélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréObélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréObélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
If you squint, it looks kind of like an elongated tank trap.
Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
I have no idea what the blue means either. Doing just cursory research it doesn’t appear that the The French Resistance had any one color, just a Cross of Lorraine added to the bleu, blanc, rouge.
Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréWestern Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
I think that this is wrong. De Gaulle did say “Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.” But I don’t think he said it in Brazzaville in 1941, I think he said it in Algiers in 1943.
Eastern Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Explaining who made it, and that it was a gift in honor of both the 375 birthday of the city of Montreal and De Gaulle’s centenary.
Bench for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Gotta love the bureaucrat who decided how to deal with the skateboarders.
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréLights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier DebréLights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
And I can’t imagine it would be that difficult or expensive to fix the lights…
And then if you’re interested… the De Gaulle moment in Montreal.
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia UniversityA piece of art made by some former student at Concordia UniversityA piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
In front of the VAV building at the corner of René Lévesque and Crescent. It’s been there for at least half a dozen years (although I must admit, that my memory is sketchy at best). And while Concordia University is awesome at labeling at promoting officially sanctioned public art, they’re not so hot at older stuff that isn’t quite as officially sanctioned.
I presume that this was a piece made by a former student, and because it was so big someone thought it would work in the courtyard in front of the VAV building, but because it was a student project, the tag, explaining who, when and what either got forgotten or wasn’t made due to a lack of budget.
I like how it flips the “traditional” sense of street art on its head. The graffiti is embossed in the concrete and not painted on the fence. Although I’m not certain that the fence itself is supposed to have that bite taken out of it on the top (insert snarky comment about Concordia also not taking care of officially sanctioned public art here). I’m certain that if I did some research I could also find some details about the style and make of the fence, and when cast concrete barriers started to become prevalent and try to make some connections between the two. And then there’s the irony of it being placed outside of the actual fence marking where the courtyard ends.
