porpos

ART MATTERS

A how-to guide · Un guide pratique

Chloë Lalonde

porpos 2019

porpos

- DISCLAIMER -

An old-French word derived from purpose.

This guide pratique est written en FRANGLAIS, well French et Anglais respectively.

Artist bios ne sont pas translated. They have been laissé dans leur original written langue.

porr · po Not porpoise or por · puss

-- - - Ce guide est compris de plusieurs lessons simple, inspirés pars les projets exposé à porpos.

In no way can you copy the projects in porpos by following these steps.

These lessons are intended to be stepping stones, welcoming you into an art world separate from painting and drawing.

Don’t just view—make. Participate.

Chaque pièce a son propre message, indépendant de porpos. The exhibition has layers of meaning.

Do ask. Demander SVP.

Espace Pop (5587 Parc Ave, Montreal) - 6 mars à 17 mars 2019 - de Mardi à Samedi - 12h à18h - Vernissage le 8 mars de 18h à 21h

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Curatorial Statement porpos creates a space in the art world for craft, for art that has a purpose, for arte-utile. It comments on the notion of art for art’s sake, aspiring to assemble many maker disciplines. These works transcend the museum space and invite viewers to become more than viewers - these works invite viewers to become participants, makers of their own. Challenging both artists and participants to think about the way we experience and embody art, what is lost in the creation process, and suggest ways to save these losses from landfills. porpos questions utility, usefulness and uselessness in art through multisensory work, tied to the land it was created on.

porpos was curated on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory in 2019 by Chloë Lalonde in collaboration with the Art Matters Festival. porpos crée un espace pour l’artisanat, pour un art qui a une raison d’être, pour l’arte utile dans le monde de l’art. Il commente la notion d’art pour l’art, aspirant à rassembler de nombreuses disciplines artistiques. Les œuvres présentées transcendent l’espace muséal et invitent les observateurs.trices à devenir non seulement des spectateurs.trices mais plutôt des participants.es, des créateurs.trices à part entière. L’exposition invite les artistes et les participants.es à réfléchir à la manière dont nous percevons et incarnons l’art, à ce qui se perd dans le processus de création, à suggérer des solutions afin de prévenir ce déficit. porpos interroge l’utilité, l’usage et l’inutilité de l’art à travers un travail multisensoriel, lié à la terre sur laquelle il a été créé. porpos étais commis sur territoire non-cédé Kanien’kehá:ka par Chloë Lalonde en collaboration avec le festival Art Matters 2019.

CONTENTS INSPIRED BY Lindsey Lagemaat / Mat 4 Laura Douglas / Microbial Glow 6 Laura Simard-Lemaire / Cueille-Moi 8 Rachelle Marcoux / Remains of the Future # 10 Rachelle A. Fleury / Yellow, Bead, Through 12 Annik St-Arnaud / Orange Float 14 Meredith Parent-Delgadillo / Duality 16 Dominic Chalifour / Le Déjeuner 18 Yannick Victor / This is a real canoe 20

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How to make a pinch bowl

Laura Simard-Lemaire

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Sketches drawn by Laura Simard-Lemaire 5

Inspired by

Remains

Basket weaving has a deep history, crossing cultures around the work. Weave your own basket by following the 3 next steps. You will need a singular long strip of thicker fabric to use as the “core thread” and thinner string for the “coating thread.” A stitching needle may also come in handy.

The process: 1. Line up core thread and lining thread, begin wrapping the coating thread backward, over its tail and the core, in order to cover the entire surface of the core thread.

of the

Future

2. Once the rows of lining thread begin to condense, wrap the coating thread around the previous row to lock the structure in place.

3. Continue wrapping the core thread with the coating thread and stitch into place.

Once completely coated, coil the string to create a bowl, stitching each coiled row to the other, over, under, over under….

How to weave a basket

Rachelle Marcoux

IG: @rachellemarcoux

Rachelle Marcoux is interested in the interstice between arts and crafts through time consuming processes. Questioning the fragility and durability of materials, these meticulous works depict the precarity and complexity of dualities in her research. She looks towards the beauty of daily life, questioning human relationships to objects. Ultimately, Rachelle questions the art object and its influence on her own path. Through an interest in materials, history, and sciences, her art practice integrates ceramics with fiber practices. She is interested in the technicalities and the chemistry of ceramics as well as the lightness and sensibility of textiles. Exploring ideologies intrinsic to these mediums, Rachelle looks at the consumption and sustainability of objects and critique hierarchies of value through a feminist lens. The time-consuming manual production techniques that she uses are in contradiction with the economic and capitalist world, in which she recognizes as a deficit in the ascribed values of diligent and conscientious artistic practices. Rachelle’s work is an attempt to protest against this imposed rhythm of production.

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Written and illustrated by Rachelle Marcoux .

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Kombucha leather is a dried Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY), with oils applied to it to give it a more pliable, leathery texture. It’s a sustainable material anyone can grow in their own home, and many makers are currently researching its uses. People have used it to make clothes, lamps, wallets, etc.

The process: In a large pot, boil 2 litres of water. Either use distilled water, or boil for 10 minutes to let the chlorine evaporate (chlorine can kill the bacteria in the SCOBY) Add 2 black tea bags and steep for 15 minutes.

Inspired by

Microbial Glow

Add 200 grams (approx. 1 cup) of white sugar.

Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Pour it into a flat, shallow container like a large Tupperware or baking dish, add the kombucha culture (SCOBY) and cover with a cloth. Keep the mixture in a room-temperature, dark place while your SCOBY grows into a mat on top of the liquid After 2-3 weeks, depending on the temperature of your house, the mat will have reached a thickness of 2 centimeters. Carefully remove it, and place it flat on a wooden surface to dry.

How to make kombucha “leather”

When it is completely dry, you can spread a thin layer of a beeswax and coconut oil mixture over the surface, to make it more pliable and more waterproof.

Laura Douglas

IG: @lauragrows lauradouglasart.com

Laura Douglas is a Montreal-based artist. She grew up on a small rural island, surrounded by farmland and water, an environment and experience which informs much of her work. Her work has been displayed in group shows in Ontario and in Montreal and has been featured in several online and print publications. Her work comprises oil paintings and installation art; using repurposed, sustainable, and organic/biodegradable materials, sometimes including live plants.

Laura works intuitively, planning the outcome of a piece, and experiencing the creation process as research and exploration, rather than production, so the results may change throughout.

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What can you make with kombucha leather?

The options are truly endless!

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Orange Float Les Oranges Flottent

Inspired by

How to make an all-natural floatation device

Orange Float

I found no connection to soil J'ai trouvé aucune connexion au sol No way to ground my feet Aucune façon d'enraciner mes pieds I became a fish Je suis devenue poisson Swooping winds and conflicting currents Vents violents et conflit de courants Orange Floats Les Oranges Flottent An anchor point Un point d'ancrage In between the place where I come from Entre l'endroit d'où je viens And were I lose myself Et où je me perds.

Written by Annik St-Arnaud

Quoi d'autre pourrait-on faire en ce manière?

Avec quelles fruits? Ou bien des légumes ? Des objets? Des billes?

Quelque chose pour nous sauver?

Annik St-Arnaud

IG: @duanrast

Annik is a Montreal based interdisciplinary textile artist whose practice mainly revolves around food and landscapes.

Recurring concepts explored in her work deals with materiality, process, site specific investigations and subverting ideas of gender tied to textiles and food studies. She is currently working towards completing her BFA with a Major in Fibres and Material Practices at Concordia University, in Montreal.

Orange Float originated from a residency in Iceland, in June 2018. Annik worked with oranges and beaded them into a small float that she then threw into the arctic ocean. During this residency, Annik developed a new relationship to water, one that she has not found here in Montreal 10

Follow the 22 steps to make a float with 9 buoys.

Drawn by Annik St-Arnaud

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Inspired by

How to perform mat and make material weavable

Mat

Lindsey Lagemaat

lindseylagemaat.com

Lindsey’s work addresses the personal maintenance of selfhood: how can objects aid or hinder the development of our desired identities? Through her practice, her personal dissonance between participating in consumerism / wanting to be a well-intentioned person is flushed out. She is inspired by formative years spent on an isolated island, upbringing under a pseudoscientific belief system, and studies in psychology. Currently, Lindsey is researching ideas of decay and how digital-based identities will adapt to the inevitably changing landscape (both literally and figuratively). Through marrying the utilitarian and decorative, Lindsey assesses where her current material dependencies lie. Often abstract and fantastical, these sculptural scenes create a sense of uneasiness. She finds comfort in the flexibility of the fibres medium, and is drawn to the resonating connections it can foster. That intimacy and familiarity is often Lindsey’s starting point as it facilitates communion between herself and the viewer.

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Written and illustrated by Lindesay Lagemaat.

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The canoe, a work of art The canoe was a means of transportation The canoe is a means of recreation How did that happen?

How to build a ‘real canoe’

Inspired by

This is a Real canoe

- Cut 2 strips of wood to act as gunnels - Find 2 triangles to act as deck heads.

- Find 1 strip of wood to act as yoke.

- Bend it all together.

- Cut 5 wooden shapes to maintain shape.

- Bend chicken wire overtop.

- Find as many tim hortons cups as you can.

Real Resources Indigenous Ally Toolkit - reseaumtlntwork.com The Inconvenient Indian - a book by Thomas King.

Truth and Reconciliation Report - Read it.

How to build a canoe

If you want to learn how to make a really real canoe: Pinock Smith www.pinock.ca

Yannick Victor

IG: @ yannickvictor

Yannick Victor is multi-disciplinary in his artistic practice. Throughout his time at Concordia, he has made it a priority to touch many different materials. Now interested in the theme of identity; specifically the role of religion and nationalism, Yannick questions what shapes his own identity and how that is presented; as well as group identity and how sense of membership or belonging is created. As an artist living on unceded Indigenous land, he has been working through the themes of Canadian Identity and Colonialism. As an individual, Yannick believes it is his responsibility to be keenly aware of his place and privilege, using his practice as a commentary upon this.

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Written and illustrated by Yannick Victor.

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Inspired by

Le Déjeuner Dominic s’intéresse à tous ces objets de la maison alimentés par du 120 volts. À tous ces bidules qu’on utilise, qu’on casse à travers notre vie domestique et qu’on remplace par la nouvelle fournée directement arrivée de l’usine.

How to make a push button circuit

Comment détourner l’usage premier auquel on les avait destiné?

Comment saboter cette fonctionnalité? Et comment enrichir le discours technologique par autre chose que le lexique industriel marchand? Le technè peut très bien se passer du capitalisme.

Dominic Chalifour Les projets de Dominc Chalifour s’inspirent beaucoup de l’art narratif. Dominic essaie de faire en sorte que les gens se racontent des histoires ou essaient de résoudre une quelconque énigme. Il utilise entre autre l’absurde pour faire émerger ce genre de questionnements. Par exemple, Le Grand Ménage de Jean-Pierre Gautier m’inspire beaucoup quant à la réutilisation des produits ménagers et la petite révolution qu’ils mènent “contre leurs maîtres”. Dominic aime aussi faire jouer les gens et les laisser toucher à ce qu’il fais. Il travaille avec des objets du quotidien et surtout domestiques. Beaucoup ne comprennent pas bien les objets électroniques qui les entourent et leur fonctionnement peut leur sembler magique. C’est pourquoi il s’intéresse autant à l’art électronique. Un de ses humbles objectifs est de participer à développer le “lexique électronique” des non-initiés afin qu’ils deviennent plus autonomes; qu’ils puissent envisager des façons de se réapproprier l’usage des objets de leur quotidien. L’installation Spiderlogic, de Peter Flemming, lui inspire beaucoup en ce sens; il y fait se mouvoir lentement des tables et des échelles dans l’espace, et réussit ainsi à décontextualiser ces objets.

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Written and illustrated by Dominic Chalifour

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Inspired by

Yellow, Bead, Through

How to live with fear

IG: @rachelleaf_

Rachelle A. Fleury

rachelleaf.com

Rachelle is a multimedia artist from New York, currently based in Montreal. Throughout my childhood she rained and performed as a classical ballet dancer which sparked her interest in performance arts and fashion design. She then took a more formal approach and combined these interests through costume and set design. In recent years, Rachelle has developed painting, drawing and material practices by exploring the space between craft and fine art. The role of women in domestic environments has further inspired her work. This “reuse� of female experience as passed on through the generations of women in her family has influenced her interest in reusing, recycling and or up-cycling materials and crafting techniques.

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Written and illustrated by Rachelle A. Fleury.

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Inspired by

Duality

How to create a ‘séparatiss’ society Have two groups of different culture trying to occupy the same space.

Give one of the two groups more power.

The group with more power will try to assimilate the other group with his.

Everyone protect his own culture and refuse to give up.

Give the group his own territory within their country.

How to create a ‘séparatiss’ society

Tada! You have now a group of people who want their indépendance.

Meredith Parent-Delgadillo

Meredith’s work represents the fragility of her Bolivian and Québécois identity. She show cases a visual feeling of separation, intimacy and duality., while exploring a way to show emptiness and absence. Meredith has exhibiting at the Maison de la Culture de Rivière-des-Prairies, at the Pointe-Aux-Trembles Symposium in 2016 and in the Art Matters festival in 2018.

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Written and illustrated by Meredith Parent-Delgadillo.

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Chloë P. F. Lalonde

IG:

chloelalonde.tumblr.com

@ihooq @ihooq2

Currently completing a double major in Art Education and Anthropology, Chloë Lalonde has been spending her time teaching painting and drawing, organising workshops at Concordia University's Centre for Creative Reuse as their Project Archivist, and writing about art for The Concordian. Chloë's personal painting practice is rooted in her everchanging self-perception and perception of the world around her through synaesthesia. Chloë translates words, concepts, feelings and sounds into colours, and is always searching for different lines of things.

Chloë aims to be as sustainable and waste-free as possible in her artwork and all aspects of her life, which often means many lulls in her making process. Other than that, she enjoys paper-making, bookbinding, researching, and writing about all things arts and culture.

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