weekend

It was a particularly summery Montreal weekend, lots of meandering, encounters and art.

a quick stop at a new wellness studio Espace Yama Naka for some kobucha to start my day

All in Eyewear event at Les Montures

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a stroll up the mountain...

...to check out Chromatic festival. Above Jason Botkin and Jeremy Shantz's giant Mr. Potatoheads on acid.

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installation by La Camaraderie
#vscocam
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works by Sébastien Lafleur
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dans le chalet du Mont-Royal
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a bike ride to the east end for an atelier/birthday party complete with smoked meat sandwiches and a mechanical bull. enough said.
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winding it down with the incredible Watermark by Edward Burtynsky and heartbreaking La Vie d'Adèle

Death & Taxes

Tax time has come and gone.  We've declared our lives on paper and as I do every year, I shred expired years gone by.  This year I found myself also with the task of my mother's final taxes and discovering that she had kept all of her life on paper since the 1980s.  Wanting to purge, I began to shred, and shred, and shred.  That satisfying sound of automated blades produced bags of thin strips of paper and history.  Although I was ready to lighten my load and take this pile of recycling down to the curb, I hesitated, thinking "maybe there's something to be done with this?" I struggled with the idea of hoarding bags of paper, then decided to sleep on it.
My eureka moment came not too long after.  It was spring, my birthday was right around the corner, and the art bug has been biting my ass for a while.  Henceforth and prepare thyself an installation birthday party, in which we shall celebrate life, death, the end of winter and new things to come.

Friends at Cineground graciously lent me their under construction space to install three pieces that reflect on the theme of death and taxes, identity and commemorating the loss of dear family members.

Of course I couldn't keep that shredding satisfaction all to myself.  Attendees were encouraged to participate in the one night only installation by bringing own documents of confidential matters that they wished to pass through the provided shredders, eliminating their own paper trail.

shredders and a surprisingly substantial pile of paper, courtesy of attendees

VSCO GRID

I got a nice surprise in my inbox the other night from my absolute favourite photo editing iPhone application. 

The VSCO Grid is a gorgeous curated feed of the images of VSCO Cam users.  As an image junkie, I was very flattered that an image from my VSCO library was among such good company.

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the knife

The Knife has landed.
A crew of humanoid aliens from the future came to demonstrate Shaking the Habitual from the bridge of their spaceship and lucky for us, we were able to bear witness to the event.

The queer-tastic brigade warmed up the crowd with some DEEP aerobics- that's Death/Electro/Emo/Protest aerobics for you, stirring up participation from the crowd. The Absurdist Aerobics class [was] taught by a master-teacher-guru-shaman-dictator-aerobics instructor- new age workshop leader, Tarek Halaby (1) who introduced himself as being queer, Palestinian, American and "I like to get shit done."  After a couple of movement warmups, Halaby had the crowd warm up their vocals chanting "yes!Yes!Yes!" and "no! No! No!"- only to remind us that life wasn't so absolute all the time and we practiced chanting "maybe! Maybe! Maybe!"

When The Knife took to the stage their bridge was revealed, complete with customized maracas of irregular polyhedra forms, as well as a stringed tabletop instrument where some bowing and percussion action took place.  Although The Knife in studio is composed of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, for this outing a group of eleven crew members interchanged places, roles and aerobicized dance moves to lead the audience through a twelve song set.  Most of which was less about flexing musical muscles (although there was plenty to love) and more about concepts and performance art that featured plenty of pre-recordings and choreography.

This recalled to mind an early 00's show of Fischerspooner's tour for their album #1.  With their art school roots, the show highlighted the tropes and stereotypes of fame and entertainment with a tongue firmly planted in cheek.  One moment had vocalist Casey Spooner in the balcony on a small rotating platform singing into his microphone.  He paused to take a swig of beer as the vocals kept going deliberately unveiling the lipsync and the artifice of the pop machine.

Now The Knife, Fischerspooner and many others in the pop realm ain't no Marina Abramovic, nor should it be seen as an attempt to create a "fine art" piece, but the allegiance lies in performance art, using their medium to deliver a message and even a smidgen of that self-awareness injected into the popular culture minefield is very welcome by me.

pinterest patterns

pin pin pin pin pin pin pin
Seemingly random, striking on instinct, pin it, ohh I like that.
Colour, shape, mix, blacks, whites, textured, minimalist.
So many criteria of what and where our interests lie can be summed up in a couple of words.
But how cohesive does it become?
Carefully curated or chaotic and random?
I visit my Pinterest once in a blue moon, almost like a quick browse through a shop.  I stopped by and scrolled through my own feed and saw patterns emerge.
Carefully curated or unconscious themes?

 pink/taupes

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 balloon/clouds, blue, brass

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 whites and such

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 geometry

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 forms and colourway

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 silver/grey, rectangles

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yellow

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Patterns do emerge and we look for patterns.

They help us make sense of the world and the large amount of information we have to process.  We catalog and categorize instinctively.  And patterns are simply easy on the eyes and can create a sense of wonder.  Snowflakes? Romanesco broccoli? Now those are some stunning patterns.

#ALEXANDERWANGxHM

source: h&m

Whoa.
It was just announced today that Alexander Wang (that we all affectionately call A Wang, like we were bffs or something) will be the newest collaborator with the mega brand giant H&M.  The Balenciaga creative director will be the first American designer to partner with H&M and Wang will likely deliver a collection peppered with desirable accessories that we can't get enough of.

Past collab launches of Maison Martin Margiela and Isabel Marant  have caused fashion frenzies; and true to form Wang's contribution is sure to get everyone hot and bothered when the collection drops November 6th.

The Stowe

Recently I stopped in to visit the brand spanking new studio space of The Stowe and designer Molly Spittal.  I had seen the Denny backpack on jewelry designer Agathe Bodineau and fell in love.  I sent the Vancouver transplant an email introducing myself and then I totally invited myself over.  Get ready.

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sample styles

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Molly at work.  Each bag is made by hand and to order.  Now that is love!

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rivets are riveting

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the Denny backpack in progress

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While admiring Molly's custom mason jar sleeve I spilled the last drops of her coffee in the shape of Africa.

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Love.this.bag.  I can't wait to get mine.  Support talent chez nous!