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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Howdy!
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.
If you squint, it looks kind of like an elongated tank trap.
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.
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.
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.
Gotta love the bureaucrat who decided how to deal with the skateboarders.
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.
I would have embedded the video from Radio Canada’s archives, but I can’t.
Then finally, more on Olivier Debré, and here, too.
Howdy!
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.
Howdy!
In this article by Martine Turenne from Agence QMI, Simon Blais is quoted as saying that he raised the price on a Lemieux painting he is selling by $300,000 and that buying art is “always a safe bet.”
In this article by John Archer in the Gazette, he writes “buy pieces that will give you pleasure during your lifetime and not to worry about the investment component unless you play in that rarefied field of the ultra-rich collector.”
Who are you going to believe? The art dealer with a vested interest in selling art? Or the investment adviser who also happens to collect art?
Howdy!
A little bit cliched, but one of my favorite pieces of public art in town.
More information on Roger Gaudreau can be found here.
In the spring and summer, the grass does not get mowed so you need to look close in order to find it.
And while Le jardin punk is fine as a name, I think I would have preferred if M. Gaudreau had punned off of Rocher-Percé in the Gaspé.
I’m not as much of a fan of this as I am of Le jardin punk.
To me it only works as a foil.
Howdy!
Built in 1937 by Lucien F. Kéroack.
+This is the 39th in an occasional series of videos on the fountains of Montreal+