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Submitted without comment, for the most part.





Howdy!
It occurred to me recently there is a phenomenal amount of art that is accessible to the public (as opposed to public art) on and around Greene Avenue in Westmount.
The Montreal Gazette from July 4, 1985. And the exact article he is reading.
I’m not quite certain what ghosts and clouds have to do with things that are erotic, but there was a fuss over the display of cartoon genitalia, and the ghosts and clouds were added to give a sense of modesty.
I’m surprised that no one complained about the bondage…
Sorry about the glare, but I wasn’t brave enough to enter into Westmount Square in order to take pictures. There’s another one in one of the other towers, but my pictures were horrible. If you’d like a better picture, try this.
Wars, and war memorials were much different then. There are 192 names on it from World War I, which lasted four years. And 260 names from World War II, which lasted six years. The Canadian Army has been fighting in Afghanistan for almost ten years, and I can guarantee you that there will not be any additional names added.
The less said about this, the better. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I took so many pictures.
Details and a complete explanation of what this is exactly are here. If you’re too lazy to click, it’s from 1684, 327 years ago.
If anyone knows any details, or has any information about the photographer, title or why, I would be extremely appreciative.
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As I said yesterday, I was on Île Sainte-Hélène earlier this week, and the haut-gamme, fancy-ass, upscale and real expensive restaurant Hélène de Champlain closed and they are doing some sort of renovations on it. But what I didn’t know and fascinated me was the rose garden in front of it. Next year I’m going to have to go back earlier in the season. because it was kind of slim pickings in mid-September.
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Earlier in the week I went to Île Sainte-Hélène (more on that later) but while I was there I became a picture snapping fool! Besides these, of Alexander Calder’s Man, Three Disks (L’Homme), I also got pictures of most of the other public art and a whole bunch of roses (who would’ve thunk?!?).
Anyhows, Man, Three Disks (L’Homme), by Mr. Calder has got to be one of the more iconic statues, monuments pieces of public art in Montreal. But until earlier this week, I had never seen it, due to its location and the fact that I am not a real big fan of contemporary disco music (actually come to think of it, I’ve never been a fan of contemporary disco music even in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 00s – I think it takes me about 15 to 20 years or so before I like any dance music. If I remember correctly I didn’t get a copy of Amii Stewart’s Knock on Wood until the late 90s, but I digress).
But as I was saying, Man, Three Disks (L’Homme), by Mr. Calder is a pretty gosh darn impressive piece of work. I’ll leave it to you to do the reading up on it that can be found on the internet (one, two, three). One thing I did not know is that it was moved from its original location in 1991. At some point I’m going to have to go back to Île Sainte-Hélène (for other reasons) and see if I can find where it was originally.
And finally, if you want to see other pictures of it (both in its original location and the new one) try these.
Turn up the volume and boogie!
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Does anyone know anything about this sculpture in front of 1259 Saint Marc?
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A picture show for your edification. Blame it on the positive feedback on the previous ones I’ve been getting recently.
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Someone has a really good color matching program and likes hip hop and bixis.
Did I miss any? Has anyone seen any others?
OK, I made that one up myself. Labelle is part of the Desjardins advertisement campaign on the back of the bixi bicycles that our hip hop fan is mocking. But they also happen to be one of my mostest favorite bands in the entire know universe.
[Edit October 7: More modified Bixis here.]
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What is it about Montreal and place temporary sculpture exhibits in parks where junkies hang out? Last month I wrote about Robert Lorrain at the Parc des Faubourgs, and at about the same time as I was writing that, I discovered the Glen Le Mesurier exhibit called Arcane de Mer at Cabot Square.
Cabot Square, for those who don’t frequent it all that often, is across the street from the Pepsi Forum and is notorious for being a hangout for junkies, hookers, hustlers and other assorted members of the not-quite-ready-for-the-nine-to-five lifestyle. I, myself, can remember selling oregano cigarettes, 3 for $5 there before a Gentle Giant show there in the 1970s.
Yeah, I know it’s not a great photo, but if you squint you can make out what it says. For the francophobes reading this, it roughly translates as
Glen Le Mesurier is a prolific artist know for making environmental sculptures. For 25 years he has show his work in Europe and the United States. In Montreal his work is on display at Sunset Garden [Ed note: it sounds WAY better in French as Le Jardin du Crépuscule] a permanent exhibit in the hipster neighborhood, Mile End. There are over 100 of his sculptures all over the world, Montreal and even in some private homes and stores. This exhibit of 10 sculptures made out of steel recycled from trains and ships took over two years to make. In memory of the voyages that Cabot made. These sculptures form an allegorical triptych combining movement, shipbuilding and spirit of adventure.
Overall it’s a nice enough exhibit. I didn’t get (or see) and of the kineticism of the sculptures, nor did any of them remind me of shipbuilding or Giovanni Cabot. But maybe whomever wrote the offending paragraph on the sign didn’t actually have a chance to see the sculptures before writing what they wrote.
As none of the sculptures had titles (or had titles that I was able to ascertain) it’s tough to figure out what M. Le Mesurier had in mind. If you squint hard, this one can look like a ships wheel. But to my eye it looks way more like an eye or perhaps a compass. Then again, it also could be some sort of monument to a sun god or any number of other things depending on which way you look at it.
This one, I’m not certain what to make of it, a bunch of circles, and semicircles, arranged in a vaguely totemic fashion. It doesn’t make me think much about the sea or ships unless I squint hard and then perhaps, maybe it reminds me of something kind of like a lighthouse. But if M. Le Mesurier had decided to name the exhibit Arcane de Haida then the connection to totem poles would be much more evident. And what’s with the use of the word “Arcane” in the title? On one hand, if he wanted to keep things mysterious, secret and obscure, I would have suggested picking a title that didn’t attract attention to the mysterious, the secret and the obscure. But on the other hand, I can’t help but think that the title has something to do with Tarot cards, but there are only 10 sculptures, whereas there are 22 arcana major cards and 56 arcana minor cards so the numerology is not quite there.
I don’t quite know what to make of this one, especially since it has a hat on. The gears inside kind of confuse me as well. Up close it reminds me of a film projector. But I have a sinking suspicion, that I’m missing something.
This sculpture, appeared to me, to be placed in the wrong direction. It’s on the northwest side of Cabot Square, facing Lambert Closse. Which is all fine and dandy if you want the buses to be able to see what it looks like from the front. Because they are the only things on Lambert Closse. If whomever had installed it, had twisted it 180 degrees, then the denizens of the square would have been able to see it from the front.
No matter how hard I try the only thing I can think of when I see this sculpture, is Fozzie Bear. I think it has to do with what I would call “the mouth.”
However the only thing I can find about Fozzie Bear being at sea is from the 220th episode of the Muppet Show, with Petula Clark as the guest, where they did this sketch called “Sea Chantey.”
Which still leaves us stretching for meanings.
At which point it probably would be better to start talking about form. If you notice, three of the five sculptures so far are columns with a circular piece on top, frequently the circular piece on top has some sort of mass inside. For those that aren’t made to look like magnifying glasses, M. Le Mesurier still manages to work a lot of circular parts in and on to the sculptures.
Now other than Cabot being fairly instrumental in proving that the world was round, I don’t see any other connections between the sculptures themselves and “Arcane de Mer.” And the world being round isn’t exactly the most obscure fact around.
What’s not to like about really big rusted chains?
Front and back views of what I think is my favorite sculpture in the exhibit. I don’t know if it is because there is text on the metal, or because he is using an I-beam for a pedestal, or if it is due to the reproduction of the Roman aqueducts being stuck on the front, or something entirely different.
In a nutshell, with this piece M. Le Mesurier has exploded his normal methodology. Instead of having a circular piece with something insde it on top of a column, he has taken the guts (the stuff that would normally be inside the circle) and placed multiple circles around it (and also depending on your perspective, in it and on it). In effect exploding his typical style.
As a consequence, where the sculptures that look like a magnifying glass kind of focus your view on one spot, your eye ends up roaming all over the place on this one.
The only thing that comes to mind upon seeing this one, is Etta James’ song Tell Mama.
“…and I’ll make everything alright.” Granted there are no legs, and the sculpture isn’t quite as voluptuous as Etta James is, but those arms look extremely inviting and comforting. It might have something to do with the lack of detail in the face, and as a result you end up imposing your own ideas on it, and mine say “Etta James.”
The last two sculptures at Cabot Square. I find them kind of “meh” but you may think differently.
Overall, it’s nice to see that the city takes the initiative to install temporary sculpture exhibits in disadvantaged neighborhoods during the summer. And Glen Le Mesurier’s work is a far sight better than that by Robert Lorrain at the Parc des Faubourgs, but M. Le Mesurier still has a long ways to go if these works are examples of his latest work. These sculptures are far too similar, bordering on clichéd, the only thing that they have going for them is their massive nature, but after a while, even extremely large gets mundane.
Other than making the presumption that M. Le Mesurier used old bits of ships to create the works, I can see no connection to the sea (even an obscure one) and with a lack of titles trying to find a quote, deeper, unquote meaning is going to take just a little bit more time than I have to invest in M. Le Mesurier’s work.
Ultimately I just wish that the city would be able to install a better caliber of work in both Cabot Square and Parc des Faubourgs.
Howdy!
While I was at the Eaton Centre the other day I wandered up to the top floor and came across an exhibit of children’s pictures.
On the flip side were portraits of (what I presume are) the children who did the drawings.
And dispersed around were some wall panels that explained things.
And this is where my gums start flapping and I get a little bit agitated (it’s ok, I’ve had my blood pressure tested recently, and it’s ok). Ostensibly this is an exhibit of children’s self-portraits from around the world. And in going through it, it appeared that most of the children were from some pretty poor places. Or more bluntly there weren’t any pictures by middle-class children.
Which got me wondering how much money each of the children got for participating in the project, and how much money Gilles Porte got to travel the world to gather the self-portraits by disadvantaged youth around the world and then print them in a large scale format.
Heck it got me thinking how this must be one of the more effective uses of money by the Quebec government to raise awareness of the basic rights of children around the world, because there was not a single person on the entire floor while I went around taking photos.
And since they were trumpeting how the exhibit had been to 20 other French cities as well, I wondered if they had placed it in other places that got little to no traffic.
And then the thing that really got my bile flowing was this juxtaposition:
Now I realize you can’t really make out the portrait of Penda too easily, but see that Gap ad right next to it? Now please explain the difference between the two to me (other than the fact that they are of two very different children).
So as far as I can tell (please someone tell me that I’m wrong) the Quebec government spent good money on an photo exhibit in a mall that is being seen by no one and that is for the most part indistinguishable from advertisements.
I’d love to know who signed off on that one.