Dirty Doilies

The Dep[art]ment présente Dirty Doilies, une exposition d'art multi-médias par Sheldon Lawlor.

de 9 au 13 mars,

de 12h au 17h

Vernissage le vendredi 11 Mars,

de 19h au 11h

The Hour Hit List     ,  The Mirror Artsweek

Familiarisez-vous dans la folie de l'indulgence. 

Napperons sont conçus décorer et protéger les surfaces domestique. Comme les cookie cutter maisons d'inspiration classique, de viré-ensemble de la banlieue, ce sont les restes de la culture de l'antiquité. Dirty Doilies expose la matière en désordre collants, derrière la façade de la prodigalité. Gâteaux ornés représentent élégance et de privilège, mais leur attrait est rien de plus que le sucre fabriqué; c'est tout simplement la cerise sur un gâteau.

Jouer avec le thème de faux versets réels, Dirty Doilies invite le spectateur à vivre la réalité collante de l'excès, présenté par l'idée de gâteau dans sa forme de composition, alors en posant la question "mais qu'est-ce qu'il y a dedans?" D'autres questions concernant la distribution et les ingrédients qui constituent ce qu'on appelle la nourriture sont mis en place, tandis que les visiteurs sont incités à l'expérience de la substance elle-même.

Sheldon Lawlor est intéressé à poser des questions sur la participation culturelle dans notre société fondée sur la matière. Ses oeuvres multi-médias mettent en avant les aspects moins visibles de la composition des produits de consommation, qu'il qualifie de «réalité matérielle», en utilisant des matériaux qui comprise les produits industriellement, dans le ses oeuvres lui-même. "Le réel, de même le fantasme, est conçu par notre imagination, alors même que nous considérons un objet dans son sens physiologique." En transposant les objets et les matériaux de la nourriture et du pétrole dans une galerie, leurs rôle et le sens sont bouleversés.

Dirty Doilies présentera, peinture multi-médias, la sculpture et l'instillation de Sheldon Lawlor.

The Dep[art]ment presents Dirty Doilies, a multi-media art exhibit by Sheldon Lawlor.

March 9-13,

Vernissage Friday March 11th,

7pm - 11pm.

The Hour Hit List     ,  The Mirror Artsweek

Acquaint yourself in the folly of indulgence.

 Doilies are designed decorate and protect domestic surfaces. Like the cookie cutter classically inspired, tacked-together homes of the suburbs, they are remnants of the culture of antiquity. Dirty doilies exposes the sticky, messy material behind the facade of lavishness. Ornate cakes represent sophistication and privilege, but their lure is nothing more than crafted sugar; it's all just icing on a cake.

Playing with the theme of actual verses fake, Dirty Doilies invites spectators to experience the sticky reality of excess, presented through the idea of cake in it's compositional form, thereupon posing the question "but what is it made of, what is in it?" Further questions regarding the distribution of, and the ingredients that constitute so called food are set in place, while visitors are enticed to experience the substance itself.

Sheldon Lawlor is interested in raising questions about cultural participation in our material based society. His multi-media paintings highlight the less apparent compositional aspects of consumer products, that he calls "material reality", by using materials they are composed with and/or produced industrially, in the work itself. "The real, like fantasy, is conceived through our imagination, even as we consider an object in it's physiological sense." By transposing common objects and materials from food to petroleum oil into a gallery setting their role and meaning are subverted.

Dirty Doilies will showcase, multi-media painting, sculpture and instillation by Sheldon Lawlor.

Une soirée d'extravagance, d'excès et decay...

C'était juste une autre soirée pour souper de la  new bourjouisie, des jeux raffinés, des entrées sucrés et des conversations ravissant.
Il était Nuit Blanche, le 26 février, 2011, Décadanse, extravagance, Excès, Decadance, une performance / exposition d'art intermedia, a été présenté à the Dep[art]ment en collaboration avec le festival Art Matters.

Une exposition d'art mixtes par Sheldon Lawlor et  un performance par le chorégraphe Patrick Lloyd Brennan, qui a transmis les «épaves caractéristique de la culture bourjoursie; sur la consommation, l'individualisme, l'excès, la pourriture, et l'extravagance absurde. Un critique satirique des attributs culturels et les obsessions de la classe moyenne. Les spectateurs ont été inviter dans l'environnement domestique boujoursie immersif, comme le mode de vie intérieure de l'élite a été dévoilé. Peintures gâteau multimédia, composé de vrai glacier et bon bon ornaient les murs, tandis que les habitants royale ont présenté un buffet de desserts à l'auditoire, qui a été rapidement retirés avant que tout le monde pouvait participer. Comme la célèbre histoire de Marie-Antoinette, le gâteau remplacer la vraie nourriture. En Mangeant un gâteau entier, chaque personnage glutenasiously se gavaient tout badauds regardaient la bouche vide.

Jouant avec l'espoir d'être servi, avec individualisme et matérialisme, Décadanse glutony joue comme l'expérience de manger un gâteau entier lui-même. Commençant par un duo de danse contemporaine intéressant, progressait dans les interactions non-sens, la conversation mirandering inutile, et se terminant par la consumption d'une gateau jusqu'a bout d'être malade.




It was just another evening for the new bourgeoisie: dining, playing refined games, delectable treats and titillating discussion.
It was Nuit Blanche, Feb 26th 2011, Décadanse, or Extravagance, Excès, Décadance, (a performance/mixed media show) was presented at the Dep[art]ment in collaboration with the Art matters festival.

A mixed-media art exhibition by Sheldon Lawlor with performance by choreographer Patrick Lloyd Brennan, which conveyed the 'flotsam characteristic's of bourgeoisie culture: over consumption, individualism, excess, decay, and absurd extravagance; A satirical critique of common cultural attributes and obsessions of the middle class. Spectators were invited into the immersive domestic bourgeoisie environment, as the inner lifestyle of the elite were unveiled. Multimedia cake paintings, comprised of real icing and sweets adorned the walls, while the royal habitants presented a buffet of treats to the audience, which were promptly removed before anyone could partake. Like from the infamous story of Marie Antoinette, cake replaced real food. Eating an entire cake, each character gluttonously stuffed themselves while onlookers watched with empty mouths expectantly.

Playing with the expectation of being served, with individualism and materialistic gluttony, Décadanse played out like the experience of eating an entire cake itself. Beginning with an interesting contemporary dance duo, progressing into non-sensical interactions, pointless meandering conversation, and finally ending with the drawn out scraping stop, as the the guest of honor ate cake until he/she was ill.

"We don't have enough bread but too much cake... we may be dying slowly from sickness but still have remarkable clothing to wear."




By Sheldon Lawlor

Decadanse

Extravagance – Excess – Decay

The Dep[art]ment is proud to present Decadanse, in collaboration with Art Matters during Nuit Blanche 2011, featuring new works by Sheldon Lawlor and choreography by Patrick Lloyd Brennan.

Come take part in an evening of excessive absurdities featuring installation, multimedia painting/sculpture, projection, theatre, and dance. In an ornately crafted environment, short vignettes expose the excessive recontextualized world of the bourgeoisie…. the ones the revolution didn’t get … Noble delectables will be served.

Decadanse will take place at The Dep[art]ment, February 26, from 8pm to 2am, each performance will begin on the hour (the first at 8pm, and the last at 1am).
Space is limited.

thedepartment.contact@gmail.com

Prends moi -- Involved 2

Prends moi,  contemporary choreography by Patrick Lloyd Brennan, Involved 2. 
Prends-moi Trailer

It is of great pleasure to have the opportunity to dance for choreographer, Patrick Lloyd Brennan. Patrick's choreographic process involves fostering the development of each dancers physicality through their individual characteristics, perspectives and experience. Intermingling diverse performers each with a unique but congruent character, Patrick's works present chaos and conflict with a sense of ordered tranquility. The result for each performer is a genuine presence and a profound learning experience. Dancers include: Katie Nolan, Heather Stuart, Eugenie Khoury, Emily Leblanc, Holly Greco, Julian Hughes, Patrick Lloyd brennan and myself: Sheldon Lawlor.

Prends-moi is a re-contextualized take on speed dating or should we say speed dancing presented like a talk show. 

"Selections are made and a prescription for movement is filled. Visual and visceral desires may be fulfilled or left listless as spectators claim their prize; quenching their thirst for immediate gratification, allowing the performers to reveal their seductive abilities to appease with choreographic pleasantries."
"Des sélections sont effectuées et des prescriptions de mouvement sont remplies. Des désirs visuels et viscéraux pourraient être comblés ou laissés en plan alors que les spectateurs réclament leurs prix. Ils étanchent leur soif de satisfaction immédiate et permettent aux interprètes de révéler leurs habilités de séduction et de les calmer avec leur plaisanteries chorégraphiques."

Patrick Lloyd Brennan


Prend-moi will take place at Studio 303, December 11, at 7pm and 9pm as Part of Involved 2 -
along with other dance pieces by Artists : Namchi Bazar, Sarah-Ève Grant, Mary St-Amand Williamson, Natalie Zoey Gauld/Ashlea Watkin & Andrew Tay.
Prends-moi trailer
studio 303 - Involved 2

Plastic Gyres

Plastic Gyres is a mixed media painting series, representing 4 ariel views of land masses among melted plastic refuge, most recently exhibited at District 101 espace créatif at the Hang One exposition July 6th - 11th, 2010. The Pacific Gyre also called the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the The Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter the size of Texas in the central North Pacific Ocean, consisting of about 3.5 million tons of trash, six kilos of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton. It is estimated that some plastics in the gyre will not break down in the lifetimes of the grandchildren of the people who threw them away.
By placing the process of plastic degradation in a public setting, Plastic Gyres puts into question, notions of plastic biodegradability by allowing the viewer to see how and if different forms of plastics degrade over time, while mimicking the corresponding process in nature.
12"x 24" (4 ) Acrylic puddy/medium, graphite powder, iridescent pigment powder, acrylic paint, oxo degradable plastic bag/plastic packaging waste on stretched canvas.

http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/

Unsettled and In Between: There's No Place Like Home(s)

 The Limits of Being Myself:

It's those people with whom I was raised, my blood, who among others, I have a natural connection with that simply ensues, that become my family. The time and freedom to be able to spend time with them, never equates to even a fraction of the love for those people. And the one's with whom the connection does not dim are those with whom I can see after any amount of time and it is as if we had never parted. When I'm with these people I feel like I'm at home.

I had a dream the other night that I was on an island with half the people I love, those from the place of my roots, the West Coast: my immediate family and friends from back home. I was scheduled to fly back to Montreal but things kept getting in my way, preventing me from reaching the airport on time. Things that I couldn't deny the importance of either by obligation or by emotional attachment. The island looked nothing like home, but it shared the sense of vibrancy, sentiment and weight of meaning that anchors those people and places into my heart. Half way through the dream I was suddenly in Montreal, but the island remained the same and so did the dilemma. I was now stuck in Vancouver and couldn't get back to Montreal.
I realized when I woke up that both cities have become my home and there are both family and friends anchoring me to both places. I feel like a captive no matter where I am. I can never be fully content and settled.

Even though I want to be with all the people I love, all the time I can't. And no matter how much time I spend with them it's never enough. Of course the situational nuisances and little individual quarks of these same people, will always eventually get to my nerves and I'll need breaks from them, but even so, I can never really get enough.

It's funny cause one of the reason's I decided to move away from the West Coast is that I wanted to be fair enough away from family and close friend to be omitted from the imposed obligations that I could never escape when I lived within any commutable distance to them. Conflicts would arise over one thing or the other always based on expectations, faulty boundaries and misunderstandings. Visits were often in-frequent and uncherished, and always bound by business affairs and responsibilities especially with family members. And so I felt like, a puppy who needed to be separated from the litter, to become a fully realized individual. That was why at the precipice of adulthood, I had moved from the Country side of the Suburb's to the 'big city' of Vancouver and for that same purpose almost two years ago now, I moved across the Country to a bigger city: Montreal.

This move has propelled me forward, triggering rapid growth in multiple facets of my life. At home I had the excuse that the burdens in my life, many stemming from my family life and upbringing, were holding me back. Much of it having to do with the conflict of interest between the social/religious hetero-normative expectations imparted on me by parts of my family and my own desires, and emotional need to be validated. By moving away and uprooting my presence from the relationships with which my identity had been infused by a social presentation as the 'ambiguous, but probably straight', 'confused', 'conflicted', 'sexually curious' and 'troubled young man', I was no longer able to make excuses and was also able to let go of thought and behavior patterns that held me in place. And so came a bran new slate, where I could explore and look for my place in society both professionally and personally, without the baggage of the past.

This has helped me become a more expressive, decisive, assertive and generally settled individual, and has improved the relationship with my family, and also solidifying my relationships with friends of the West Coast. The time we spend together now, is more celebrated, because we are further apart. It seems they too know that as much as I'd like to be able to be there for them all the time, I can't. There are far more people that I love than I am able to adequately visit. The limits of time and location restrain my social circle, forcing me to have to choose. And so I have become more realized and satisfied individually, but paradoxically unsettled socially; imposed with an unrelenting unsatisfiable yearning to connect with my roots, caused by the limitations of my chosen path.

The Hand Me Down Human Condition

I was talking to my Mom last night.

We begun with the usual small talk, I expressed my excitement for a new job opportunity and traveling home to visit. Soon we begun talking about struggles we are facing, conflicts/difficulties among our family, and then my Mom expressed regrets in how she raised us. There are insecurities that she grew up with, that despite all her efforts were passed on to us.

We spoke about the 'hand me down' nature of the human condition, in which each generation is biologically/culturally imprinted with the same psychological traits as their parents; and despite the hopes and efforts of each generation, so many cognitive traits both good and bad seem impossible to advert.

She said that there was no way she could be more sorry for the anxieties, difficulties, and lack of social capital in life that she had passed down. And that now that she is older she can see so clearly, the cultural line of upbringing that was passed from her grandparents to her parents and then from her on to us. "We are like blank pieces of paper at birth and every behavior we see in our parents is imprinted onto our minds as a reference for survival. As young adults we can't see that we are 'biological machines' nor can we clearly perceive our personalities/behavior, and the corresponding experiences of our childhood/upbringing because they are too fresh in our mind. We all have hopes and dreams, and see everything from rose colored glasses believing that we can raise children without the problems that our parents had."

I told her that though she did not correct every issue she was presented, as far as I can see she had done better than her parents, and that though it wasn't perfect, it's not up to her to change everything. All each generation can do is their best, in being as perceptive to their own behavior, as best as they can, to enrich the social culture passed down through their family, that's all we can do. And furthermore, no one can blame their parents for their own behavior or issues. It's up to every generation to own up to their lives, to forgive, and most of all to cherish their own family culture while doing their best.

I woke up this morning and had the inclination to write her a letter:

Dear Mom

I was thinking about you this morning and how lucky I am to have you as my Mom.

Out of all the Parents I have met I'd rather have you as my Mom. I have a strength in facing large difficulties and obstacles in my life, even ones that seem insurmountable.

I have a passion for life, fun loving, non-judgmental love of people, an ease in the midst of struggle, a commitment and passion for social justice, sustainability, health and equality.

All these characteristics that I cherish I see clearly in you.

I was thinking about how lucky I was to have so much freedom, fun and love in my childhood. I tell people about it and many wish that they could have had so much adventure and could have been raised in a large family like me, with all the experiences good and 'bad' that came with it. It's made me who I am, and without the difficulties in my life I wouldn't have the strength of character and compassion for others that I do.

I was thinking about how much richness of experience I've had. I remember, as a small child, going on paper routes with you, and you buying me chocolate bars that I'd had to read the label before eating. Collecting quarters from the old man from the garage in return for the daily paper - so I could save up enough money to buy my first Popple. Going to old horse track on the routes to climb trees and waving goodbye to the same man daily with: "se ya lata alligator - in a while crocidile". I remember the bike trip we all went on when I was 5 or so, the many camping, skiing and road trips. The games, the little motorcycle you bought Ryner that I used to ride on the back of with him. The horses, animals, and most of all the time we spent together as a family, even the hectic times, that have given me such rich memories and comical stories. Everything in my upbringing, even the facts that we were often late, had little money or resources and were a bit cut off from the town and general society, all gave me a sense of pride in simply being who I am, and in being part of our family. There's a strong sense of identity and resilience we carry against the expectations and pressures of society which are often superficial, and elitist.

Sure it wasn't perfect and all us kids had difficulties adjusting to society and other's expectations but these are difficulties everyone faces and I'm happy that I have the culture I have from my family; I wouldn't trade it for any amount of social capital or wealth.

Some things might have come a little easier for some other people but I have something that many people don't - character, integrity, critical thinking, resilience and an ability to see the trees from the forest: the big picture/ what really matters from menial social bullshit. And I have it in a such a vibrant and unique way.

I love you Mom,

Don't regret who you are, your choices or change anything about yourself.

Donny