Tag Archives: The Work Ahead of Us

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Matthew Biederman, Guided Saccade

Howdy!

Triangles are a three sided polygon
What you see is what’s shown
Saccade is the fancy word for fast eye movement
Art by Matthew Biederman still has room for improvement.

Three screens at the end of the the hallway
Showing about 108 Right Triangles in an array
I remember “square of the length of the hypotenuse”
If I look closely I’m certain at least one of them is chartreuse.

Mr. Biederman used some kind of computerized tool
To make the triangles move and twist on an irregular schedule
Your eyes follow the motion
Guided Saccade lacks all emotion.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Sophie Bélair Clément, Proun Room

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A box in a box with some sense of history
Sometimes Russian Constructivism is just a mystery.
What El Lissitzky did in 1923 might be obvious to some
Since I had to look it up, it’s obvious that I’m just plain dumb.

A copy of a copy of a room filled with abstract symbols, the room Proun
When stripped of the art, might as well be a ruin.
To see the original copy you need to go to Eindhoven
I can’t figure out why the copy of the copy (without the art) was chosen.

Trying to understand who made what choices to exhibit and why
Sometimes it looks like demand was less than supply.
Thankfully in the Triennale there’s a awful lot of art all in one place
There’s always more to see (that could be better) in the worst case.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Mathieu Beauséjour, Icarus : Acéphale

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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

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Video, Visual Art

Chris ‘Zeke’ Hand on Sylvain Baumann and Florine Leoni’s Maleen, ich beneide Dich in manchen Augenblicken um Deine kühle, vornehme und bewusste Distanz zur Umwelt.

Howdy!

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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Video, Visual Art

Lorna Bauer, Éminence Grise

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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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Steve Bates, Concertina

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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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Dean Baldwin, Ship in a Bottle, Barbados Rhum

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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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Magali Babin, Bruits de fond

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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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

Jean-Pierre Aubé, 31 soleils (dawn chorus)

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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.

Art, Humorous Verse, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Video, Visual Art

numa amun, Citadelle des sens

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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.