3 min read blog

Montréal

Montréal
Road map, circa 1917. From Official Automotive Road Guide of Canada: 1917, edited by James Miln

I am back from my eastern travels.

It's odd to think of Montreal as an island, but it is – in more ways than its physical geography. I enjoyed my time there, hanging out with the cat, exploring the city, and meeting some lovely people – I even met an Astrophysicist! Going to openings and exhibitions was a treat, plus a performance in the dome of the 'Satosphere' - more to see than I could include, and more to include than I could see. Walking in the Jardin Botanique de Montréal revealed some wonderful patterns - botanical and otherwise.

I can see what the fuss is about.

a field of Red Coleus

The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art

Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos: 
Efflorescence/The Way We Wake.

Beautiful paintings, sculptures and installations by these two artists, intertwined and comingled through the four floors of the PHI gallery in Old Montreal. Lovely.

Marigold Santos shroud caring for self (tikling / ruff-banded rail), 2023. Acrylic on canvas

giant kale (rotated and repeated)

PHI Centre

Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre

Beautiful and terrifying work and an immersive 4-channel video installation. Mosse shoots on an extinct Kodak stock, Aerochrome Color Infrared film, developed for the U.S. military in the 1940s for camouflage detection. The subject was powerful and the results made a big dent in my head. Inspired.

Richard Mosse, Mineral Ship, 2020. Archival pigment print.

Honey Bush (Melianthus Major)

Arsenal Contemporary

Permanent Collection

Sweet. I loved seeing works from the Arsenal permanent collection. Delicious.

Chris Soal,Nomad, 2022. Bamboo and birch wood toothpicks

The tiled floor in the men's bathroom at the Jardin (in lime green, black and white)

Arsenal Contemporary

Biennale ELEKTRA - ILLUSION

OK - curious works from technology frontiers - some generative AI based on prompts in a microphone - I loved how they disappeared as easily as they appeared. Some AR, video and physical installations with audio and interactivity - a wooden pipe organ played by the chaotic movements of a compound pendulum. Philip K. Dick's spirit was present throughout.

Chun Hua Catherine Dong. Skin Deep. 2019. Photographs with augmented reality

Good Vibes

Cool roof decks and good eats

While I enjoyed great food, I also had an encounter with 'so-so' massaman curry!

I shoulda known when they brought out a sushi menu at a Thai restaurant

Among the many treats on my travels, I came across a most unexpected one hanging on the wall of a friend's house – a sketch for a set design I had made for a mainstage theatre production of Primo Nana at Simon Fraser University in the eighties. How cool to encounter that.

Yours truly - Set design sketch for Primo Nana, SFU Mainstage. (a long time ago)

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As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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