Happy Hallowe'en Witches & Ghouls and all you souls out there!

Our friend Logan was visiting with his parents from Toronto. Logan LOVES Hallowe'en. Here's his reaction to our front window, which has lots of scary things in it for this special time of year.

Crustacés Tapes & Collecting Friends
8-31 October 2014

Crustacés Tapes & Collecting Friends

Crustacés Tapes & Collecting Friends

Vernissage mercredi 8 oct, 18 - 21hr
expo 8 - 31 oct, 2014

We are proud to present objects from the mail-art collection of Crustacés Tapes as well as curated collections of friends of Crustacés Tapes.

Nous sommes fiers de présenter certains objets de la collection d'art postal de Crustacés Tapes, ainsi que d'autres collections sélectionnées par des amis du collectif postal.

**** *** ** * ** *** ****

Crustacés Tapes - choses envoyées, choses reçues

Crustacés Tapes est un projet de distribution sonore postale, publiant diverses curiosités sonores sur bande magnétique. Les cassettes sont envoyées par la poste à quiconque nous envoie une carte postale ou un cadeau. Au cours de ses trois années d'existence, Crustacés Tapes a reçu des cartes postales, une enveloppe de petits carrés de carton, des dessins, des CD, des livres, une boîte d'allumettes, des photos, des timbres, du thé, un bouton à quatre trous, des cassettes, du sable, une fleur en plastique et un billet de loto expiré.

Crustacés Tapes - things sent, things received

Crustacés Tapes is a postal sound distribution project, releasing sonic curiosities on magnetic tape. The cassettes are mailed to whoever sends us a postcard or gift. In its three years of existence, Crustacés Tapes has received letters, a envelope of small cardboard squares, drawings, postcards, a flag, CDs, books, a matchbox, chocolate wrapping, photos, stamps, tea, a 4 hole button, cassettes, sand, a plastic flower and an expired lotto ticket.

Sweet Sixteen Party August 17, 2014 !

Monastiraki célèbre son doux 16ème anniversaire cette année!

16 ans dans le Mile-End, 16 ans d’existence ouverte, hétéroclite et de vie de communauté créatrice.

16 ans de trouvailles de collectionneurs, de babioles-papier uniques, de spectacles d’art, de fanzines et d’estampes, de bricolage pour/par les enfants, de parties de collage.

Viens célébrer avec nous, on aura sur place des cocktails, une table de collage et de la musique ‘en direct’ toute la journée.

Dimanche, 17 août, 2014, 14h00 à 20h00.

••••

Monastiraki is celebrating its Sweet16 this year !

16 years in Mile-End, 16 years of open, eclectic, creative community existence.
16 years of vintage finds, one-of-a-kind paper ephemera, art shows, zines & prints, kids crafts, collage parties.

Come celebrate with us, there will be cocktails, a collage table and live music through out the day.

Sunday, August 17, 2014 2pm until 8pm

Monastiraki is Sweet Sixteen !

We are sixteen years old ! We will celebrate with all of you this summer ! We are so so thankful for the wild ride we've been on !

From AUSTIN to ZUZU

 

Vernissage June 5, 6-9pm

Exhibit June 5 - 29, 2014

On the walls 

Ballerina Convention by Austin English
In the window 

Psychic Candy Hover Lands by Zuzu Knew

Austin English---whose books include Christina and Charles, The Disgusting Room, and the Ignatz-Award nominated The Life Problem---will present a suite of new drawings made in graphite and colored pencil for this show of works on paper at Monastiraki. In addition to these newer, never before exhibited drawings, English will also present key pages from past comics. The show will attempt to present a view of the different approaches to drawing and image making that English has been working with over the past 10 years.

Zuzu Knew is an interdisciplinary artist who follows her cravings to create wondermints. She often combines pastry, creature infinity and prism vision to make living cartoons; drawings, analogue projections, street art, costumes, and cake. Psychic Candy Hover Lands portrays an environment in the flux of its naturally sweet and sour landscape where at first glance cute and upon a closer look foreboding elements balance each other out. Zu recently went to Greece for the Koumaria Residency, launched the film Smile Stealers with collaborators and does projections and styling for the band Syngja. She is part of an ongoing documentary about her and her sister and their great grandmother.

••••••• ••• • ••••• •••

Vernissage 5 juin, 18-21hr

Expo 5-29 juin, 2014

Sur les murs 

Ballerina Convention de Austin English
Dans la vitrine 

Psychic Candy Hover Lands de Zuzu Knew

Austin English -dont les livres incluent Christina and Charles, The Disgusting Room, et The Life Problem (nominé pour le Prix Ignatz)-présentera une série de nouveaux dessins faits au graphite et crayons de couleurs pour cette exposition d’oeuvres sur papier à Monastiraki. En plus de ces nouveaux dessins jamais exposés, English présentera aussi des pages clés de ses BD passées. Cette exposition tentera de présenter un aperçu des différentes approches au dessin et à la fabrication d’images sur lesquelles English a travaillé pendant les 10 dernières années.

Zuzu Knew est une artiste interdisciplinaire qui suit ses désirs afin de créer des ‘wondermints’. Elle combine souvent pâtisserie, créature de l’infini et vision de prisme afin de faire des dessins animés vivants : dessins, projections analogues, art de la rue, costumes et gâteau. Psychic Candy Hover Lands illustre un environnement dans le flux d’un paysage naturellement aigre et doux, qui, à première vue, montre des éléments mignons et qui pourtant, vus de plus près, s’avèrent des choses à saveur d’appréhension. Zu a récemment visité la Grèce pour la Résidence Koumaria, lancé le film Smile Stealers avec des collaborateurs et est responsable des projections du groupe Syngja en plus d’en être la styliste. Elle participe à un documentaire en évolution au sujet d’elle-même, de sa sœur et de son arrière grand-mère.

 

AUSTIN ENGLISH - COMING UP JUNE 2014

Coming up next month, June 2014, we're very happy to have drawings by
the inimitable Austin English - comic artist, publisher, drawer.

ACCRETIONS may 2014

 

ACCRETIONS

an exhibit of small clusters

We here at Monastiraki cannot help but collect small objects that resonate with unknown history.

For this exhibit, we've brought together some of our favourites and created new small sculptural works,
part jewellery, part fetish object.

Please join us for something a little different.

Vernissage Thursday May 1st, 2014
Exhibit runs until June 1st.

••••••••

Accroissements – Une Exposition de Petits Amas

Nous, à , Monastiraki - Le Petit Monastère ne pouvons nous empêcher de collectionner de petits objets qui résonnent d’une histoire inconnue.

Pour cette exposition, nous avons rassemblé quelques uns de nos objets favoris et créé de nouvelles petites œuvres de sculptures, mi- bijoux, mi- objets fétiches.

Joignez-vous à nous pour quelque chose d’un peu différent !

Vernissage jeudi 1 mai, 2014
expo 1mai - 1 juin,. 2014

 ****************************

Billy Mavreas wrote a short text about how his small object collection led to this show coming together. 

http://alitterwitch.blogspot.ca/2014/04/accretions-breakthroughs-collections.html

INTERVIEW Graham Hall

Is an artist based in Montreal.

'2013' will be showing at Monastiraki from April 3-27. 

******************************************************************

On 3 April, 2014, the year 2013 is revisited by a crowd of people relishing one of the first days of spring in Montreal. The window is full of fresh flowers in dialogue with a 5-foot-tall, 3-dimensional pyramid characterized by bold colors contained in a geometric style. The works on the wall are highly mathematical and controlled, but the order lends a sense of calm instead of restriction. Inviting its viewer to think about the past in its relationship to history, the present, and the future, Graham Hall’s work succeeds as both retrospect and potentiality. Once the crowd thinned out nearing the end of the night, I had the chance to talk with Graham about his work, steamies vs toasties, and Muddy Waters.

Just to open it up, tell us a bit about the body of work – any inspiration, challenges, etc?

Initially this work was inspired by a couple of postcards that I dug out of my files, which I had initially bought many years ago in Venice, which depicted some of the floor pavements in the Basilica St. Marco, attributed to Paolo Uccello – the Great Renaissance Master. I wanted to see if I could reproduce them in some kind of way. I liked the 3-D effects in them and I was attracted to trying to be very, very precise in the making of the work. It was kind of a personal challenge, I guess, to see if I could do it and see where I could take it after I theoretically would be able to do it. Because it’s very, very math-based, lots of geometry, and I’ve always been terrified of mathematics (laughter).

Do you think that there’s a specific time and place in the artist’s life when a personal challenge is necessary?

For me, it’s something that comes up constantly, but without realizing that I’m setting it up. I’ve produced several bodies of work over the years, that were very interesting to me initially, just to do, to make something that would hopefully be beautiful in the end, but that then required (as the series went on) a really serious amount of heavy work. A really, really tight, labor-intensive process. And I guess the reason that I follow through with it is because I either know that the end result will be great, because of the first couple of attempts, or I’m looking forward to what the result will be, which is an unknown. If I do this, and this and this and this, eventually I will come to an end and then I’ll have this thing, if all goes well (laughter).

Even if the end isn’t necessarily ideal, the piece still exists.

To me it matters that you get to that point. The work will often start in a very expressive way, and usually very, very quickly it turns into that labor-intensive process that has in its sights, in the end, the creation of a piece that I want to look at.

Why are there flowers in the window tonight?

Another inspiration for this body of work was the reading of Umberto Eco’s On Beauty, so I became interested in beauty and ideas of beauty. And flowers, I think it’s pretty generally agreed, are beautiful things, so that’s one aspect of flowers in the window. I had conceived of the idea of having an abundance of flowers in the window prior to the passing of my former professor, Maestro Peter Porcal, and since his passing, it sort of turned into this idea of not just celebrating spring and having joy in the beauty of flowers, but also, kind of a tribute to this great man who influenced me in so many ways.

What is your favorite Montreal food joint when you’re drunk?

Usually at home (laughter). But on the rare occasion that I am out on the town, getting shit-faced, very rare occasion, Chez Claudette is a hop, skip and a jump away from where I live, so I guess if I were to choose something, it would be something that is close to home, so that I can then stumble up the stairs with a belly full of poutine.

Toastie or Steamie?

Steamie.

Best new book you’ve read?

I’ve not quite finished it, but, I have been reading, very slowly, Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be?. Which is amazing. Sheila, I knew, not very well – friends of friends – back when I lived in Toronto. In fact, back then, she was the first person whom I didn’t know very well, who told me that they really enjoyed my artwork. So I felt it important to read one of her books. The funny thing is, I know a few people in the book (laughter). Not well, but I definitely know some of them, and I certainly know many of the places. It feels very familiar, and especially the situations that she’s writing about, for me, over the past couple of months, I very much identify with.

What music are you listening to?

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of electric blues. I recently bought Muddy Waters’ 1968 electric album called Electric Mud, which is really awesome. It’s pretty clear that they’re just jamming away. There’s a really out-of-tune clarinet solo in one of the songs, which is a little bit off-putting, but most of it is this really great bluesy – well, not just bluesy – but full on Muddy Waters blues, fuzzed-out porno funk; it’s pretty awesome. I’m liking that. I’m liking Them with Van Morrison, and early Rolling Stones, and Yardbirds. And I always go back to Stooges, MC5.

What’s going on with the Malaysia flight? What does it mean for contemporary thought?

Well, it means that we’re reminded once again that we’re at the mercy of the universe. We like to think because we’ve got iPhones and all that shit, that we’re in control but obviously we’re not. I worry that it feeds into Bermuda Triangle garbage thinking, but a year or two from now they’ll find something just like the Air France flight that crashed off Brazil a couple years ago. It’s a tragedy, and it’s too bad that we immediately think, (gasp), “Oh, is it terrorism?” But tragedies happen, and random shit fuckin’ happens, you know? And that’s life. I know that very well (laughter).

Any closing remarks; something that has been running through your head recently?

Something that went through my mind last week – I was thinking about the fact that all this work in the show is from the previous year: what does that mean? And I thought, well, I think about history a lot. I thought, looking towards the past, is ultimately, a wish for hope in the future. And a search, or yearning for Romance in the present. 

Interview conducted by Tara Slaughter

Graham Hall - 2013

Graham Hall  2013

rivers, mountains, martyrs
salt mine, sanctuary, visions
new sacrifice, vestal experiences, satanic adversary
everything, big things, small things
fantasy, power and zero

(all of the work in this exhibition was either completed or begun in 2013)


••• ••• •••


Graham Hall  2013

rivières, montagnes, martyres
mine de sel, sanctuaire, visions
nouveau sacrifice, expériences vestales, adversaire satanique
toute chose, grandes choses, petites choses
fantaisie, pouvoir et zéro.

(Toutes les œuvres d’art de cette exposition ont été soit complétées, soit commencées en 2013)

From The Archives - Pedagogical Literature

We manage to collect kids school books of various kinds and conditions.
If a book is in no shape to sell but is festooned with character, it is kept in the archives.
If a book is pristine but so awesome it couldn't possibly be let go, it is kept in the archives.
Here is an example of each.

The first book we'll look at is Magic Letters, a psychedelic romp through diverse style changes, watercolour, paper cut-out, clay illustration, etc.

 

Check out some of these spreads -

On a radically different note, Let's Learn To Spell is a staid grammar book, replete with exercises on constructing sentences and all that. Why we feature it here is for the arcane quality of it's symbols and the obvious connection between spelling words and casting spells (magic letters!). Also, some kid went to town on it and learned to spell.

This is a small fragment of our collection. Stay tuned for more thematic uploads.

Todd Stewart - Printwork

We are thrilled to have the gorgeous silkscreened prints of Todd Stewart aka bree,ree framed and on our walls for the month of March.

Zine Launch / SHUSHANNA BIKINI LONDON #7

Dimanche 2 mars, lancement du nouveau fanzine Shushanna Bikini London, histoire numéro 7, Chère Marie.

Rendez-vous de 14h à 16h dans la superbe boutique-galerie Monastiraki - Le Petit Monastère pour découvrir le nouveau zine, les merveilles de la boutique, boire un verre en bonne compagnie et peut-être gagner des petites surprises inédites !

Venez nombreux !

Nuit Blanche 2014 5TH ANNUAL COLLAGE PARTY

Join us for our fifth annual collage party !! Grab a chair and destroy our vintage magazines making beautiful new collages in the process. This is a chill evening where the sweet sound of snipping is louder than the beats in the background.

Free
8pm - Midnight

Joignez-vous à notre 5e fête annuelle du collage ! Prenez-vous une chaise, coupez, collez, déconstruisez, imaginez et réinventez à votre guise. Profitez de l’occasion pour faire de nouvelles rencontres et prenez plaisir à assembler des trésors artistiques qui font de Monastiraki une boutique si unique !

Gratuit

20 h à minuit

http://www.montrealenlumiere.com/nuit-blanche/

Concordia SPA (Student Print Association) @ Monastiraki

Concordia University has a student print association and the fine folks there are mounting a mid-term exhibition on our walls the week of Feb. 12 to Feb 16, 2014.
Opening party the evening of Feb. 12.
We're very excited to support the next generation of local print artists.

VACANCES EN JANVIER / JANUARY VACATION

The shop will be closed from January 11th -January 31st

La boutique sera fermée du 11 janvier - 31 janvier

see you in february !!

What We Look Like

Photo by Michelle Gagné  2013

Modelling in Monastiraki

Photographer Michelle Gagné dropped by the shop with model Sandrine
They proceeded to reveal the loveliness all around.

 Michelle Gagné Photographer

INTERVIEW Emma Senft

-->

Is an artist based in Montreal, where she focuses on making objects and images, and obsessively pickling, preserving and fermenting food. Her practice focuses around drawing, printmaking, sculpture and installation. In 2011 she received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, including a term at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Casting will be showing at Monastiraki from 1 November to 1 December, 2013. You can find her website here.

***********************************************************************

On 1 November 2013, Monastiraki was warm with bodies and voices orbiting the front of the gallery, interacting with Senft’s work. And it wasn’t the glance-hmmm-nod type of interaction (that’s altogether too bourgy, and we all know that). The knit-like patterns evoke a trance of sorts; eyes doing infinite loops while remaining grounded in the soft, sinewy line work. The pieces are at once taxing and sedative, a quality of art that creates a rare sense of breathing room for the viewer. Following the patterns is a commitment, yet pausing is an acceptable and, perhaps, essential facet. It’s quite clear that Senft won’t be a starving artist (she pickles). As the night was coming to an end, Senft and I spoke about untouchable art, pig noses, and people who don’t have secrets.

In your artist statement, you mention taking your drawing ‘beyond the page.’ Can you talk a bit more about that?

My dad was a sculptor, so I grew up in a metal shop. When I did end up going to art school, I didn’t take any sculpture classes. I still haven’t really acknowledged or found where that resistance laid. So that led me into other venues – a lot of which was printmaking. That’s where I really learned paper, surface, line, that kind of thing. And when I left school, a lot of that translated to drawing, because that was what was affordable and accessible .and easy Once I start to look back, I realize that everything I make or have made is this obsession with surface, materiality, form, line. And all that goes back to, really I think, love of sculpture, and that being the initial education. So I think that’s where my desire to take it [my work] ‘beyond drawing,’ comes from. It’s like, “Yeah, I made this drawing,” and then I’m interested in it, but I want it to be more. I want to make things that are 3-D or malleable or more physical. And bigger or touchable.

Which seems to be embodied by your installation in the window. The changing shadows throughout the day was a great surprise.

That piece is about the material but it’s also about the surface it hangs on. Because it casts multiple-layered shadows, so it’s really about how it interacts with the surface behind it. I’ve always hung it on a wall and made sure it was lit in an interesting way. But now it’s hung on a surface that has two sides, so it’s doubled in that sense where it has that extra layer, which is really exciting.

Tonight, we’ve seen people touching the installation, adding a third element to the piece. What are your feelings on viewer interaction; should people touch art?

This is really my dad – I grew up [with the idea] that you touch art, that’s what you do. If there’s a sign that says, ‘Don’t touch the art,’ that’s bullshit. Now when it’s a print or a drawing, I don’t necessarily believe that. You know, if you have clean hands and you’ve handled paper before and you know what you’re doing – great, touch it. But it’s hard to let the general public touch a drawing because it’s going to be destroyed. [The installation in the window is made out of] EPDM, but it’s like sheet rubber, essentially. It’s pretty durable, and everybody sees it and they have no idea what it is, and they’re so interested. So I’m always telling people, “Touch it, here, just feel this, you know? Move it around.” They’re like, “Really, are you sure?” “Yeah, please, this will give you an understanding of what you’re looking at,” you know? This explains the sculpture if you realize what the material is. I’m very for touching sculpture, touching art.

 Also in your artist statement, the word subtle seems to be a driving force in your work. You express a need for patience when dealing with your artwork, and enjoying pieces that ask the same of the viewer. In that same vein, how do you feel about people who don’t have any secrets? Does that make sense?

I work in service, [at a] café, and something that I struggle with or come up against a lot is people just asking questions about your life. As if it’s never occurred to them that you don’t work in a café because you want to be a public icon, you work there because it pays you. Right? And, I don’t want to tell this stranger what neighborhood I live in. People who don’t have secrets is like the same thing to me, I don’t relate. I like to be social, I like to talk and hang out and meet people but I also really like to have that separation between private and public life. [This translates into the art world when,] for some people abstract work is problematic: “What am I supposed to be seeing here?” Versus why I’m so drawn to making something that is abstract  and that I want people to spend time [with] and see whatever they want; I think that’s a parallel. What I go through in making this work – because they’re kind of process-based drawings, they’re meditative – that’s not necessarily what’s on display. What that drawing is about for me is not what that drawing is about for that viewer.

When you were young, was there something you found yourself habitually drawing?

The way that I drew noses as a kid was pig noses – so the two dots and then a circle around. Any figure that I drew human, alien, otherwise had a pig nose. Which is really nice. My dad, being a metal sculptor, he would sometimes take a drawing and turn it into a sculpture. So there’s this amazing drawing that I did age 3 or 4, and it’s my cousin crying. It’s kind of like a sun head – it’s a blob. And then there’s lines coming out of it – hair – and then these eyes that are crying and this pig nose, and a wide open wailing mouth. And then just two legs, with lots of toes. So this exists now in forged steel, and it’s amazing – the best collaboration I’ve ever seen. It’s my cousin being a drama queen at age 5. Family portraiture.

Is there anything you’ve been reading or listening to that’s worth putting on record?

Something that I’m really excited about that just started is Perish Publishing, out of Toronto. I think they’re making art books.

I read this book recently that I really loved, and I’ve been recommending it to everybody since then but I think, ultimately, I should just recommend it to young women I know. It’s called How Should a Person Be?  by Sheila Heti – I think she’s from Toronto, she’s pretty young. I relate to it on this level of what-the-fuck, and I’m a young artist trying to make it sort of thing. But I don’t know why or how. But at some point in the book she buys a tape recorder and approaches her best friend – she’s trying to write a play and she’s really stuck. She wants to record all the conversations she has with her best friend who’s a painter. And her best friend flips out, she’s like, “You can’t put me into this concrete thing where everything I say is now archived forever, that’s horrifying.” And that’s how I felt when Billy told me we were going to have this interview, I was like, “Oh no!” So it’s good, I’ve overcome a fear today.

Interview conducted by Tara Slaughter

YUM YUM COLLECTIVE & FRIENDS

 

YUM YUM COLLECTIVE from Belgium

with some Canadian friends make wicked art book

MUD GUM

launched at Monastiraki !

Emma Senft - Casting November 2013

Emma Senft concentre sa pratique artistique autour du dessin, de la sculpture et de l’estampe. Elle a obtenu son Baccalauréat en beaux-arts de l’Université NSCAD en 2011, et a exposé à travers le Canada ainsi qu’aux États-Unis et en Écosse. Emma vit présentement à Montréal, où elle fabrique objets et images, et fait, de manière obsessionnelle, des conserves, du “cannage” et du saumurage de nourriture.

Cette exposition présente deux séries parallèles commencées au printemps 2011. Débuté comme un processus basé sur le dessin, ce travail explore la fonction, la décoration et la stylisation dans l’art.  Ce travail reflète ma curiosité face à la surface, la texture et le matériel et  porte le dessin au delà de la ligne et du papier.

Le travail qui m’inspire est souvent subtil, lent et élégant. Il requière patience et temps de la part du public, plutôt que de venir à sa rencontre trop aisément et trop révéler rapidement. Je fais un travail qui est complexe, éveillant la curiosité du public.




-------------------

Emma Senft focuses her art practice around drawing, sculpture and print. She earned her BFA from NSCAD University in 2011, and has exhibited within Canada as well as in the United States and Scotland. Emma currently lives in Montreal, where she is making objects and images, and obsessively pickling, preserving and fermenting food.

This exhibition presents two parallel series started in spring 2012. Begun as process based drawing, the work explores function, decoration and stylization in art. This work reflects my curiosity for surface, texture and material, and an extension of drawing beyond line and paper.

The work that inspires me is often subtle, slow and elegant. It requires patience and time from the viewer, rather than coming forward and giving too much away. I make work that is intricate, sparking curiosity in the viewer.

♥ The Moved & The Shook ♥ 100 drawings by Sherwin Sullivan Tjia !!

♥ The Moved & The Shook ♥
100 drawings by Sherwin Sullivan Tjia hand-picked from ten years of sketchbooks

Wednesday October 2, 2013 - Sunday, October 27, 2013

Vernissage:
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
6 - 9 PM

♥ ARTIST STATEMENT:

For ten years I carried a sketchbook around in my pocket. It was always the same kind of sketchbook. It was about an inch thick and had the rough dimensions of a postcard. "Opens flat!" the cover sticker boasted. And over ten years I filled thirty of them.

Mostly I filled them with drawings of folks on the bus. I took a bus everyday to my job up the hill and instead of reading or smartphoning I drew my daily companions on that ride.

You really get to know someone when you draw them. You get to like them, even if they look like a mean sort of person. A funny thing that happens when you run your pen along their faces like you're a blind person trying to get a picture of them in your mind. You grow fond of the particularities of a person's features.

One time I was on the street and I see this guy walking by me and I recognize him but don't know how I know him and then I remember I drew him on the bus a couple days ago. For a moment I consider stopping him and showing him the drawing I have of him in my book but then I thankfully come to my senses and don't say anything.

I get really self-conscious when the person beside me starts showing an inordinate interest in my drawing. They often look at my drawing and then look at the person and then back again, to make comparisons between my drawing and real life.

The rise of the smartphone was a great thing for me. It's easier to draw someone if they're sitting still, and their razor-sharp focus on the game they're playing or the facebook they're updating or the text that they're typing helps me out a lot.

One of the things I had to get used to was the movement of the bus. It's like being on a rocking boat. You learn when it's a good time to make a line, and when you have to refrain. Only a few times did the bus suddenly jerk or brake and make me wreck a really good drawing.

I don't want folks to know I'm drawing them. Sometimes they notice and then they get all self-conscious and then I stop drawing at once because who needs that kind of scrutiny? Even though they are in a public space, they have a private look on their faces.

This series of drawings are what I consider the best and loveliest from my ten year's harvest.

♥ ARTIST BIO:

Sherwin Sullivan Tjia is a Montreal-based writer & illustrator who has written 8 books.

The World is a Heartbreaker, a collection of 1600 pseudohaikus, was a finalist for the Quebec Writer’s Federation’s A.M. Klein Poetry Award.

The Hipless Boy, a collection of short, interconnected stories told in graphic novel form, was a finalist for the Doug Wright Award in the Best Emerging Talent category, & also nominated for 4 Ignatz Awards.

His invention, The E-Z-Purr: The Virtual Cat! (an album with over an hour of cats purring) is available on the iTunes music store.

In his spare time, he organizes Slowdance Nights, Love Letter Reading Open Mics, Crowd Karaoke singalongs, & Strip Spelling Bees in and around Montreal & Toronto as Chat Perdu Productions.

***************************************************

♥ COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ARTISTE


Pendant plus de dix ans, j’ai rempli trente cahiers de dessins de citadins dans l’autobus.

On apprend vraiment à faire connaissance avec quelqu'un quand on le ou la dessine. Une drôle de chose se produit lorsqu’on trace les contours d’un visage au crayon tel un malvoyant qui tente de se faire une idée du visage de quelqu'un dans son esprit: on se prend à aimer la particularité des traits de ce visage.

La popularité des Smartphones a été une bonne chose pour moi. Il est plus facile de dessiner quelqu’un s’il reste immobile et que son attention est concentrée sur le jeu vidéo qui l’occupe, la mise à jour de facebook ou le texto qu’il tape. Tout cela m’aide beaucoup.

Je ne veux pas que les gens sachent que je suis en train de les dessiner. Parfois, ils s’aperçoivent que je les dessine et deviennent très conscients d’eux-mêmes, et j’arrête tout de bon de dessiner du coup, car qui a besoin de ce genre d’examen? Malgré le fait qu’ils soient dans un espace public, ils ont tous un air privé sur leurs visages.

Cette série de dessins est ce que je considère le meilleur et le plus charmant de la récolte de ces 10 années.

♥ BIO DE l’ARTISTE

Sherwin Sullivan Tjia est un écrivain & illustrateur basé à Montréal qui a écrit 8 livres.

Son invention, The E-Z Purr: The Virtual Cat! (un album avec plus d’une heure de chats qui ronronnent) est disponible sur la boutique musique de I-Tunes.

Dans ses temps libres, il organise des Nuits de Slows, des Lectures de Lettres d’Amour dans des soirées à scènes ouvertes ,des karaoké où la foule chante et participe et des StripSpelling Bees, à Montréal &Toronto et leurs environs, en tant que Production Chat Perdu.

ROSS CAMPBELL - ALLUSIONS

ROSS CAMPBELL
ALLUSIONS

Exposition: sept. 20 2013 – dec. 21 2013
Vernissage : sept 20 2013, 17:00-20:00

Monastiraki Residency artist’s statement

ALLUSIONS

There is a mixture of the common and the treasured to the space and objects within Monastiraki; which is which being a matter of one’s perspective. As well, a space that is both public and private. I wanted to create a body of work that expressed duality, that talked with Monastiraki’s collection, and that spoke to the neighbourhood. I gleaned a series of words, synonymous in both French and English, and cut them in grey adhesive vinyl. These small texts are displayed throughout Monastiraki in subtle and bold placements, and with literal and abstract connotations. The selected synonyms are adjectives and nouns that look identical in both languages, but most often with different pronunciations. Whichever of the languages one chooses to read the word in is subjective, but the meaning the same. Perhaps illustrating how individual languages can interact together due to the proximity of cultures and, for this project, specifically the intertwined histories between France and England. Monastiraki itself sits on the psychic border between Montreal’s Francophone and Anglophone communities, and as its name suggests it is an Allophone space – a language and culture outside the dominant binaries of French and English. From this perspective there would seem to be more ambiguity than certainty when it comes to defining these boundaries.

----------------------

Communiqué de l’artiste en résidence de Monastiraki

ALLUSIONS

On trouve un mélange du commun et du précieux dans l’espace et les objets de Monastiraki, lequel regard qu’on y porte dépendant de la perspective de chacun. Il s’agit d’un espace qui est à la fois public et privé. J’ai voulu créer une œuvre qui exprime la dualité, qui renvoie à la collection de Monastiraki et qui rejoint le quartier. J’ai glané une série de mots, de synonymes en français et en anglais, et je les ai coupés dans un vinyle adhésif gris. Ces petits textes sont exposés à travers Monastiraki dans des lieux subtiles et audacieux, aux connotations à la fois littérales et abstraites. Ces synonymes sélectionnés sont des adjectifs et des noms qui semblent identiques dans les deux langues, mais qui, le plus souvent, possèdent des prononciations différentes. La langue dans laquelle chacun décide de lire ces mots est subjective, mais le sens reste le même. Ce projet illustre peut-être comment ces langues peuvent interagir ensemble due à la proximité des cultures et, plus spécifiquement, il illustre le rapport entre les histoires inextricablement liées de la France et de l’Angleterre. Monastiraki elle-même se situe à la frontière psychique entre les communautés francophones et anglophones de Montréal, et, comme son nom l’indique, il s’agit d’un espace allophone –une langue et une culture à l’extérieur des dominantes binaires du français et de l’anglais. Selon cette perspective, il semblerait y avoir plus d’ambigüité que de certitude lorsqu’il s’agit de définir ces frontières.

A New MONASTIRAKI Print !

Rebecca & Quentin of L'APPÂT designed and printed this wicked poster for Monastiraki, a riff on our famed Green Wall Of Chaos !

The Swimmer & The Rain Cloud

Our late summer window display boasts a papier maché / bricolage diorama
by Emilie O'Brien & Tara Slaughter.