In the piercing cold of winter, waiting impatiently for spring to come, the Frisky Kids can give you something to warm up. Their first EP album "The Beach," is an altogether feel-good album that defies Montreal's bitter winters.
"We called out EP 'The Beach' because it's the name of our dingy jam space, we named it that because it was the middle of winter and wanted a warm sounding place to go" The band responds when I inquire about their album title.
If the Beach is where this album was created, that is definitely what it sounds like. The upbeat tempo of their music and enthusiastic, go-along-with-it stage presence makes them a group that is pleasing to watch and even more enjoyable to listen to. Playing music with a nostalgia for warmer days, the Frisky Kids are a Montreal based garage-rock band that should not be ignored.
]]>The trio of frisky kids, Calum Dowbiggin Glew (vocals, guitar), Matisse Gill (vocals, bass) and Matt Grant (vocals, drums, keyboard), grew up off the island in Hudson, Qc, and then moved to a Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue basement where they developed their sound and received many noise complaints. Gill explains in our interview that:
"Most of our inspiration comes from things that we've experienced as kids growing up off the island in Hudson"
They are the modest, fun-loving 'boys next door' and their lyrics, music, and attitude reflect that. The Frisky Kids originally suited up in dress shirts and the occasional tie which creates a paradox between their 'frisky' kid nature, and their grownup clothes. However, Gill states to me in our interview that they create the visual style of the 60s to match the influence of the 60s on their music.
"We eschewed white shirts and black ties being worn all the time because we really dig the mod look from the sixties. We still tend to dress semi-formally on stage. It has always helped us stand out as a group"
"The Beach" was released almost a year ago and the band is back in the studio to work on their newest tunes. However, just because the Frisky Kids will be coming out with more music, doesn't mean that this first album should be passed up. The catchy songs and upbeat tempo from their first EP "The Beach," show the influence of an interesting combination of the Beatles, The White Stripes, and The Black Lips. In addition it shows the influence of the instrumental sound of the early Black Keys.
Their favorite bands have a large influence on their music and how they perform, Gill explains that:
"We love energy and live music, which is probably why we gravitate towards garage rock music. Our favorite bands are the ones who put on a wicked show. Our sound tries to reflect our live performances as much as they can."
After listening to the first song on the album, "Echanté," I was mesmerized by the vocals. They sound like Jack White from the White Stripes minus the drawn out nasal whine that sometimes occurs in the White Stripes' vocals.
The distinct vocals combined with a fast-picked guitar, strong bass of Matisse Gill, and an interesting combination of drums and keyboard, melds together to create a distinct, catchy fusion of - need I say - frisky tunes.
Echanté - Won't You Come Around
The first song on their EP plays around with tempo and rhythm. It starts off by catching your attention with a beachy sounding hook, but then slows the song down with a guitar intro. The tempo soon changes to a fast paced groovy beat. What is really great is the bass. The bass is not hidden in the background of the guitar, it actually harmonizes with the guitar and keeps with the fast tempo of the song.
The best part of this song is the chorus and the lyrics. The tempo slows down for the chorus and the drums, guitar, and bass, work together to keep a strong constant beat. It has a good rock-your-head-back-and-forth rhythm. It feels as if you walk up four stairs and then come back down again. "Echanté." Then bye, bye rocking-horse chorus, hello fast picked guitar. The rhythm and tempo of this song is constantly changing, ensuring that the listener never gets bored.
The lyrics in this song are especially interesting and relatable. In an interview Glew explains that the inspiration for that song came from a personal experience: "I think it's happened to most people. You're gunning for some girl and this guy swoops her away and you have no idea how he did it because he seems like a total dick to you." "Echanté" is the last words that said 'dick' says after he leaves the romantic prospect.
The catchy 60s rock and roll style beat of this song combined with a catchy chorus and inspired lyrics make this great song to begin their EP.
All The Girls
Similar to "Echanté," this song has a lot going on. The gritty guitar and the catchy chorus and lyrics, had me dancing around in my living room in no time.
"The song "All the Girls" is about night clubs and us kind of being disenfranchised with that whole scene," explains Gill.
The first lyrics sung in the song are: "All the girls with the songs stuck in their head," and the lyrics of this song will definitely get stuck in your head.
What is really great about this song is that it showcases each band-mates talents, from the vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums. The solid drum beat of this song really drives it to musical success. In addition, the vocals are fun. The old-school sound and drawn out wooo's keep the song upbeat and fun. In this song, the vocals digress from Jack White's voice and turn into something of its own: garage-rock with a 60s Beatles twang.
The absolute best part of this song is the keyboard. The keyboard persists throughout the song but it is really showcased at the end. It is like an 80s church-Sunday school rebellion. The keyboard shows the influence of bands like the Doors and the Who; but what it really shows is the Frisky Kids' versatility and knowledge of rock styles so that they can switch up the garage-rock style with little tastes music through of time.
Robbing You
"Robbing You" is the type of garage-rock song that would definitely have the neighbours coming by with noise complaints. The gritty guitar, heavy base, and loud percussion make a rock song that would make people head-bang their craniums enthusiastically but not to the point where they would break out into a violent mosh-pit. It is a crowd-surf-during-the-guitar solo type of song. It shows a harder, darker side of the Frisky Kids.
The lyrics depict a guy who is robbing/taking advantage of a girl at a party, but then he loses her. This type of scenario contrasts the Frisky Kids' name and manner. In an interview Glew states that: "It's kind of an ironic name, too, because we're not frisky. When we thought of 'frisky,' it meant 'really forthcoming with girls,' which our circle [of friends] knows we're not like that. It was a kind of joke." With this knowledge, I can have a little giggle while listening to the song and enjoying the cyclical beat of "Robbing You."
On My Own
If I were to choose my least favorite song on the album it would probably be this one. I would choose it, not because it is bad, it is still good, but because it is only constantly good. There is not much change in rhythm or tempo as seen in the other songs. There is a change, however, in the bridge. It is a smooth transition, and it goes into a slower darker tempo. It is not as upbeat as the other songs, which is understanding, since it is about being alone. That type of loneliness can really slow down the tempo of a 'frisky' kid. It's okay boys, I get you.
The consistency of this song still keeps it going as a solid working piece. It has a 60s The Rolling Stones feel which just makes you want to sway back and forth in peaceful grooviness. When the song breaks down at the bridge the listener does too and the sway gets sadder and more dramatic as the beat gets stronger.
The chorus, of course, is probably the best part of the song. The simplicity of it is what makes this chorus beautiful. The lyrics: "I'm on my own," combines the lead vocals along with an echo of the backup. The combination of Glew's distinct voice combined with the smooth echo of Gill's creates an old-school sound that is kind of dreamy.
Rooftops
"Rooftops" is the last song on the EP and it keeps up the 60s rock trend that the other songs had set a path for. It is very 60s Beatles rock-esq. Everything in this song is consistent to the style. Both the vocals and the instrumentals make smooth transitions from verse to chorus to bridge.
It does not have the upbeat tone of the first three songs, nor does it have the slow grooviness of "On My Own". It is more of a hopeful goodbye song despite what the lyrics are: "So if you want to reach me baby, I guess I'll give you my name, just scream on top of the rooftops darling, and I will reach you that day". The lyrics tell a poetic story that should definitely be considered and listened to carefully.
The best part of this song is the vocals and the guitar solo. It is probably the longest guitar solo on the whole album and it does well with the song and the circumstance. The vocals are all over the place, but remain awesome and really facilitate the movement and transitions of the whole song.
Overall, this is a great first EP by the Frisky Kids. They were really able to create sounds and lyrics that both work together to make upbeat and catchy tunes. I definitely recommend that others go listen to them, you can check them out on Bandcamp, Facebook, and various other social media. They are currently in the studio recording a new album which will be released May 14th, 2015. Half of the songs from the EP are being rerecorded and the other half will be brand new music!
"We're playing a show on the 14th of May at Divan Orange to launch the album. We'll also be going on tour in early July through Ontario to promote the album. We're also working with a couple of companies to have the songs played in various media."
The Frisky Kids have a promising future in music and have a busy 2015 ahead of them. Don't forget to drop in and see them on May 14th at Divan Orange. They like cats, bagels, and rock music so check them out!
]]>("It is a new art movement of new photography facilitated by this electronic medium." From left to right: @teekolee, @jfsavaria, and @mariaaah19.)
#Letmetakeaselfie: share it with the world, gain a few likes, and gain a few followers. #Wanderlust: document your life and travels. #Goodeats: show everyone what you're eating, where you're eating, and when you're eating it. #Citylandscape: capture the beautiful city that you live in.
#Artistic movement? Instagram can be used to document the user's life through photographs. In many cases the photos are taken with precision and filters are added with tact to create truly beautiful photographs. Can this movement of photographic documentation be considered as art?
]]>With Instagram it's very easy to download the free app, take a picture with a phone, and share it with the world. Photos of selfies, food, architecture and landscapes litter the newsfeeds of various social media. In an article titled "Why Do People Use Instagram," by Alicia Eler, the author explains that "the hardcore users of the Instagram app are anything but lazy. In fact, they might be using this tiny app to create art and build beautiful new communities." Amateur photographers have the opportunity to share their work with others around the world, as well as the chance to document their lives through photographs. It is a new art movement of new photography facilitated by this electronic medium.
Instagram was created in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. To the surprise and happiness of the creators, the app generated 10 million users in just a couple of hours. On the Instagram website in the frequently asked questions, it explains that Instagram is "a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.
The intent of Instagram was to connect people; however, that quickly escalated to an artistic outlet. Instagram's goal which "allow[s] you to experience moments in your friends' lives through pictures as they happen," turned into a competition of who can capture the most artistic photo of their food or faces.
The many filters of Instagram transform regular photos into stylized art pieces. Instagram includes "stylistic filters, frames, and effects to photos, which can--by tapping one of 16 [now 20] options--turn a straightforward snapshot of a housecat into what looks like a weathered Polaroid time-capsuled from 1977," says one reporter. Becoming an amateur photographer is as simple as buying a smartphone and downloading the Instagram app, "by investing in the smartphone, you're secretly also investing in photography - and in that sense, everyone is a photographer."
Instagram is a way to get inspired and share with others. However, as with all art, there can be bad art. It is easy to 'snap' a photo with a phone and post it onto Instagram. However, the chances of the photograph being a nice picture are slim if it is blurred, overexposed, or too dark. It takes a certain amount of skill to take a photo with a phone similar to how it takes skill to use a real camera. The medium is easily accessible, but the skills are acquired through practice. Even then, everything in the app is made to be easy to learn and easy to use.
(Instagrammers document their lives through artistic photographs. Photos by: @kaila_kaycee, @greenthumbfrank, and @hannahjost)
Not all people join and use Instagram for art and photography's sake; however, the person takes part in a new artistic movement when they share a photo. A study focusing on consumer production in social media networks shows that the main reasons people join Instagram are for "sharing, documentation, seeing, community, creativity and therapy" (McCune 58). These motivations combine to create a sense of a creative community as an "exchange of vision as an enriched cultural experience" (64). The study explains that "The culture of engaging and supporting image-making on Instagram empowers a sense of community which proves significantly motivating to its users" (67). The motivation of community allows individuals to share their lives, ideas, and photos on Instagram to create an Instagram art movement.
("Instagram does not ruin the quality of the medium of photography because quality isn't defined by accessibility." Photos by: @alleestar, @francisduval, and @teekolee.)
Sharing photos allows for instant rewards by others 'liking' the photo. Whether it is five likes or hundreds, someone is looking at the photos and double tapping to 'like.' McCune's study explains that the instant reward is one of the motivations for people's use of Instagram. He explains that: "by sharing an image on Instagram, users may 'find out how people might react to it,' creating a feedback loop that is faster than previous photo-sharing cultures" (66). Instagram makes it easy to create, easy to share, and easy to give and get feedback: it is feel good photography.
If Instagram is so easy and simple does it diminish the actual task of making art? The Guardian writer, Jonathan Jones, states that "Photography can easily degenerate into a pseudo-art, with millions of people all taking pictures of the same things and all thinking we are special." If the photograph is beautiful, does it really matter if it is taken with a thousand dollar camera or a phone? A Graphic Design student studying at Dawson College explains that "our teachers tell us that everything has already been done, you just need to try to do it differently" and Instagram allows for that type of individual and creative experimentation.
Instagram is a movement of people coming together and showing each other their lives and artistic skills. Instagram is "a virtual museum of art," explains the Graphic Design student. She explains that although Instagram diminishes the aesthetic feeling of photography, it brings the art to a more human and recognizable level because of its social availability. She describes that Instagram "has become a museum for aspiring artists." Instagram encourages individuals to be creative and share what inspires them. Francis Duval, an avid Instagrammer from Montreal, explains in an interview that: "when Instagram came out, [he] found inspiration from a lot of photographers and designers and architects. [They] were all using the same tool, the iPhone [or smartphone]." Duval uses Instagram to help inspire his own work. Instagram does not ruin the quality of the medium of photography because quality isn't defined by accessibility.
("A virtual museum of art." Instagram is used to share art to encourage or gain inspiration. Photos by: @supersmashmegh, @hannahjost, and @alleestar)
Along with an access to instant photography come abusers. Some Instagramer's feeds are filled with photographs of themselves and only themselves. A selfie is now a thing in photography. Narcissistic Instagrammer's make it difficult to consider Instagram serious art medium. However, selfies can also be creative and challenging. A cat beard selfie, for example, is both interesting and challenging. Selfie is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is defined as: "A photographic self-portrait; esp. one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media." Overall, a selfie is just a self-portrait, whether taken with a tad of narcissism or for comedic objectives. It is easy to take one and now it is even easier to share it.
("Combine self-portrait with diary and now something is really happening: art." Photos by: @caitlynnainsley with a couples selfie, @brockohurn with a instagram portrait, and @coma.noir with an unconventional selfie.)
Everyone has that one follower who cannot resist taking a selfie a day and it can be pretty annoying. The Graphic Design student explains that: "If you have only selfies on your Instagram feed it can be very telling of a person, it is like an open diary." Combine self-portrait with diary and now something is really happening: art. In the past self-portraits were always done, but they were painted and not as accessible. Now everyone can have one easily.
Instagram allows for the expression of oneself through photography. It's easy, it's accessible, it's telling, and it encourages creativity and community. Welcome to #modern #photography, express yourself, share your photos, and inspire others' artistic ventures.
("Amateur photographers have the opportunity to share their work with others around the world, as well as the chance to document their lives through photographs." Photos by: @jfsavaria, @o_robi, and @alleestar.)
Bibliography:
Abu-Qaoud, Malak. "Interview with an Instagrammer: @francisduval." TheMain. Jan 28. 2015. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://www.themainmtl.com/2015/01/28/instagrammer-francis-duval/>
Eler, Alicia. "Why Do People Use Instagram?" ReadWrite. 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2015 <http://readwrite.com/2012/03/14/study_why_do_people_use_instagram>
Eler, Alicia. "The Rapid Growth of Instagram-Powered Art Shows." ReadWrite. 2 May. 2012. Web. 8 Fed. 2015. <http://readwrite.com/2012/05/02/the-rapid-growth-of-instagram-powered-art-shows>
"FAQ" Instagram. n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <https://instagram.com/about/faq/>
Jones, Jonathan. "Why Does Our Instagram Generation Think its Snaps are So Special?" TheGuardian. 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/feb/03/instagram-generation-amateur-photographers-art-plagiarism>
Lagorio-Cafkin, Christine. "Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Founders of Instagram." 30 Under 30: 2011. Inc Magazine., 9 April. 2012. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://www.inc.com/30under30/2011/profile-kevin-systrom-mike-krieger-founders-instagram.html>
McCune, Zachary. "Consumer Production in Social Media Networks: A Case Study of the 'Instagram' iPhone App." Diss. University of Cambridge. Jun 9. 2011. Web. Feb 20. 2015. <https://www.scribd.com/doc/58386692/17/IV-Six-Types-of-User-Motivation>
"Selfie" Def. Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford English Dictionary: University Press, n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
(A cat beard selfie is both artistic and challenging. Photo by: @waronmachines.)
]]>You have entered a museum, you are going to see artwork done by one of your favorite artists. You have been waiting for months. Your heart is beating with excitement as you enter the building - but wait - you start to wander. You start to questions yourself, "is this the right place?" You start to sweat and get anxious. You are now uncomfortable, sticky, and hot. You finally get into the right room, but now you are too disgruntled to focus. You zip through the exhibit, you have barely seen anything. You have become too anxious and need to leave. You have lost your chance to successfully enjoy your visit.
]]>If you have ever been to a museum and been so baffled and overwhelmed by the environment, people, and artwork, then you haven't prepared yourself enough. The colors and the organizational system of a museum can be confusing. This confusion can cause you to not get the full potential of enjoyment out of your visit. Therefore, this handy set of instructions will help you to successfully get the most out of your museum experience.
1. Research
2. Entrance
3. Viewing
4. Leaving
Now you know the steps on how to get the most out of your museum visit experience. You do not have to be anxious anymore. You can visit museums with the confidence of a professional. You can now enjoy the exhibit that you have been looking forward to. Enjoy your visit.
]]>I heard you were thinking of adding either "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" or "Girl You'll be a Woman Soon" to your show on Thursday. Did your birthday influence this decision?
Oh yeah definitely. I'm in a spot where I'm not quite a woman, but I can't technically be a girl, so I thought that was funny. I think we're going to go with "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon," which obviously fits us way better. Britney Spears was just kind of a joke, but still.
And now that you've had a birthday are you now officially a grown up or are you not quite there yet?
Oh I'm so not there. Will it ever happen? I don't know.
MUSIC AND BACKGROUND IN GENERAL:
When and how did music become your passion?
It happened kind of by accident. I started playing music in my late teens. Around 16 I started picking up a guitar and I kind of had an instant knack for song writing. I started writing songs, but I really couldn't sing. I had a really weak shaky voice. But I loved playing music so much that I got my sister to sing and we started a band with our friend Louis Burns, an incredible musician. So I stood in the shadows there, and fell in love with playing music and writing music. Being the front woman of a band seemed like it was never a reality. But things just kept changing and it was nice because I guess talent just took over.
Do you think you have evolved since the release of your EP?
Oh god yes. I was a scared baby in diapers then. I was terrified to sing. Before the EP came out I had never even sung at a show before. It was all very new and terrifying, but I had the support of Montreal and the great musicians here. So I just started getting confidant, figuring out my style, and growing as an artist. I've come so far, I can't believe that little child had become me.
You're originally from BC, but you moved to Montreal, what prompted the move?
I found myself in a really weird place around 19 where I moved from Victoria to Vancouver to play in a few bands, but it wasn't really panning out. So, I followed my sister who moved to Toronto and was working at a record label there. We had our little band together and I just wanted to make music work for me. But in Toronto she didn't really have time for me. I ended up not doing much and found myself feeling very alone and realised I didn't have anything going on. So I moved back with my parents all depressed, trying to figure out what to do and I started working on my EP. I managed to get Sam Goldberg to come play guitar for the songs because he was recording in my dad's studio. He mentioned to me that if I was ever in Montreal we could totally play at a show or band together sometime because he liked the EP we just made. That was enough for me to get on a plane to Montreal.
GEOGRAPHY AND MUSIC:
How does Montreal attract young artists like yourself?
Another big one for me was mostly people. One of my friends, she's an incredible photographer and one of my best friends from high school, moved to Montreal right after graduation. She would call me all the time and ask me what I'm doing and I'd just say "oh just sitting in my room watching the rain what about you?" And she was always like "oh I'm at an art show, or a concert, or an event with a mimosa." She was like "come to Montreal Kandle it's all art and fun." And she would tell me that every day until I eventually caved and said "wow what a really magical place I should probably follow her."
Now that you're travelling and touring do you still call Montreal home?
Yeah I still feel totally spread out, but it's definitely still home. I'm part of a community, part of a scene, and even though I'm rarely home when I am it's nice.
Do you enjoy being on tour? (and what do you like or dislike of it?)
I really like it. I love getting to play for new people and venues. And your band becomes your family and things get hilarious real fast.
At our level, for dislikes, we are still struggling and new and everything is a little difficult all the time. There is never a guarantee that people will come to your show. There's never anything set in stone that things are going to be okay. And money is tight and non-existent and those are definitely major stresses while you're on the road trying to make something and wondering hey how am I going to pay my rent?
Are you excited to be playing in Montreal?
I am! I'm really excited, it's the first show in Montreal since we released the record. And I'm excited to play a show back home where we are most supported and also more calm. I was so nervous about the record launch. I remember vomiting and shaking before we played last time because we were under so much pressure and it had been so long since we played while we were preparing to release. But since then we had played a ton of shows. We've had so much fun and the band is feeling great and is looking forward to having some fun this time and not being such a spaz.
Do you usually get nervous performing for a crowd? Does it make a difference that you will be playing in front of a Montreal audience?
Yeah I definitely get nervous before playing for crowds. But sometimes it's almost easier in a place where people don't know you because you know that there are no expectations, then you're the pleasant surprise of the evening. But here we're actually on the radio and have real fans so I feel a bit of pressure and nerves, but I really always do.
Do you have any favorite memories playing in Montreal?
I think probably both times at Osheaga. They were the best days of my life. It is one of my favorite festivals by far. Just being able to be a part of it in your own city when you know so many people there. There are so many bands there and getting to actually get a spot is an amazing feeling. "Like, hey I'm playing today with Nick Cave, what are you doing?"
You travel back and forth across Canada, does have an effect on your music?
I don't think it has that much of an effect on my music I mean definitely it's the life style I have, where I'm back and forth and travelling all the time. It makes me somewhat of lonely person which would definitely add to my music. I don't really have much of a social life so I definitely get very lonely and sad, so that would probably have the biggest effect on the music.
Does being a Canadian musician restrict you in any way?
Oh god yes. It's the hardest thing ever. We are the last country to get taken seriously by the United States and all through Europe. We have to fight to get heard. People struggle to give Canadians a chance, I find. And in our own country it's hard because it's so big and spread out. So touring costs are through the roof. Even when we got out to BC for the first time it took us years to be able to afford it even though it was in the home town where I'm from. It just wasn't even a possibility. So there are many struggles with being a Canadian musician.
LYRICS AND SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
Your lyrics seem to come from an old soul, what inspires this wisdom?
It's nothing I really try to go for, that I'm conscious of. Writing is very therapeutic for me. A lot of people think that I am going to be this dark gloomy person because of my music but for me that is just one side of me one bit of my energy that I get out through music. So I usually write when something is effecting me. Whether it is someone I'm worried about or something going on in my life that is keeping me up at night, which is when I start writing. And I just usually write a song all at once, music, lyrics, everything, and it just pours out in an hour and I send it to Sam and ask "is this good?"
In "It's Not Up to Me", the end of the music video addresses women with self-image problems, does this come from any personal experience?
Yeah, that's one of the most personal ones that I have ever written. It is about someone who was very close to me who went through a very dark time, and it went to a point where we thought we were going to lose her that she wasn't going to last. So I wrote that for her because nothing else was working and she wasn't listening to anybody and wasn't taking any advice. She closed herself off to the world. I wasn't planning on recording that song, but shortly after, she started improving and help did work and she pushed me to put the song on the record. We ended up making the music video as like a true story of what happened. Then we sat with the Canadian Women's foundation to try to send the message to young girls that every girl is beautiful and that you're never alone. It's a great foundation, it was something really great to do. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to cry when I play it
Is there a song from your own music that you feel like you have a particular connection to? Is there one that you dislike?
Not really, but there are certain songs I don't like playing live. Because it's funny, when I record and write I like to do certain things, like vocal things, that sound really great on record, such as singing low, I like singing really low. But when you're on the live stage with a band of five people who are really loud and noisy, you can't hear anything! So I end up raising the key for when we play live because I can't hear anything. For songs like "Give Me A Pill," that has dirty, loud guitars and a really low vocal, I find it so frustrating. The boys fight me on it all the time because they always want to play it.
Different people have any different interpretations of what your music sounds like; rock, blues, folk, indie, and what genre it is? How would you yourself describe your music?
Nobody seems to want to make up their mind. But for me I really have no idea, I struggle, and I get peoples references, like "you sound like a bit of this and this and this," and I'm like okay. I really don't know. I guess I'm in the wide general genre of rock and I guess you can narrow it down to bits of indie and folk and alternative, but I don't know I'm just writing you can call it what you want.
Are there any people or bands or specific sounds that have inspired your own sound?
Oh yeah for sure. I'm always getting inspired by Tarentino movies so that's a big one for me, and artists like Nick Cave and Tom White and PJ Harvey. They always seem to have that extra bit of cool and creativity that definitely gets my wheels turning.
Did you have an old-west image in your head when you wrote "Demon?" Where did this type of style come from?
I actually wrote most of that after I watched Django. I just imagined digging those graves like "ooohh ooooh," just singing those sad deep sounds. And the sounds of the whips and chains and things like that. I really got into it. I wrote that song and then brought it to Sam to hear what he had to add to it. The drummer we used on the record was the same guy who we used on the EP who's this amazing Native guy. He actually used a sacred beat that he had to get permission from the elders from his tribe to use. It's in the solo, it's the sound of a limping animal or a heartbeat. So he had to bring the lyrics to his tribe and get permission, I was so nervous. So there are a lot of cool ideas coming into one song which is what I think makes it have that sound.
Do you have any new projects in the works?
I've been writing lots as always I really have no idea what the timeframe is for making the next record. I'm still really hoping that we'll get this one out somehow in the US and hopefully in Europe. And be able to keep riding off of this record for a while because we worked so hard on it! I never know, I'm just flowing with it.
THE ARTIST, HERSELF:
Have you ever experienced any sort of writers block? If so, how were you able to get out of it?
Sometimes, it's funny because I write so much and am constantly writing and having ideas and scribbling things down. So a writer's block for me is never more than two weeks. But sometimes I get a panic, like, I don't know what my sound is anymore and what my vibe is. But I think that usually coincides to me not liking the music on my iPod. Like, I over listened to everything I like so I'm not feeling musical, I'm not getting excited by anything. I usually find the best time to write, whether it is like a movie or an album, but something that makes you really excited about it and makes you want to create something really great too. So I just kind of have to go out and discover something. Or it just happens when I'm just really pissed off which seems to happen a lot.
After you graduated from high-school you studied photography, did your photography skills come before music, or did they both evolve simultaneously? Why did you chose to pursue one but not the other?
I started around the same time. I definitely took photography more seriously. I was working as a photographer at a school. I was shooting bands, portraiture, and weddings. I actually thought I was going to make a career out of it. But, I was always in to doing both, music just seemed less realistic to me. It wasn't until I moved to Montreal that I realised how competitive it is here for photography, everybody is a photographer here in Montreal. I couldn't get any work and I wrote a lot of people and I tried to put myself out there and I didn't find one job. But I started getting a lot of attention for music and got shows booked, and it just worked, so I guess that was a sign.
Kandle, an emerging Canadian artist struggles to get her music out into the world, but she has the talent and the positive mindset that an artist needs to succeed. I wished Kandle good luck on her show and tour; hoping that this star will keep on blazing.
(Photo credit: Olivia Robinson)
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The spot lights flashed off her golden mini dress as Kandle Osborne slinked onto stage as her band, the Krooks, performed the James Bond theme song. In the intimate bar-like atmosphere of Montreal's Cabaret Mile-End, Kandle and The Krooks were playing for the first time since the release of her album In Flames. She stood sly and shining, looking like a sleek cat surrounded by four adorably scruffy dogs. The crowd, a mixture of young and old, all pressed close to the stage and moved to the music as she sang in a sultry, bluesy voice.
]]> This young blond banged beauty is emerging into the music scene like a burning flame. Born in Vancouver, Canada, she is the daughter of Neil Osborne, the front man for the old band 54-40. Kandle's cousin, Sarah Osborne, who opened her show, is also extremely talented. She sang in her deep hypnotic bluesy voice to warm up the audience. Kandle's musical family submerged her into a world of music, specifically, rock and roll. What is amazing about Kandle is that she never seriously practiced guitar until she was in her late teens. In addition to that, she had never sung in front of a crowd until after her self-titled EP came out.At about age 14, Kandle found she had the knack for song writing and even though she never sang, she would have her sister, Coral Osborne, or her friend, Louis Burns, to sing the lyrics for her. Eventually, Kandle, her sister, and Louis Burns formed their first band, The Blue Violets, which provided Kandle with the stage experience and confidence she needed to go out on her own. Her father is now her producer. She explains in a CBC interview that he is the best one to have around because he allows her to make her own mistakes and guides her without really telling her what to do. She states that he understand hers and "speak[s] Kandle."
Kandle now calls Montreal home. She moved from Vancover in 2012 to Montreal to work on her album and be closer to Montreal's music and arts scene. Kandle now lives a divided life between Vancouver and Montreal.
Kandle's lyrics and sound come from a spirit much wiser and older than the 24-year-old artist; perhaps, it's her early exposure to music and "bad girl" teenage years.
"As the years went on I just got more jaded, bitter and sassy and dark, and the music reflects that"
A combination of styles and sounds, her music combines blues, rock, and folk music. Along with her angelic and raspy voice, she is able to create an eerie sound that hits you to the bone and makes you want to sing along at the top of your lungs. Kandle and the Krooks really know their sound. Every song is connected by a string which weaves all the songs in harmony. While each song varies, each song is still in synchronization with the rest.
At their recent concert in Montreal on October 16th, 2014, Kandle and the Krooks performed songs from her EP, her album In Flames, and a couple of new unreleased songs. The roundabout sound of one of her new unreleased songs, about sleeping with your boss, is both fun and sassy and foreshadows the wonderful and creative music to follow.
Inspired by her environment, Kandle created "Demon" after she watched Tarantino's western film, Django Unchained. When creating the song "Small" for her EP album Kandle incorporated the sound of chains. At the show I was amazed and awed when the drummer took out a string of chains and used it as an instrument. This use of unlikely instruments makes her music real and gives it meaning.
When I first heard her song "It's Not Up to Me," I fell in love, this music spoke to me. I don't listen to music with lyrics that mean nothing, I don't listen to music that has no punch, no specialty. I want music that is real. Kandle is real.
The lyrics in "It's Not Up to Me," speak of women's self-image problems and its consequences. It is based on Kandle's experiences with a friend. As she spoke to me in our interview she said that often when she is singing this song on stage, she can't help but tear up. At the end of the official music video Kandle provides a message to the women in her audience: "To help a girl believe in herself and realize she matters, visit canadianwomen.org."
Kandle's nervousness and shyness just makes her more relatable. Prior to the making of her EP album She did not have the confidence to sing solo and still suffers from nervousness before each set. This to me, just makes her more real. If she's real, her music is more genuine, and it feels more. The reality of it is twined into the lyrics and the melody. She is shy and nervous, and that's awesome because it gives hope for her listeners that they can be strong too. "I'm nervous about everything always," she states. At her show she expressed her nervousness to the audience before singing her song "All That I Need," her bands mates needed to reassure her and encourage her to sing the song from her EP album. She giggled and hesitated then said "Fine!" and belted out the song. Her nervousness transformed into complete confidence when she began to sing. Her shyness melted away and she became a sultry, bluesy, rock goddess.
Although she is young, she is on track to a successful career. Having already won the praise of key figures in the Canadian music scene and played at some key events like Montreal's own Osheaga festival and Pop Montreal. She confessed that during a previous gig in Kamloops there were only thirteen people in the audience. Glad to be back in Montreal in front of a familiar audience, she expressed her happiness to be playing in front of a real crowd of people that know her and hear her on the radio where she can be frequently heard on CHOM FM.
Although spread across Canada, Kandle still has her band which feels like family. Even though touring is a daily struggle for her and the band, she loves what she's doing. The turnout of her Montreal show, shows that her popularity is growing in Montreal and across Canada. The flame has been lit and Kandle is on fire.
(Photo credit: Olivia Robinson)
]]>Work on the farm never ended. We did our sugaring in the old fashioned way, with a team of horses. They were a dream team and had giant hearts for the work that they loved. Those who came to help us travelled back in time through the pull of the sleigh, the jingle of the harnesses, and the steam which rose up from the horses' backs. I drove the horses, but I was so small that I was not able to see over the sap tub, but I could steer straight and that was sufficient. In the summer, the tractor that we hayed with was only one step above horse and prone to overheating. I drove the tractor, but had to hang off the side of the steering wheel and use all my weight and strength to turn. We worked in the searing heat and endured the sting of wasps and the prick of the hay. Sticky with sweat, rivulets would make clean tracks down our dirty bodies and the hay dust clung to our wet skin. Every other day meant some sort of mechanical breakdown of the tractor or haying machinery. The work was hard, but we persisted.
]]> When I went away from the farm for school, I experienced separation anxiety from the place that I loved; however I was introduced into a world of art. What I learned about persistence in the past followed me. In my art, I know that my paintings will eventually have a shape, even though at first they might look horrible. I still return to the country on weekends where I engulf myself in everything horse. But I cannot ignore my artistic side so I incorporated both into my life. Riding them, training them, and painting them. I also work with them at a horse stables near my farm in order to pay for school. Here, I have experienced life or death trials. It's an artist's dream but also a terror. The horses are beautiful, the work physical. I work in the outdoor elements, whether rain, snow, or extreme heat. My life is often threatened by flying hooves and rearing horses, and my body is often marred by bite-marks.When I dealt with my first horse freak-out everything moved in slow motion. My heart beat rapidly and my legs shook. Adrenaline. I felt like collapsing and it took all my strength to keep the horse under control. I bent its head to keep it from rearing, to keep it from running around me. My body went into auto-mode: survival-mode. The horse leapt. Its hooves came close to my thighs as it jumped away from me. I barred it by putting one hand on the lead rope under its chin, and the other on its shoulder and I pushed. We took a couple of steps forward then it twisted around me and faced me. I knew what was coming next so I quickly moved back to its shoulder as it reared. I was not afraid; I was prepared. I was cautious. A wild horse is like a jack in the box. I felt, saw, and sensed its muscles getting tighter and pop! The tension broke, it exploded, its hooves flew, its neck arched and it reared. When finally I got it into its stall I could breathe again. I had sand in my eyes and in my mouth, its hooves had come that close. I knew that I would suffer from whiplash once the adrenalin faded, but I still won. There is something beautiful about seeing a horse it its grand moments close up. It's dangerous and rewarding at the same time. One doesn't get this type of reward working a student job in a grocery store. I could have gotten seriously injured, or died, but I didn't, I persisted.
Living on a farm and working with horses helped me to appreciate life. I am able to look at the clouds and think hey, those are amazing clouds. I can appreciate life because I know about death and I am reminded about it on a daily basis. I can appreciate the sun because I know what it's like to have to work in the rain. I can appreciate art because it, in turn, appreciates life. It captures life in both its worst and best moments; this is how I experience it. I am able to absorb a great contrast of beauty, art and lifestyle because of my own divided life of city and country. I find that each artist creates their own representation of life, and in their own way celebrate it. In the split second that a horse rears I can appreciate the lines of its arched neck in the same way that I appreciate the lines of a painting or the lines of written text. It's beauty in chaos. It's enlightening to capture the beauty of life in art or see art in life, but this is all subjective to the perception of the artist. One creates life through art; therefore it should be appreciated and celebrated.
My life has been divided and that life has been hard, with every day being a struggle. However, I persist, whether it be with my horses or my art, my life in the city, or in the country. This division has helped me to appreciate the good things in the world and to persist in life. Beautiful things are even seen in the chaos while fearing for your life during a horse freak-out. With my art, I recreate it, share it, my worlds; the world in general, can be represented, preserved and immortalized in art.
Swel is a graffiti artist from the Montreal area who started the hip hop crew T.A. Crew, or Team Autobot Crew. Swel currently works as a career professional who does graffiti on legal walls with other T.A. Crew members. He is a modest artist who is known in the community for being big hearted and an all around great guy.
Swel is away on business, so we conduct our interview over Google Chat. I send him a message that I'm ready on my end. Once he accepts the invitation a window pops up, and there is Swel in sunny California looking worn out from his seven hour flight. I apologize for the noise on my end as my kids are watching television and being noisy. He smiles and says, "That's okay." Swel has a business meeting to attend so I dive right in.
Me: So when did you decide that you needed to move in the direction of a career over graffiti?
He scratches his beard and leans back in his chair.
Swel: I would say that it wasn't really that...I think that one of the things that hampered me, that really slowed me down in graffiti was the fact that got busted for doing it so, that experience kind of, although I still really loved it, it made me not want to do it anymore because I did not want to get caught again, because that experience was not very pleasant at all. That pretty much stopped me from doing graffiti, not one hundred percent, but back in those days there wasn't any legal places to do it, so if you wanted to participate in the culture you had no choice but to do it on illegal walls, where now-a-days I've had plenty of opportunity to do it on legal walls. But from a graffiti artist's standpoint that's kind of controversial because just doing it legally isn't enough, that's what a lot of graffiti artists believe. But it's nice that there is that opportunity to practice and not have to break the law while you get some skills. I would say that concentrating on school was something that I wasn't ever against, it was just I guess I got older and got tired of not being appreciated and working at crappy jobs. And making money to live on you know.
Me: And how did it make you feel to come to that realization? Were you kind of saddened at the thought that you may have to compromise a little bit or to put it on hold and not to improve yourself on your skill?
Swel: Not really because I had already pretty much stopped writing graffiti, at least, a large amount, when long before I decided to go back to school. So it wasn't kind of like an exclusive choice between those two things.
Me: Do you still write and how often?
Swel: In the summer there I tried to get out three or four times to the legal walls, in this year. So, yes I still write.
Me: And who influences you now? Out of the writers out now who do you think, "Ya I really like that style, I'd like to do that." Or makes you think.
Swel: As for how style goes I don't think I get influenced by other writer's styles, I kind of already have my own style, as primitive as it may be. It's kind of like what I do so I'm kind of set in that, but I do see a lot of graffiti art out there that I like, you know like the Crazy Apes Crew, they do a lot of amazing, amazing things. And um, there are a lot of old influences on me too, names like FLOW, big time FLOW and KAS...SIKE.
Me: What is it that makes you want to write still?
He becomes distracted for a moment and says "Did you hear that? It's the Queen Mary." He grabs his laptop and moves over to the window to show me the boat out in the ocean. Than after a few seconds he sets the laptop back down on the desk and we continue the interview.
Swel: Um, the thing about graffiti is, it's kind of, I hesitate to use the word addictive, but it's very, the feeling you get from it is very...it makes you want to improve yourself [art]. And it's like every time you do it you're putting it out there for everyone to see it, it's kind of...I'm trying to think of how to describe it, but it's a feeling you can't really get in a lot of other things. Because you're doing it on your own, but you're also...it's a very public thing that you're doing so.
Me: What do you think of your progression as an artist, from the beginning to what you're able to do now?
Swel: I don't consider myself to be a very, you know, a great graffiti artist, I do it for fun. You know, it goes back to getting up and I don't try to get up anymore. I'm only really competing with myself, it's more like I don't think there's anywhere I can go.
Me: So you don't feel proud of perfecting a certain style, or even having just a piece that you feel proud at having produced.
He begins to lean back in the chair and rock back and forth contemplating the past.
Swel: I don't feel proud, I'm just happy, happy with what I'm able to do now, but it also has a lot to do with the fact that I've improved a lot. When we were first writing I wasn't very...the tools were not great. Like the spray paint was not very good, um it really took a lot of skill to make something look good, where now compare to what you used to get what you can put up on the wall is pretty good.
Me: What frustrates you about graffiti?
Swel: Not a lot.
Me: Not a lot?
Swel: No I mean it's a...it can be political. It can get very political, people can be very short tempered whenever you have something to do with ego. It can get...people can get short tempers.
Me: Okay, so it doesn't frustrate you. So what do you think that your style says about you?
Swel: Nothing.
Swel starts to laugh, and I do too.
Me: Have you ever been in trouble for doing graffiti?
Swel: Yes, like I said before it's one of the reasons I slowed down my graffiti writing.
Me: Would you discourage your children from doing graffiti?
Swel: Yes, illegally definitely.
Me: And how would it make you feel knowing that they're out there doing what you did?
Swell: I don't want to talk about it. I wouldn't like it. It's not really necessary anymore [doing graffiti illegally].
Me: What do you think of when you think about your kids continuing on with T A?
Swel: Well I like it. I think it's something that we can hand down to the kids, a sense of community.
Me: How does it make you feel to think of the end of TA? You know, people getting old and not wanting to do it anymore, being apathetic?
Swel: I don't think it's getting like that. I think, I mean it's always hard to motivate people, it's always been hard to motivate people to do things. Even in TA's hay-day it was hard to motivate people. Because people have other things to do, so to get people together to do something is not easy, no matter how old you are, even in the old days it was hard to motivate people to do things together. You just have to do something that everyone wants to do and hope that the community keeps coming together.
Me: How long do you see yourself doing graffiti?
Swel: Indefinitely.
Me: Do you continue to work on your style?
Swel: To improve it definitely.
I look at my paper and realize we've gone through all the questions.
Me: Well that's all I have for now. Thank you for agreeing to do this with me.
Swel: Thank you for asking me.
I thank Swel for his time, he smiles and signs off with a wave. His image disappears from my screen and I feel like I know a little bit more about Swel and his ideas of community. The Montreal graffiti culture is strong, and from this interview I knowl Swel will be a part of it for a long time, and that he will keep T. A. Crew going as long as he can.
]]>Check it out, https://www.facebook.com/events/311129902349881/
]]>Therefore, due to the legal issues and subject matter, I'll be making a loose description of Swel, the Montreal artist who started TA Crew. Looking at him in his work clothes you wouldn't know that he is a graffiti writer, he looks like an everyday professional. Swel, the founder of TA Crew, has receding dark hair, honest green eyes, an attractive smile and an enigmatic personality. He talks animatedly about the things he loves: family, graffiti, computers and video games.
]]> Swel says his love for computers started at a young age when his father bought a computer for him and he learned how to use Basic to program, but that his love for graffiti was instantaneous. There was something alluring and exciting about pictures and names on the walls.Swel grew up in Lasalle, a suburb of Montreal, the oldest of three brothers. His mother and father were pastors of a local church. His parent's approach to life inside and out of the church rooted him with a set of principles that is responsible for his ability to participate in counter culture without being dragged into its seedier side. Swel's love for counter culture started with skateboarding at thirteen years old.
He has had confrontations with the police due to skateboarding and he remarks on the strangeness that an activity like skateboarding can lead to alienation from the neighborhood. "You'd think they'd rather we were out doing drugs." Swel says laughing.
It was in his parents garage at the age of 17 that he started a skateboarding crew that would later become a hip hop crew which involves the elements of hip hop; graffiti artists, DJs, breakdancers, and rappers. Team Autobot, commonly referredto as TA, was named after the Transformers, which were Swel's favorite cartoon and toy from the 1980's. It was around this time he also started trying graffiti.
While there wasn't a presence of recognizable graffiti names in Lasalle at this time, there was plenty of inspiration downtown. Swel recalls seeing art by writers like SIKE from France and how clean the pieces were. "With the caps and the cans they had back in the day it's surprising that the pieces turned out the way they did. The skills these guys had to make pieces so fresh, must have been amazing," he shakes his head at the thought.
Swel wrote in Lasalle with his friends from the neighborhood, one of which had so many pieces and tags running in Lasalle, the local newspaper thought it was a gang doing all the graffiti, not one person all by himself.
When talking about his own graffiti, Swel professes that he thinks his art isn't that good. "I improved, but I did, and still do, graffiti because I love it. Not because I'm good at it." His longest running piece was on the back of a building in Lasalle, in plain black and white. He explains that he never expected to be great at graffiti, but he loved going out late at night to paint, and the thrill of knowing that you could be discovered at any time.
Swel had a brush with the law when he was in CGEP, he was caught stickering a bus. "It was really stupid," he says rubbing his eyes, "I got on the bus and put a sticker on the window and then continued to ride the bus. The bus driver saw me and called the cops, so at the next stop they [the cops] got on the bus and arrested me." He briefly discusses how this incident disappointed his parents and slowed down his painting, but it didn't stop TA from growing.
At its height TA Crew had close to 100 members, which stretched from Toronto to Switzerland. Team Autobot included graffiti artists, DJ's, B-Boys, and rappers, some were local legends such as: Tactical Crew the B-Boy team, and Shades of Culture (two rappers and a DJ). Swel explained that community and friendship were his reasons for making TA Crew. "I wanted TA to be a positive influence in the culture and in the neighbourhood. I wanted to show everybody that you didn't have to be bad to be down. But that doesn't mean that we didn't know [or hang out with] bad-boys."
As the crew grew, Swel found there were people claiming to be from TA Crew who were not official members, but rather friends of members. This lead to the leading members of the crew deciding to limit membership. The leading members of T. Crew remain close friends with Swel, they include: FLOW, graffiti writer; Iron Monkey, B-Boy; Dawg, close friend; and Revolution, rapper. These leading members remain close friends today and still make decisions together.
Although Swel has a family and a full time job, he still gets out and paints with his friends every now and then. Swel's art may be unappreciated by himself, but he has accumulated respect in the graffiti and hip hop community not only from those in his crew and in his old neighborhood, but also from other crews in and around Montreal.
Those that know him, or know of him will say Swel's reliability, thoughtfulness, and respectability are what draw people to him. Although you'll never see his art in a gallery, you might be lucky enough to see his work before it gets painted over at the community center in Point St. Charles. It is here that he creates what few people really and truly appreciate or understand.
Photos courtesy of Patrick Bèland
]]>Due to the relatively low price of digital video (in comparison to motion-picture film), it democratizes the filmmaking process, opening up new schools of filmmaking based on cutting-edge, alternative methods. Ganz and Khatib also argue that the digital cinema revolution also offers a mode of re-defining what cinema actually is: the space of who can see what is being shot is now open to all eyes on the film set, and shooting a movie is no longer a privilege for the cameraman (21). Despite these arguments, I will use this white paper to argue against the digital cinema revolution and for the pragmatic, realism of celluloid motion-picture film.
]]> Co-existence of Analog and DigitalMy major argument against the digital revolution is that it does not re-create an image that is true to how our eyes perceive reality, because the film camera was specifically designed to re-create the properties of the eye whereas video cameras were not. My secondary argument is that the innovations of digital cinema should not imply the death of cinema, but rather, should add to the zeitgeist of production modes that can co-exist. Digital video and motion-picture film can co-exist in a world where certain productions demand certain mediums.
Whereas film uses light to capture an imitation of reality, digital cameras encode and decode a bunch of 1's and 0's. The colors aren't an actual representation of how light reacts to celluloid, but rather a formula of color replacement (Eisenberg). A common DSLR camera, often the easiest to use and most affordable consumer and intermediate video camera, do not actually perceive the color red. Rather, they are able to scan how much blue and green are in an image, and then an equation figures out how to portray red in an image (Eisenberg). Thus, colors are not naturally encoded in a video camera. Rather, they are deceptively calculated.
16mm and 35mm film stocks re-create reality in ways that are as true to reality as possible. Film gives the crispest of colors naturally and in-camera without the manipulation of image in post-production (Eisenberg). As mentioned in my backgrounder, the main purpose of film is to re-create an objective reality through the use of the medium of film, and a true "film" will never be created until one cannot tell the difference between film and reality (Bazin 7). Digital cinema moves the process away from the realistic and towards the flashy and stylish without the substance.
The Contradiction of Post-Production
The process of shooting digital image begins in flattening the colors as much as possible during the shooting process. The flat, monotone colors are then pushed and brightened in post-production (Ganz & Khatib). Furthermore, according to Mike Eisenberg of the ScreenRant website, "Film possesses a certain texture that is unrivaled by digital cameras. A talented editor or colorist can easily manipulate digital footage to look more like film, but this seems contradictory in nature."
The contradictory nature is in fact the workflow of shooting digital. Video cameras are purposely configured to shoot in flat tones unrealistic to the vibrant colors of every day reality. Since the colors are manipulated to look flashy and unrealistic, the implications of video are indeed that its purpose is to be unrealistic.
You may question, isn't the point of cinema to be unrealistic and in essence, trick us into the belief of "movie magic?" Absolutely. But then the question becomes, should filmmakers attempt to create an illusion out reality, or an illusion out of an illusion.
Application of Both Mediums
The film We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), directed by Lynne Ramsay is an independent film and a great example of applying both mediums with purpose. The film was shot on 35mm film for the scenes where the characters of the mother and son are fighting, and then video is used for its impressionistic characteristics (We Need to Talk About Kevin DVD Bonus Features). This is part of the reason why video should not kill film, but rather, why they should be in coalescence with on another.
Works Cited
Bazin, Andre. "The Ontology of the Photographic Image." Film Quarterly 13.4 (1960): 4-9.
Casetti, Francesco. "Sutured Reality: Film, from Photographic to Digital."
Dombrowski, Lisa. "Not If, But When and How: Digital Comes to the American Art House."
Film History 24 (2012): 235-248.
Eisenberg, Mike. "Movie Technology: The Continuing Battle of Film vs. Digital."
http://screenrant.com/movie-technology-film-vs-digital-mikee-105167/all/1/
Ganz, Adam, Lina Khatib. "Digital cinema: The transformation of film practice and aesthetics."
New Cinemas: Journal of Comtemporary Film Vol. 4.1 (2006): 21-36.
Savitz, Eric. "Kodak Files Chapter 11"
We Need to Talk About Kevin Bonus Features
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John Fithian, President of the National Association of Theaters stated in his annual state of the industry address: "For any exhibitor who can hear my voice who hasn't begun your digital transition, I urge you to get moving... Simply put, if you don't make the decision to get on the digital train soon, you will be making the decision to get out of the business" (Dombrowski 235). Truer words could not have been predicted, as on January 19, 2012, Eastman Kodak, the most innovative retailer in both still photography film and motion-picture film over the last century declared bankruptcy (Savitz).
So what's the big deal? Is it just a matter of purists holding on to an obsolete medium, or is there something authentic and "pure" behind shooting on motion-picture film? Furthermore, as digital cinema rises, what are the implications of the death of celluloid film and takeover of HD video? With this backgrounder, I hope to give an objective perspective on both sides of the argument.
]]> Celluloid motion picture film: 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, and 60mmThe argument for celluloid, motion-picture film is that it literally captures reality in hundreds of thousands still images projected consecutively. One second of film is equal to 24 frames, thus for a 90 minute film, 129 600 still images are shot through a motion picture camera, developed, and then reprinted onto a positive in order to be screened through a film projector. The quality of the image depends on the size of the film.
8mm was developed for an amateur consumer market, providing a "grainy" low-quality image with an inconsistent number of frames per second, thus making it impossible to sync sound to. Despite it's low-quality, 8mm (or Super-8), is often glorified in the present-day due to its vintage, nostalgic look. iPhone apps and music videos often apply filters to digital video in order to give it the "super-8" vintage look. 16mm film is a step up from 8mm, giving a truer-to-reality image that maintains a nostalgic, imperfect look. 16mm is an intermediate format of choice for low-budget productions and student films because it is much cheaper than shooting at the standard Hollywood movie format of 35mm, yet maintains the distinct look of film. 35mm has been the Hollywood standard for decades due to its high quality image and advanced camera options capable of shooting with it. 65mm a medium format film that is rare to see used outside of IMAX and 3D films, but as of late, filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson have shot on 65mm film for their films The Dark Knight Rises and The Master, respectively. 65mm is extremely expensive, but produces an image with incomparable quality.
Andre Bazin, one of film criticism's most famed theorists, argues that the purpose of motion-picture film is to be able to re-create reality in the most objective and truest way possible (Bazin 7). He states, "This production by automatic means has radically affected our psychology of the image. The objective nature of photography confers on it a quality of credibility absent from all other picture-making" (Bazin 7-8). Though he wrote before the innovations of video, film purists often use his argument of film as objective reality to stand up against the digital medium. By achieving an image through the chemical recording of light on film and the physical manipulation of celluloid in the camera, the quality of the film relies on the talent and skills of the filmmaker. Furthermore, motion-picture film holds a quality that Bazin describes as the "grain" of the medium, which describes the esoteric quality of celluloid.
Digital Cinema: HD as the new Definition of film
Adam Ganz and Lina Khatib argue in their article, "Digital cinema: The transformation of film practice and aesthetics" that the process of shooting, editing and screening digitally is not only a transformation of technology, but also of perception (Ganz, Khatib 21). With the rise of consumers seeking videos through digital mediums, such as online user-generated websites Youtube and Vimeo, people now see films differently. No longer are the objective qualities of composition and moving camera aesthetics examined, but rather, flashiness of color and quick editing cuts. Slowly and surely, audiences are becoming accustomed to sleek and stylish look.
Francesco Casetti writes in his article, "Sutured Reality: Film, from Photographic to Digital" that now the focus is not on how things are shot, but how things are edited (105). The emphasis is now ironically on a color correction in post-production to make a digital image seems more filmic (Eisenberg). The reason behind this is that audiences are still getting accustomed to the "digital look," and it is much cheaper to shoot digitally with flattened colors and to then boost the colors to seem more filmic in post-color production.
Furthermore, a major argument behind the rise of digital cinema is the democratization of the world of filmmaking. Before the 1990's, film production was an inclusive realm that required not only years of slave labor for minimal payment, but also connections. In the digital age, the movement is now being pushed towards anyone being able to buy a digital camera and shoot without going bankrupt. As Dombrowski writes, "digital print costs between $100 and $300, while a 35mm print averages $1200 to $2000 or more" (236). The lessening of prices for high-quality and high-definition equipment thus allows more people to make films and attacks the elitist superstructure that is Hollywood. Film festivals such as Sundance showcase these low-budget but very creative films by young filmmakers.
The Comparison:
Publications enjoy pitting video against film due to the controversy of the subject matter, but in essence, there should be no battle. Each medium should be applicable to their appropriate uses. Digital video is a great option for young filmmakers or productions on a tight budget, while film may be the best option for those seeking a more authentic "grainy" look. When it comes to resolution, the highest quality modern digital video camera can shoot at 5k, which is basically five times the resolution of 1080p. 35mm film on the other hand has been used for decades and projects at 8k, while 65mm is 16k. On a basic visual style, the nature of film quality is higher, while the beauty of digital relies on post-production color and filter editing. Many argue that seeing celluloid film through a projector in a movie theatre is an authentic experience that cannot be re-created by digital projectors and video. Then again, maybe it's just because those critics were not born into the era of video, so only time will tell if digital will actually kill motion-picture film.
Bibliography
Bazin, Andre. "The Ontology of the Photographic Image." Film Quarterly 13.4 (1960): 4-9.
Casetti, Francesco. "Sutured Reality: Film, from Photographic to Digital."
Dombrowski, Lisa. "Not If, But When and How: Digital Comes to the American Art House."
Film History 24 (2012): 235-248.
Eisenberg, Mike. "Movie Technology: The Continuing Battle of Film vs. Digital."
http://screenrant.com/movie-technology-film-vs-digital-mikee-105167/all/1/
Ganz, Adam, Lina Khatib. "Digital cinema: The transformation of film practice and aesthetics."
New Cinemas: Journal of Comtemporary Film Vol. 4.1 (2006): 21-36.
Savitz, Eric. "Kodak Files Chapter 11"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/01/19/kodak-files-chapter-11/
Image source: Flickr
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It had become common for big publishers to offer their titles in electronic form as well as in print form but it has also become phenomenally easy to publish your own eBook. Not only is it easy to do but it can also be more profitable.
This guide will lead you to several websites that offer ePublishing services. Each site is evaluated based on type, cost, distribution and percentage of royalties given to the author.
There are two types of sites: Distributor or Publisher.
The difference is mostly in cost and the amount of services offered. Distributors offer help in the last step of publishing, which is to actually get your book into the correct file format and put it out on the market. Publishers tend offer the kind of services you will require to transform your manuscript into a polished and professional book.
Self-publishing costs money, whether you decide to go with print-on-demand or ePublishing. How much you want to spend is up to you but making your book look like something put out by Random House does not come cheap.
There are several markets that have most of the market shares for eBook sales: Apples iBookStore, Amazon's Kindle Store, Kobo Books and Barnes & Noble. Not all distributors have agreements with every market, therefore which distributor you go with depends on which markets you want access to. Keep in mind that not all distributors limit you only to their services should you publish with them.
These were the four most talked about sites I found:
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
I thought it might be helpful to include a top five list of eReaders to give you an idea which bookstores to aim for.
]]>There are many names we use for the countless possessions we have. Things, materials, objects, figures, and my personal favorite stuff. Stuff here, stuff there, people have stuff everywhere. When you ask someone these days what's important to them, the answer I usually get is their stuff. As the late George Carlin once said " That's all you need in life is a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place for your stuff." As funny as this is, the sad part about it is that people are obsessed with their stuff. Whether it is a new BMW car, a brand new pair of Puma shoes, or the next IPhone to come out, people need stuff. And why do they need stuff? People need stuff because it's much easier to build a relationship and feelings for your stuff than to build one with any other human being,
Gone are the days where people actually go out to spend time talking or playing basketball or exercising. These days all people want to do when they go out is play with their Iphone while sitting in front of each other and their new sport is shopping. I know this because I have seen it happen right in front of me, and I still don't believe it. Friday nights my friends invite me to go for a coffee so we c an talk, and all it ends up being is all of them taking out their Iphone or smart phones and just showing each other what their phone can do. Then I hear the usual comment " you should get one, where in the 21st century!" We might be in the 21st century and supposedly are connected more than ever with Facebook, email, and texting but all this has done is driven us apart.
In addition to this lack of communication as a result of stuff, owning and consuming has also destroyed our society. To get some more insight lets look back at what George Carlin had to say on this topic, Consumption. This is the new national pastime. Fuck baseball, its consumption, the only true, lasting American value that's left." If people would just open their eyes and look around them, they would see that George Carlin , as controversial as he was, could not have been more close to the truth. A good example are my friends. I ask them why they bought the new IPhone 4 when some of them already had the Iphone 3 and their response? " I wanted it." We have been programmed in North America that we have a right to everything our heart desires. Actually it is more of us being programmed to have to buy everything because that's what keeps the economy running.
Now up to this point you might think this is just another essay against consumption. But it's not, it's deeper than that. The world is going out of control and we are to blind to see it. People are using stuff as a replacement as away to fill holes in their lives. Who needs a friend when you can have an Xbox and play with people online? You're still interacting with people right? People have developed emotional and, to be more specific, strong emotional attachment to inanimate objects. Just last week my friend got so angry because his jacket ripped. A jacket... I repeat a jacket. It's not as if someone close to him got hurt, or a friend died, no his jacked ripped. I thought to myself, would I ever get that angry over a jacket? The simple answer is no. That kind of anger, I reserve for more important things like when a person in my life gets hurt or when the love of my life breaks my heart. But not for stuff.
I look at the world around me and I
can't believe it. Humans, for all the praise we give ourselves for being
intelligent, must be the dumbest species on earth. Nothing has shown me
otherwise. When people kill each other for the stuff they have, when people
burn friendships over a broken car of phone, or when people spend money on
their stuff rather then donating to a charity, you can't expect me to believe
that there is any hope for this society.
Image source: Flickr
Hugging a warm cup of tea to my lips, I eye the coffee shop's crowd through the swirling Earl Grey's steam. Setting my crossword puzzle to the side, I begin making snarly comments to my friend about the dilapidated crowd. Does she really want be eating that piece of cheesecake AND have whipped cream on that Mochaccino? Before I know it, I'm behaving like a [female dog, 5 letters]. I come to a few, self-indulgent conclusions including: I may be small but I'm definitely a big bitch.
Before I come off as completely monstrous let me appear somewhat redeemable. What if I reversed this truth for a day? What if I did the opposite of what I would normally do? Hey, it worked for George Costanza on Seinfeld. "The opposite" all started with his habitual tuna on toast. "Nothing's ever worked out for me with tuna on toast. I want the complete opposite of tuna on toast. Chicken salad, on rye, untoasted.... and a cup of tea," and so George's cycle began at Monk's Café; not only did doing the opposite land him a job for the Yankees, but it landed him a date (Seinfeld)! Now, I'm not really a fan of baseball but I could use a few balls being thrown my way - nothing like a little harmless entertainment. Sure, I've been sitting on the sidelines and haven't limbered up in quite some time but I feel like there was once a thrill sprinting from base to base. Unlike George's dietary changes, I didn't pass up my egg whites for pop tarts and I certainly didn't pass up my workouts for binging sessions while watching a "Hoarders" marathon on TLC, what I did do, however, is make a list of behaviors I mindlessly exercise every day, narrowed it down, and monitored the behavior with aims to counter it.
I lingered on my revelation: my instinctual bitchiness, and reflected on that for a moment. Why are such snarly remarks the instinct, my instinct? Why must I abase others? Does it make me feel better about myself, does it simply expose what it is that I am lacking or desiring and can't achieve myself? What is the root of this need to belittle? Maybe all I really want is a piece of cheesecake and a Mochaccino with extra whipped cream... but I believe it goes well beyond the coffee shop.
The answer for last week's quiz was Aerosol Funk.
Today's puzzle features a well know icon in Montreal, with a twist. It is very common for graffiti artists to put their own renditions of pop culture up on walls all over town.
For those who haven't figured it out, the reason there are so many murals around Foufoun Electric is because every year they graciously donate the space for the artists participating in the Under Pressure Graffiti Festival to strut their stuff.
Today's puzzle is related to a long-standing institution in Montreal. Under Pressure is an international graffiti festival that has been showcasing the best and brightest in graffiti culture year after year.
By: Skittles
You'll notice as you piece this puzzle together that it was snapped somewhere around town. You've probably even walked by it hundreds of times but you never really see people just stop to look - unless they're tourists. Maybe we should all spend a day being tourists in our city. :) Over the next few weeks more graffiti art from around downtown Montreal will be showcased.
Chronicles of a Disappearance, on now at the DHC/ART Gallery, is the kind of exhibit that leaves you thinking about these things for days afterwards.
Image source Flickr
In other words, it bluntly brings us into the darkness of our world--the things that aren't immediately visible or that we often try to ignore.
DHC is divided into two separate buildings. On one side, the gallery is tall, and part of the process is climbing a multitude of stairs to get to each separate piece. The upward momentum adds to the impact of the exhibits, especially in this case, as you feel like you're travelling to different locations, and the time spent climbing allows you to process. The second building is split into two equal spaces.
The first artist is Taryn Simon, whose installation An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar is a series of photographs that takes up two floors.
The first level deals with images of oddity, deformity and death. She displays the kinds of weird realities that we are not granted access to as the public. The photographs are sparse and portrait style, with the ideas behind them not becoming obvious until the viewer reads the annotation displayed beside.
The second floor is a startlingly complete picture of American greed: farms where you can pay to hunt an almost-extinct animal for fun, piles of money, and mounds of rotting food confiscated at John F. Kennedy airport. It paints a dark picture of the American underbelly--crime, greed, excess and indulgence.
Cuban artist Jose Toirac's single-screen projection, Opus, features the voice of Fidel Castro in a speech that Toirac edited down to just numerical statements. As Castro states them, the numbers appear in white on a black screen. The audio echoes around the room, and the sequence of numbers feels empty and mechanical, a strange imprint of a dictator slowly disappearing from the public focus.
Omer Fast's 30-minute video, 5000 Feet Is the Best is a juxtaposition of American video-game culture and the post-traumatic stress disorder associated with actual drone aerial vehicle operators. The film blends fact, fiction and the creator's own fantasy into a complicated and inter-woven narrative.
Teresa Margolles' Plancha is perhaps the most subtly haunting piece in the exhibit. It's an installation composed of 10 heated steel plates in a row, with water dripping down periodically onto each, steaming and evaporating into the room.
The water is sourced from a morgue in Mexico City where the artist worked, where it was used to clean corpses after autopsy. When the water hits the steel plates and is evaporated it mists throughout the room--confronting our fears of contamination and contact with the dead.
Standing in the room is unsettling, but if you hadn't known where the water was coming from you might feel differently--the marks it leaves on the plates form a beautiful pattern, an unassuming minimalist sculpture.
Finally, Phillip Parreno's June 8, 1968 is a reenactment of the train ride that brought Robert Kennedy's corpse from New York to Washington. Filmed landscape-style and shown on a wall-sized screen in a white room with red carpet, the audience is made to feel like they are on the train, watching the cities and people pass.
There is a deeply creepy beauty to the film, with the moving landscape interacting with the motionless people watching the train pass. When the lights reappear, you realize you're standing in a room eerily reminiscent of either the White House, or a funeral home--or maybe a cross between the two.
Each individual artist showcases pieces that have a soft, haunting beauty. Displayed on and in the white, neutral backdrop of the DHC/ART gallery spaces, the pieces are sparse and affecting.
The message behind the exhibit is strongly political, and it produces a great platform for dialogue.
The five artists each bring a different element, or culture, to the table--but the discussions and the mediums interact with each other on a larger scale. The exhibit grants access to unconscious fear, remembers traumatic events, uncovers the hidden and asks direct questions about the state of our society.
By granting us direct access to our fears and to the dark void that is death and absence in the world, Chronicles of a Disappearance allows us to step out into a bit of light.
Article originally published in The Link Newspaper
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World Press Photo 2008 - 040 (Photo credit: webzer)
The World Press Photo Exhibit marked it's 54th year in 2011, touring over 45 countries and treating guests to the year's best photojournalism from across the globe with photos that were selected by jury from over 108 000 entries. The independent, non-profit organization first brought its exhibit to Montreal in 2001, and continued to bring its collection annually to the Just For Laughs Museum on St. Laurent until 2010, when the museum permanently closed its doors to the public. This year's exhibit was held at the Bonsecours Market on St. Paul Street in Montreal.
The photos range from gritty to polished, staged to spontaneous,
while yet others are built around an idea or theme rather than an issue
or event. Olivier Laban-Mattei's
photos documenting the earthquake, hurricane, and cholera epidemic in
Haiti show the viewer the devastation, human loss, and eventual violence
that often erupts in countries after a natural disaster.
(Photo Credit: Blowing Puffer Fish)
Thomas P. Peschak's nature and wildlife photos are aesthetically stunning, seeming more like fashion photos, while Brazilian photographer, Alexandre Vieira, effectively brings to reality the brutal violence of the drug wars of his country. Vieira's series takes the viewer moment to moment through a gunfight that takes place in the street, showing the end of life for one of the individuals involved. Furthermore, the viewer is reminded of the danger the photographer has put himself in to capture this scene.The exhibit also included works from up-and-coming Quebec photojournalists, as well as a section titled AnthroPographia, which featured documentary photos that aim "to promote human rights and fight against human injustices." Among my favourites from the entire exhibit, the AnthroPographia series provided compelling intimate portraits of daily life around the world.
World Press Photo '07 (Photo credit: Deck4rd)
Some were openly taken aback and gasped aloud when coming upon a
disturbing scene, while others were quietly moved to tears by what the
photographer has presented. Faces were serene as individuals admired the
composition of a piece, then those same faces turned solemn as they
inspected the photo more closely, comprehending the tragedy contained
within.
In contrast to the Just For Laughs Museum, the Bonsecours Market ultimately proved to be a better space. It is bright and open with its white walls and high ceilings, and easy to navigate, with the exhibit extending only to the upper balcony. I have been to several exhibits at the old space which was spread out over four floors. While there was plenty of room with which to view the photographs, there were too many twists and turns, and nooks and crannies in the space; I always left feeling as though I had missed a section.
World Press Photo '07 (Photo credit: Deck4rd)
I took a two-pronged approach to viewing the exhibit this year; I took my time through an initial run, reading all the text accompanying both the different sections and individual photographs. Once I had completed the round, I toured the gallery a second time just to appreciate the form of each photo. I felt this was a good strategy--on the one hand, I was able to absorb all of the information and reflect on what I was seeing; and on the other, I was able to simply enjoy myself and appreciate the medium.
(Photo Credit: Zoriah)
Even taking my time, it took me just over an hour to go through the entire space--just the perfect time you want to spend at an exhibit. Actually, I am never disappointed with the World Press Photo Exhibit, and always leave wanting to see more. Whether the photos are humorous, visually stunning, or thought provoking the exhibit reminds us of our interconnectedness with nature and humanity.
The 54th World Press Photo Exhibit continues in various cities worldwide until the end of February. Books of this year's and previous exhibitions can be bought on the organization's website in various languages.
Interview by Myriam Goyette
@Flickr, Untitled by ribena, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdennis/2893637156/
Despite the bleak neighbourhood of the Belgo Building, its inside is milled by contemporary galleries and bustling workers. On the fourth floor, Bettina Forget, the German expat, owner and curator of the Visual Voice Gallery, receives me with a warm smile to her half-gallery half-workshop space for an interview on art and art galleries.
]]>M: How were you first exposed to art?
B: My family is a family of artists. It's the family business, really. There are artists in every generation. It was very easy, not to mention expected of me, to get into the arts. When I was young, my mother would sit me down and teach me how to draw perspective and shading⎯the equivalent of your dad taking you out to throw footballs, right? So that's what my parents did with me and it became clear that I was going to go to art school. I started at Saint Martins School of Art in London, England, then attended Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. I spent a month in Australia for an art theory course with Perth University of Australia. That class helped me a great deal and enabled me to go from painting things to painting ideas. Although my mother was an academic and specialized in traditional landscapes, still life, and the like, I was more interested in contemporary work. I learned to develop my ideas and learned how to go about conceptual art.
M: When you move around, you usually absorb different theories. Did that affect you?
B: My initial art education in London was Western European, specifically British (and the British think they invented everything: the arts and crafts movement, William Morris, every typeface that's even worth mentioning). In Asia, it's an entirely other aesthetic with very different issues. Because Singapore is such a young nation, it deals a lot with the question of identity through an amalgam of Western concepts and Asian traditions. And then I had that little Australian influence which gave me another spin, again. It was great to have these different perspectives.
M: When you were in Singapore, for instance, did you stick to that Western aesthetic or did the Asian influence show in your work?
B: I really wanted the Asian influence to shine through. I attended Chinese brush painting classes with a local master for two years and drew miles and miles of flower petals and bamboo on rice paper. Just as I got the hang of it, I realized I'd bumped against a creative ceiling. Asian art is very structured but I'm more of a free-spirit. As I began doing new things⎯what I saw⎯ with the techniques I'd learned, my master was appalled and threw me out of the course.
M: How did Visual Voice Gallery come to be?
B: At the time I was a full-time artist with my own studio at the St Alexandre Building, next door. I'd always wanted to be in the Belgo⎯it's a fantastic building with a great vibe, not to mention the long corridors and the tall ceilings⎯but there was a two-year waiting list. Then one day, out of nowhere, I received a phone call from the business manager explaining he had a great space. The problem is it was bigger than I wanted and more than I could afford. As I thought it through, I realized I could carry out the same business model as a woman I knew, who rented the front room to make rent. Eventually, I had a wall put in, creating two cubes⎯the front cube as the gallery, the back cube as my workshop. I've done it for five years now. Several artists have showed their work here more than once. As of this year, I'm beginning to represent artists. The press has begun to pick up the gallery. It's feeling like a real gallery and I'm feeling like a real gallerist.
M: What is Visual Voice Gallery about?
B: I like to help young, or older, emerging artists exposing for the first time. I also expose out-of-towners, Mexican artists, for instance, who are established in Mexico but new to the Montreal scene. The mix is about 75% local artists and 25% international artists. Anything conceptual fits well with the gallery. Art needs to have a story and I want to see artists' personal voice in their work⎯something they discovered or figured out by themselves. It's the reason for the name of the gallery: 'Visual Voice.' That being said, it's the reason why I don't accept artists who propose purely decorative, aesthetic, artwork. I don't connect with fruit bowls, and landscapes, and abstract work with beautiful colours, even though it sells well and there are already many galleries for such a market. Few galleries, however, will allow an artist to place a plastic cast out of his or her forearms on the floor with a giant spider web coming out of it. I think that's very cool and the artist should do just that.
M: On what basis do you choose which artists to expose? Do they find you? Do you find them? How does that process work?
B: Mostly artists find me. I often visit vernissages and will follow artists with interesting work. When I curate my own shows, I might call an artist whose work I think would fit well in such or such group exhibition and ask them if they're interested in participating. It's a less risky proposition than offering a solo exhibition to someone with no guarantee they'd fit well with the gallery, sell, and we each get something out of it.
M: Do you expose only one artist at a time, or several? And in addition to exposing emerging artists, do you also expose your own work?
B: When artists rent the space, it's up to them to decide whether they want to expose alone or with others. In a three-people exhibition, for instance, each one can have their own wall, the last one acting as some sort of mixer. I simply make sure the exhibition itself makes sense in their proposals. As for my own work, I'll schedule myself into the calendar once or twice a year, if I have enough work or if I have something interesting to show. Nuit Blanche is a good deadline for which I can get my act together. Sometimes, if when it makes sense, I might also add one of my pieces to other artists' for a themed exhibitions.
M: What does promoting artists and an art gallery involve?
B: Now it's mostly on the web. I use social media a lot. Visual voice has it's own website, a blog, Facebook page, a Twitter and Flickr account, and a YouTube channel. I'm out there a lot promoting the hell out of everybody. It's also fun for the artist to have a documentation of their exhibition. I can make a video for a vernissage or a 360 degree panorama and it's cool for the artist also to integrate to his or her scene. I usually advertise a few works on the Internet for people to get a sense of the artist. And it's great that people on the web are just a click away from the exhibition. Finally, I email a lot. Promotion is a lot of work but something I enjoy doing. Social media is much more efficient than sending out print catalogues and postcards. In broader horizons, I write about art as an art critic for the Belgo Report, an online magazine.
M: How do you find dealing with creatives? Are the expectations of artists and makers too high? Or perhaps sometimes too low?
B: Expectations are very individual. Most artists have a hard time defining their own expectations. They don't know how to price their work, what they're worth. As a lawyer, your title is associated with your salary. The path is linear. In regards to artists, you can't tell what someone is worth by their age, how much time they've been creating artwork or the type of work they do. The result, inevitably, is artists insecure about where they stand. For emerging artists, the experience of a first showing allows them to settle into the occupation and get a grip on who they are, see their work on the wall in a gallery setting, get feedback from visitors, think about prices, and write an artist statement. Defining prices is notoriously difficult. Right now what we're doing is looking at artists roughly at a similar level of experience. Then prices are influenced by material and size. There are some ball part figures one can apply. The city market is also a factor to consider⎯in Toronto, the prices can also be up to 30% higher because the market is larger and the people there spend more on art.
M: What is art for you?
B: Art is an intricate part of culture, which is an intricate part of society. Art, so seamlessly integrated to our lives we don't always notice it, defines who we are as human beings and as a society. Visual art in galleries is simply a more crystallized version of it, like a cultural essence. Artists, I think, carry the cultural and social function of being creative pioneers who influence designers and writers.
M: What is 'hip' at the moment in contemporary art? Do you prefer exposing particular trends? Do others? What category or style of work sells best?
B: It's difficult to pinpoint contemporary art trends because of its fragmentation. Thirty-forty years ago, artists were following overwhelming themes like super-realism and pop art; nowadays, artists do their own thing. I used to see more installation art⎯objects in space, things dangling from the ceiling or arranged in a pattern on the floor⎯I'm seeing a little less now. What I'm seeing more of is integration of various disciplines in art⎯something I find interesting. For example, media such as the Internet, computers and social media in art. For the gallery however, I expose what emerging artists are doing, trend or not. Think of it this way, they are the pioneers of the next new trend.
M: Is there a difference between those trends, artist trends and buyer trends⎯in the sense "what art galleries sell vs what artists create vs what interests buyers?
B: Artists tend to make disturbing artwork and buyers tend to not buy it. Because what sells best is artwork one could place in a living room or office and it's not necessarily what artists create, artists end up with a basement filled with paintings of he or she stabbing his or her mother. My opinion is artists should continue if it's important to them. Eventually they might picked up by an artist-run centre or a museum show for which the curator isn't concerned whether or not the art sells.
M: Have you noticed any changes in the cultural, historical or social role of art since you've been in business?
B: Well, there's a difference between living in Europe and living here. In Europe, everyday people often visit exhibitions and own original artwork⎯it's the norm. Here, people seem content with a poster of Cirque du Soleil. I think, nevertheless, the Montreal view towards art is changing. I've seen good articles on how art isn't simply for millionaires in mainstream media. Art is reaching out to the Montreal public. In terms of visitors to the gallery, it's mostly students and the elderly during the week, working men and women on the weekend.
M: What can contemporary art enthusiasts look forward to in the future? What is your role within your vision?
B: Look out for more art. More and more people are interested in the arts. The level of the art is rising in the sense that questions are being asked and beautiful yet simple watercolours aren't enough anymore. Adepts are becoming increasingly discerning. Montreal art programs are great. Artists, in addition, are being showcased in a new way. Visual arts is taking over the public arena, of which is part graffiti, and forcing the public to discuss it more profoundly than ever. Ultimately the future leads better art. My role within that vision is to be an enabler. I prepare the grounds and help artists promote themselves and their artwork. My goal is to let artists keep being artists.
For more information on Visual Voice Gallery visit the website http://www.visualvoicegallery.com/VVG-intro-E.html. Check out the blog http://visualvoicegallery.com/visualvoice/ for latest news. Follow @VisualVoiceMtl on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/VisualVoiceMtl and Visual Voice Gallery's Flickr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualvoicegallery. Finally, art adepts can inquire into The Belgo Report for events at the Belgo Building http://www.thebelgoreport.com/.
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The Prestige is a film adaptation of Christopher Priest's novel of the same title. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film winds its way through mystery, romance, double lives, and magic. The two principal characters are Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). These two men begin the film as apprentices of a magician, but an accident and finger pointing drives them to a life-long rivalry: sabotaging shows and stealing secrets. As physical injuries mount, lives end, and magic tricks become more daring and fantastic, the movie's climax twists everything we thought we knew, into something else entirely. The films mixture of a Victorian atmosphere, mystery, glamor, science fiction, and betrayal, unfortunately, also mix with Hollywood's poor examples of morality. However, the technical skill displayed in this movie's script astounded and intrigued me. The cover warned me that I'd want to watch it again. I did.
]]> White Bread MoralityThe Prestige shows good examples of poor choices, ruined lives, bad attitudes, and questionable attire. Once again, Hollywood shows us men taking revenge onto their own shoulders, and paying the price, but doesn't speak of whose shoulders revenge should be placed on. The portrayal of women isn't much more satisfactory: the main female characters spend a good deal of time flaunting voluptuous breasts in Tinkerbell dresses or feeling the brunt of falling for a bad-boy. The over-sexualization of women in this movie only encourages attitudes that tell women the way to a man's heart is through giving your body, and he won't want it unless you A) have huge breast and B) show them off. Overall, the film almost exclusively provides examples of what not to do and or think, but in a glamorous light that make the consequences the characters experience all too easy to overlook.
Contortionist Twisting
So morally, The Prestige warrants caution. However, technically it is incredibly well done. Most markedly, it keeps viewers from knowing that they are clueless as to what is going on, making the revelation of what has actually just occurred all the more astounding. Ending twists that give a different sense to a story are nothing new, but are rarely executed in a manner that doesn't give away the twist ahead of time or leave several loose ends out of sync with the new conclusion.
While watching Shutter Island, another film that relies heavily on twists, I was reminded of how this style of writing can so easily slip into mere ambiguity. This movie leaves viewers in partial confusion as they watch the film, explains in the twist why things weren't making sense, and leaves the viewers still not understanding the loose ends. Perhaps, the writers wanted to give viewers the same uncertainty about reality that the mentally unstable characters feel. Granted, this is a commonly accepted style that many people enjoy. Granted also, that this common method of ambiguous twisting is less impressive and less technically demanding than the method successfully employed by The Prestige.
The Prestige creates a lovely experience of clarity in its real and facade plots, using impeccably placed cuts, a complex weaving of time shifts, and strategically placed misleading remarks. This technical achievement wrapped in a mysterious Victorian ambiance, strong acting performances, and the intrigue of magic create an over-all tantalizing film.
Judge for Yourselves
The Prestige is a gem of scripting, telling two distinct plots simultaneously and tying up loose ends logically. Unfortunately, this film's enticing atmosphere and technical achievements are slightly tarnished by Hollywood glorification of immodesty and focus on looking where we don't want to go.
]]>Graffiti Enters the Mainstream
Graffiti may have started off as a nuisance to the upper classes or rather, those in power, but graffiti has become so much more than that. There is a thriving community of graffiti artists, or taggers as most refer to them as. Tagging in public spaces is a way for these artists to communicate with each other. Taggers know who each tag or signature belongs to. Graffiti on freight trains is used as a way to communicate over great distances as well. (Fine)
However, this community is making into mainstream society in many different ways:
In the arts world, you have artists like Banksy, a British stencil artist whose work sells for millions of dollars even though no one has every discovered his real identity. How anyone can possess something that is painted on the side of a building they do not own is still up for debate. Many other artists have been able to turn a profit off their illegal art, as well. As well it has become quite common for galleries and museums to put on exhibitions centring on graffiti art. It is now possible to study graffiti as a viable art form. (Lehmann)
Corporations have also clued into the appeal of graffiti. They use the implied energizing, dangerous, youthful, and illicit qualities of graffiti art and culture in marketing campaigns. Most marketing companies now employ taggers to create their ads. This is where most legitimate work for taggers now lies. Marketing companies will go to great lengths to recruit graffiti artists. One such company, Murad Communications Inc., routinely hosts graffiti festivals in order to bring fresh talent into the fold. (Britnell)
Academics have made an intense study of the phenomenon in an attempt to understand the nature of graffiti. They look to answer questions such as what motives someone to pick up a can of spray paint and leave their mark on the wall. Others have sought to categorize they different types of graffiti and the best locations for each. There have been papers written on the ways that graffiti identifies the socioeconomic climate of a city among many other topics under the subject of graffiti.
The Debate in Action
Outside of the worlds of art or academia, it is still possible to see the debate raging on in Montreal. The city has budgeted a great deal of money to the prevention and criminalization of graffiti. There are news reports every time important building or monuments are covered with tags or when the graffiti in a certain area is getting out of hand. These reports inevitably carry a very negative tone and express a view that most citizens do not approve of their city being defaced. On the other hand, the city has starting giving more space to young artists who wish to express themselves. Graffiti festivals such as Under Pressure are being given more attention and being allowed to showcase the artistic and cultural aspects behind tagging. There are also groups creating a more positive graffiti prevention movement. One method has been to hire artists to paint murals on buildings with the idea that taggers would avoid the mural out of respect for the artist. (Lunau)
Public Opinion Changes
In years passed, graffiti was never given the time of day. It now seems that people are coming around. Graffiti is given much more positive attention within society. It is starting to find its appropriate space. However, some might argue that this is a bad thing. Part of the thrill of tagging, is in the risk of being caught and not simply in leaving a mark. Graffiti has long been a form of defying the powers that be. If graffiti becomes mainstream enough that it is given free range of specific spaces to be preformed then the powers will have the ability to monitor and control graffiti. Therefore the main motives behind graffiti will be corrupted. Where once we would have seen brilliantly coloured tags and hand painted images, we would see ads for clothes, movies. and products and services instead.
Who is to say which is better?
Work Cited
"NDG War Memorial hit by Vandals." CTV Montreal. CTV.ca. [26 September 2011]. Web. 27
September 2011.
"Tagged NDG Cenotaph Cleaned, but Veterans' Pain Remains." CTV Montreal. CTV.ca. [27
September 2011]. Web. 27 September 2011.
Britnell, Allan, and Brian Banks. "Hello, old paint." Canadian Business 69.9 (1996): 11. Academic
Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
Fine, Philip. "Continental canvas for graffiti art." Times Higher Education Supplement 1389 (1999): 13.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
Lehmann, Henry. "Art, Ads and Vandalism: Graffiti Artists used to be Urban Outlaws. Now they'Re
Looking for Respect. and they'Re Getting it in Unlikely Places - the Corporate World and Even from the City of Montreal." The Gazette: J.1.BRE. Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies. Mar 25 2000. Web. 28 Sep. 2011
Lunau, Kate. "Fighting graffiti, with more graffiti." Maclean's 122.31 (2009): 25. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
Wickens, Barbara. "Montreal through a lens darkly." Maclean's 109.42 (1996): 10. Academic Search
Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
By: Skittles
Montreal is known for its many festivals. Some of the bigger ones that come to mind are the Jazz Fest or Just for Laughs, but did you know that Montreal plays host to the longest-running graffiti festival in Canada? This Past summer, the 16th annual Under Pressure Graffiti Festival took place on Saint Catherine Street between Saint Laurent and Berri Streets. The festival is open to the general public and draws artists and spectators from all over the world, but what is it all about? It's a showcase of Graffiti, Hip Hop and Skateboarding culture.
Graffiti has become a hot topic recently with municipalities starting to propose and pass legislation that aims to put an end to the art form. The four-story mural that stands across the street from my apartment is a vivid reminder of the impact graffiti has on our culture. I decided to speak with my friend Joe Garque about his role in Under Pressure, Montreal's International Graffiti Festival and about the impact anti-graffiti legislation will have on graffiti culture.
Me: What drew you to graffiti culture?
Joe Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the fame. I think it was just kind of a movement that everyone was moving into and a lot of people, especially the hip-hop culture were drawn to different aspects. Especially people who didn't know a lot of hip-hop culture. So they found out that graffiti, b-boy, mc-ing and DJ were all elements. I think that for me specifically because I was tied to guys who were already involved that culture it was just a natural evolution in our friendship for me to go hang out with them and discuss graffiti and then start to be interested in graffiti as a form of expressions.
Me: What is Under Pressure?
Joe: Under is a international graffiti/hip-hop convention that takes place in Montreal, Quebec every second weekend in the month of August.
In the Municipalities of Cotes-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grace certain member of City Council have started a movement called Operation Graffiti. The purpose of Operation Graffiti is to curtail the rampant vandalism of public and private property that has been occurring at an alarming rate. They have put forward legislation that will allow the city to fine landlords who fail to clean up graffiti on their property.
Me: What do you think of the City's treatment of graffiti? Do you agree with the policies they are making about graffiti and tagging?
Joe: I am a bit on the fence about this. To be perfectly honest I don't whole-heartedly disagree with their policies on graffiti. I think that the manner in which they are trying to control or fence off the widespread phenomena that is graffiti is poorly executed. I think there are better ways for them than saying just buffing the walls, and saying that it's a crime and this and that. I think that kind of mindset is very controlling as a whole and I don't think it allows for any flexibility unless it's hypocritical; when they say ' well this guys a known artist so he can do it on the wall' but how did he become a known artist. I think they are trying to treat it in a manner that is above board but they've really gotten fed about since the scene really exploded. From the mid-nineties on they thought this was going to be a Band-Aid in the way they were approaching it. Now we're talking about almost twenty years later where graffiti is so wide spread that they're just fed up with so they're trying to be hard about it.
Some of the more extreme legislation being put forward by Operation Graffiti begins with a ban on selling spray-paint to minors and expands to a province-wide registry of all sales of spray-paint. In effect, they want to make spray-paint into a control substance much the way alcohol and tobacco are.
Me: What do you think of the proposed province-wide registry of spray-paint sales and the banning of sales to minors?
Joe: I think that is ridiculous. It's not like this is gun control. I feel that one you start having a wide registry for a common item like spray-paint is absolutely ridiculous. That's the government trying to solve the problem by amputating a whole arm and making everyone suffer for it is kind of what that is. If a parent wants to buy spray-paint to re-varnish something that they have to register for it is ridiculous. To be perfectly honest, a graffiti writer can be anyone. It could be a 12 year old kid to friends of mine who are graffiti artists well into their fifties. I don't think that has any specific benefit to say that anyone who buys spray-paint is a graffiti artist.
Me: How do you think this will affect graffiti artists?
Joe: I think that graffiti writers - and all artists, for that matter- will find ways around it. I think that just because you are registered as a spray-paint buyer that won't suppress graffiti writers any more than putting up signs that say don't graffiti.
Fortunately, not everyone is out to get graffiti artists. There are groups, like Prevention NDG, who are trying to educate kids about graffiti culture in an effort to change the way young kids participate in the culture.
Me: Have you had any involvement with Prevention NDG and their work educating kids about graffiti culture?
Joe: A close friend of mine, actually one of the founding members of Under Pressure, Sterling Downey is directly involved in that initiative. I've worked with him in assisting to clean up neighborhoods. I myself have worked directly with youth groups sometimes to educated them about graffiti: what it is and how it works in the real world. But I have not worked directly with Prevention NDG.
Me: Do you think they are having a beneficial effect on the tagging scene?
Joe: I think it is on a lower scale that people anticipated. People think that just by talking to them and having them clean it up, that it will have an immediate effect. This is a long-term process, the culture of graffiti is already built a certain way and for the rest of society to accept it I think it will take a longer period of time for them to realize that it won't go away but there are ways for them to prevent or protect themselves against. The writers need to realize that there are certain places they should be respecting or not respecting. If you instill good values in graffiti writers with good values from an early age, they aren't going to go write on some guy's car. They'll pick abandoned houses; they'll pick empty buildings and spaces not being used in any way instead of writing on somebody's front porch.
Me: There seems to be a communication breakdown between the graff scene and the powers that be. What would you say to those who think graffiti is just wanton destruction and should be done away with completely?
Joe: I think anyone who thinks it is wanton vandalism is just too much of a clear black and white person and has never had a gray moment in their life. To say that is it is plain out destruction of public property is the assumption that everything belongs to everyone and that everything is being put to use in a productive way. If an abandoned factory under a highway has been sitting there for 18 years and no one is using it, what harm is it to let people who want to tag and want to do graffiti there where no one will have any issues it. If you say "Well it's fine where no one can see it" Now, you've gone back on your word. You either accept some aspect of it or you don't. If you're a clean cut, white and black case like that, I don't think anyone really is. Some people say these things and they're just labeling people. "Well you're a graffiti writer so you must do tags and I don't ever want to see it" but that's not entirely true; some people are only muralists, some people are only caricaturists. I'm sure those people don't complain when they see a nice mural done on open public space but that makes them hypocrites to say that's how it's supposed to be,
To put it simply, the International Festival of Films on Art, commonly called FIFA, is a non-profit organization who's primary mission is to "increase public awareness, knowledge and appreciation of the arts by promoting works by artists and professionals from the fields of film, television and video." (FIFA) For it's main event, the 10-day Montreal-held competitive festival⎯which is the most important of its kind in the world⎯productions from around the globe are presented while exchanges and networking forums, seminars, presentations, and workshops are offered to professionals. The city becomes a mecca for artists, artisans, film enthusiasts, and those involved in the niche market.
The Competitive Festival
As with most film festivals, those who wish to submit a production to FIFA are first assessed by a selection committee. An administrative fee, as well as a registration fee are required and may vary, depending on the submission date. FIFA encompasses all of the arts, representing all eras and styles, and any discipline such as painting, sculpture, architecture, design, arts and crafts, fashion, decoration, museology, restoration, photography, film (portraits of directors and actors, film shoots, special effects), literature, dance, music, theatre and media arts) are valid subjects. (FIFA) Films, which much be in French or in English, in their original, subtitled or dubbed version, are judged by an international jury composed of at least five professionals from the art and film communities.
Awards include Grand Prize, Jury Award, Award for Best Educational Film, Award for Creativity, Award for Best Canadian Film, Award for Best Essay, Award for Best Portrait, Award for Best Reportage, Award for Best Film for Television, Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts, ARTV Springboard to the World Award, ARTV People's Choice Award. "Every year, the prizewinning films of the latest edition of FIFA are presented on an international circuit that includes the Louvre in Paris, the Studio National des Arts Contemporains Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, the AIA/Center for Architecture, the Mid-Manhattan Library and the Morgan Library in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Musée national des beaux-arts in Quebec City, the National Gallery of Canada and the Tate Modern in London." (FIFA)
That being said, the festival is also comprised of five smaller segments: the horizons (screenings of the latest films which take a look at art in all its forms), the tribute of a producer, director or distributor who has distinguished himself or herself in the field of films on art, media arts (exploratory videos, video art and experimental cinema), "focus on the 7th art" (films on cinematography, portraits of filmmakers, actors, and technicians) and finally, "time recaptured" (anniversaries, memorials, archival films).
Quintessential "Art Film Matinées" and "Les Découvertes du Film sur l'Art"
Beyond the film festival, shorter national events and activities are also organized throughout the year. On one hand, Art Film Matinées consists of that edition's prizewinning films, presented every October Sunday, usually in exchange for a small fee; on the other, Les Découvertes du Film sur l'Art are presentations of previous editions, scattered throughout the autumn, followed by discussion panels with special guests.
Although the 2011-2012 editions of the Art Film Matinées and Les Découvertes du Film sur l'Art, all films have been presented the past autumn save one. Magritte le Jour et la Nuit, which was originally introduced in the 28th FIFA edition, will be open to viewing on Wednesday February 15th 2012, 7p.m., at the Stewart Hall of the Pointe-Claire Cultural Centre. The guest panel will be hosted by Francine Moreau. For more information, visit http://artfifa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=401&Itemid=752 and http://artfifa.com/index.php?option=com_film&task=view&id=2081&year=28&Itemid=562.
VIDEO EMBED: Excerpt of the film Magritte: Day and Night (2009), by Henri de Gerlache
FIFA as a Slice of History
Since its inception in 1981 under UNESCO's International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication, FIFA has strived to promote and develop the industry of films on art. From being sponsored solely by the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum and the screening of 50 films from 12 countries over five day at the Cinémathèque Québécoise, FIFA has become an independent institution (1983), doubled the amount of awards and its total day of days of festivities (2003), and introduced an entire new range of genres to its repertoire⎯mime, circus arts, tattooing and comics. For last year's 29th edition, FIFA inaugurated the International Market of Films on Art, a segment devoted to the development of professionals.
What Now?
Cultural Significance and Community Involvement
While it is indisputable "the quality and originality of its selected works have made FIFA a fixture on the cultural landscape, and a major player in the international and cinematic communities," (FIFA), FIFA's interest in cultural exchanges has also helped to make it a landmark.
Every year, the location of FIFA's screenings and activities is divided among some of the most distinguished cultural institutions of the city⎯Place des Arts, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Arts, Concordia University, La Grande Bibliothèque, the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Cinémathèque Québécoise, the National Film Board Theatre and the Goethe-Institut⎯and gives locals and visitors alike the opportunity to connect or reconnect with Montreal culture. As a side note, FIFA's website possesses a section devoted to Montreal tourism.
FIFA relies heavily on volunteers. From information and reception in theaters to reception in theaters, VIP events, administrative tasks and distribution, the mulitlingual exchanges between volunteers, participants and visitors add to the cosmopolitan aspect of the Festival.
FIFA partners with local and international organizations. In 2008, for instance, Concordia University joined forces with FIFA out a shared desire to open their doors to the world. According to an announcement made by the university at the time, "FIFA and Concordia are aiming to bring together Montreal's cultural communities and develop the interest and appreciation of university students for films about art and artists from here and abroad." (Concordia University) Several films were screened at the J.A. De Sève Cinema that year.
VIDEO EMBED: Local French-Canadian coverage of the International Festival of FIlms on Art 2011 by ARTV
The 30th FIFA, 2012
Although much of the information for the upcoming 2012 festival has yet to be released, FIFA's website indicates this year's International Film Festival on Art will be held in Montreal, from March 15th to March 25th, its joint International Market of Film on Art will be presented from March 21st to March 24th. This second Market edition will include new activities and services designed for film industry professionals and international cultural institutions such as roundtables on 3D filming and editing, training and pitch sessions for emerging artists, workshop on new distribution alternatives, and pitch sessions for professionals.
VIDEO EMBED: Excerpt of Quarantaine and the Official Trailer for the International Festival of FIlms on Art 2010
Conclusion
Over the years, FIFA has established itself a platform for the film industry, one that will help develop and broaden what we know and think of art. In regards to its involvement with the promotion of art, culture, and cosmopolitain exchanges, the title of 'cultural landmark' is without a doubt well-deserved. Who knows what we can expect in the future from such an ever-growing organization...
Keep your eye out for the program.
Bibliography
Image source: Flickr.
A Francophone city par excellence in an essentially English-speaking country, Montréal surprises through its uniqueness, which is best reflected in the city's artistic and cultural landscape.
What we see today in Montréal in terms of arts and culture is the product of the age-old confrontation between its two principle communities, representatives of two powerful nations: Great Britain and France.For more than two centuries, these two communities - the Anglophones and the Francophones - have asserted their domination in turns depending on the position each held in the economic, social and political life of the city at a given time. Although their coexistence was not always peaceful, these two ethnic groups with opposite life styles and outlooks have each contributed inits own way to shaping the face of the city.
Rivals and allies at the same time, they transformed their city together, turning it into a place that stands out through its cultural and artistic background as no other city does.
The largest art museum in Montreal goes unnoticed by
most. In total it is 70 kilometers long and covers a large part of the city
with many exhibits by noted Quebec artists and architects. Each of its 68 "rooms"
has its unique style and flavour.
The Montreal Metro system, which is operated by the
Société
de transport de Montréal, opened on October 14, 1966
and while it is not a museum in the conventional sense of the word, the works
of art it houses number in the hundreds. There are sculptures, murals, mosaics,
stained glass and architectural elements- while some stations are the work art.
Though most art is from newer periods, think modern or pop art, certain pieces
have classical inspirations.
Canada is not only home to the young and free, but also the artistic. Arts and culture-related initiatives make considerable contributions to the well being of communities. Canadian artists stand for freedom of expression, a right that all Canadians should be capable of flexing. Art enriches and strengthens an individual's ability to exert their right to freedom of expression.
Section
2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees everyone the
fundamental freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including the
freedom of the press and other media of communication. The three core reasons
that the right to freedom of expression is important are:
1) To ensure the free flow of ideas in a democratic society
2) To ensure free debate in order to allow truth to prevail in the market place of ideas
3) To ensure citizens' ability to self realize through expression is not restricted
According to Section 2(b) of Canada's Charter of
Rights and Freedoms ensures everyone has the right to produce and share their
art. If this is a right to Canadians, why is that the Canadian government has
recently been making fatal cuts to arts funding?
Continue reading....
The Musée de Plein Air
de Lachine is an outdoor museum that is part of the Lachine Museum. A section
of this open-air museum can be found in Park René-Lévesque. The park is located on a long
peninsula which extends into Lac St.Louis. There are 22 scale art pieces made
of metal, wood or stone which run along a 4-kilometer path. The path is divided
by a small grass strip so that pedestrians and cyclists can enjoy the park
without getting in each others' way.