Mechanical lovin'
Isa Tousignant
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From Sacred Feminine & Masculine, by Scott MacLeod
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New arty prod company Arscenique goes wild and contrasty with Love & the Machine
There's no place like the SAT for mad massive art fests, and that's exactly what Christine La Fontaine has in mind. "Paul Warne's installation is massive - it'll take half of the back room of the SAT," she says breathlessly, promoting the latest Arscenique happening. "It's something that people will walk through whether they want to or not, because that's where the stage is! The fashion show will kind of come out of the installation. We're trying to intertwine a lot of different artistic facets, the art, the fashion and the music - there'll be a live band for the fashion show, so we have a live act and fashion all within the installation. It's really about mixing everything up and having people collaborate. It's turning out to be a lot of fun."
The event is Love & the Machine, slated for September 3, and it's the brainchild of Arscenique, which La Fontaine heads with Jessica Darlington. The mandate behind the fresh-faced organization is to promote the arts through the dissemination of works by emerging creators. They're way into the multidisciplinary thing too, in the best possible way: The night boasts fashion by Ritual Designs, jewellery by Lydia Lukidis, a massive stage installation by artist Paul Warne, music galore and art of all sorts, including Scott MacLeod's installation Sacred Feminine & Masculine.
"It was amazing because the SAT is actually where I wanted to show my project after I got my grant, and it just happened," says MacLeod, also excited. "The idea of Sacred
Feminine & Masculine came to me just studying divine proportions. I guess my focus is the phases of life, so I chose seven stations - the baby, the young boy/girl that represents innocence, the maiden, the mother, the father, the grandmother, the grandfather and two elders. What I wanted to address was the cycle of life."
MacLeod's installation will involve projections - one, involving animation, just when you walk in the space, another on the ceiling - that will divide the men's and women's portraits in the space. MacLeod's interest was to examine archetypes and explore new techniques. "I did a request for the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and this year I got an A Grant from them to pursue digital photography in a way where I was transferring my photographs on canvas and possibly reworking the canvas in paint or wax, but mostly also to work them in Photoshop," he explains.
The contrast he's introducing between the organic and the technological certainly works with the event's theme. "Love & the Machine - everybody asks us what that means!" laughs La Fontaine. "We wanted to represent something that occurs in daily life, that you see around all the time, and something that's also contrasting. So 'love' and 'the machine' are contrasting, but they're around all the time. The machine for artists can be interpreted as a literal machine, meaning technology, but it can also have a political meaning. Love, I mean, that's ambiguous... so it gives a wide, broad topic for artists to represent."
The breadth will be explored throughout the evening with visual contributions by Joanna Rosciszewka, Dita Kubin, Raymon Fong, Allan McEachern, Gary Cowan, Shawna Burns, Dona Daher, Stephen H. Kawai, Chantal Leclerc, Scoutabout Films, and Adam and Nathan Partington with Camille Zaroubie. Musically, there'll be Freeworm, NWAR, Radarstat, Franky Fontaine, Wayback Machine, Quadraceptor, Vorpal, Sick Puppy and Vitaminsforyou. It's a full night, all right.
"The night starts off with a 5 à 7," pants La Fontaine, "and then around 8 o'clock we're going to open the back area, which is where the massive installation will be, and then at 9:30 NWAR is going to start, and then around 10 p.m. the fashion show begins. And then Freeworm plays at around 11:30. It'll be fun."
Love & the Machine
At SAT, Sept. 3
www.arscenique.org
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There is an old saying that says, "too many cooks will spoil the broth!"I believe it is better to focus on one aspect of art and give it all the attention. When you are having a fashion show and with a live band and art as well , people will leave having seen it all but they will not have retained anything of value. It just too much to offer in one evening. I would not go to such a spectacle it would be to much for my head. Thats how I feel but you could do all three in different evenings and give it the attention it merits.
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Maria Cecillia Silva
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