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differs only by a fraction certainly sze has acuity for describing visual details and it is this skill which holds the otherwise disparate poems together fish bones is at its best when most attuned to the pictorial nature of ekphrasis keeping in the realm of the visual the moments of emotional intimacy too often feel contrived veering towards melodrama a poem like the jailer s daughter a sophisticated whimsical yet simple portrait of a woman s shape and movement inspired by one might guess something along the lines of a miro painting has much more impact than the tv movie feel of animal tracks a meditation on siblings bonding over illness ultimately the best poems in the collection are those which imbue the visual experience with the same curiosity as something felt those poems which are sensuous before they are sentimental reviewed by michael lake posted by mp filed in uncategorized comments are off but you can trackback from your own site live in the lost february 22 2010 six minute vanitas emily shanahan emily shanahan corina kennedy liminal fragmented disconnected live in the lost sandwiches existence between the past and the present alluding to a cultivated nostalgia that is made intelligent by distance as a whole the exhibition questions what it is to be present complete missing from the classical references in shanahan s study to the avant garde perdu in kennedy s 77 yoko ono hair pieces the work moves through a non linear timeline and carries into each era a notion of the fractured many of the pieces fail to be complete in the traditional sense and although selected pieces appear to form clusters in time there is no overarching progression to define the experience what then begins to appear is a hint of time more specifically the past as both here and gone minus the measurement of how far gone and how exactly here the paradoxical imperative live in the lost becomes increasingly attainable as the live adjective locates itself within that which has slipped away it pulls the whole brouhaha within mind s reach and yet the lost here is not exclusively temporal as one examines individual pieces the pattern becomes prominent things are missing here limbs faces life even yoko ono the art then becomes a study of what constitutes a whole and the question of whether life is carried on in the severed appendages teases the viewer shanahan especially investigates this theme many of her classical inspired paintings feature statuesque figures and sculptural renditions from which key parts have been removed crumbled and eroded by time or broken off by the artist both possibilities are entertained as one moves through the analogous representation of representation within this dialogue an exploration of horror and darkness begins to emerge the duo head of alexander and head of athena flatten and wash out once corporeal sculptures the result eerie and vacant glimpses into celebrated mythology the disembodiment then becomes symbolic rather than incidental on another level nyx seer cupid 4 and cupid 5 introduce a philosophical exploration of the void rich with dark glossy strokes this group of paintings pushes meaning forward from obscurity seer mirrors the disfiguring fear of munch s the scream with blurred intentionality put into context by the surrounding theme of time it gains a sickening sense of anxiety in the face of death paired together on a single wall cupid 4 and cupid 5 enter into a charged exchange the limbless 4 appears to emerge from a swirl of black the headless 5 to retract into one independently of these pieces the video installation six minute vanitas invites spectators to strap on headphones turn their backs to the gallery and meditate on death and the nature of transience contrary to the traditional stasis of the genre shanahan s version employs technology light play sound and delightfully the human breath to engage with the symbolism of the featured objects a cow skull is framed by flickering candles which are later extinguished and adorned with plastic flowers the limited life of the candles imitated life of the flowers and intimated life of the skull posits a modern eloquence in the execution of the vanitas which is furthered by the chosen medium and while the six minute clip suggests brevity and constraints its cycling ad infinitum captures transience perhaps more accurately than the original model if shanahan is concerned with enabling discourse between the classical and contemporary kennedy reconfigures the iconic an interest in the fragmented is present alongside an investment in the effects of repetition both acutely addressed in the aforementioned 77 yoko ono hair pieces the sprawling arrangement is comprised of 77 black and white paintings on identical blocks of wood forming a seemingly random pattern the result of which is a rather arresting checkerboard portrait of that very famous hair individually the pieces vary in texture ratio and complexity some are simple nearly entirely black or white unintriguing in their monotony others are complex to the point of creating optical illusions poetic in their rendition together they challenge identity and the absolute playing with the multiplicity that constitutes the individual and cleverly hair on a distant wall ahair apart teases the memory of the hair pieces separate from the others yet similar in style this one stands a hair apart so to speak and yet without the reference suggested by the previous work entirely different unidentifiable mysterious barely resembling hair upon closer inspection the painting yields a humorous clue the sweeping black is separated by what in the hair world is known universally as a part kennedy s paintings often take on a haunting quality that remains like an imprint upon the eye from the first work encountered a soft wallpaper inspired vase whose flowers blur and bleed into the background to the bizarre the ambassador inn the exhibition literature offers another clue and the answer it seems is also in the wallpaper color is muted shaded and layered often having an otherworldly effect often the allusions in her work must be deciphered at othertimes they seem private glazed girl is set apart from the other pieces by its ethereal eeriness and penetrating skill at once zombie and flower child the subject is rendered in wispy and hazy colors across her belly stretches a gauziness that is suggestive of a womb into which we may peer and flowers imprint a halo behind flowing hair that frames a hauntingly vacant face in a collection of work that shows kennedy s skilled hand glazed girl is exciting because it clearly pierces an entirely other level this is the kind of coveted early work that will one day appear in a retrospective and garner marvel at its concentrated innocence and sophistication marianne perron 2010 warren g flowers art gallery dawson college 4001 de maisonneuve ouest through february 27 glazed girl corina kennedy posted by mp filed in uncategorized comments are off but you can trackback from your own site the only thing i have january 20 2010 rhonda waterfall arsenal pulp press 2009 the only thing i have is a collection of stories that open and shut as chapters in their character s lives with little in the way of resolutions or introductions told predominantly through third person narrative the stories are crafted with a dry factual tone that accentuates the bleak and understated quirkiness that infect their unraveling at first glance this technique is appealing in that it is punchy jarring hip as the procession continues with the same beat however it becomes decreasingly effective the first story sets the tone for a jaunt into the lives of those dissatisfied well losers who cling to what they already have instead of seeking change one can only assume out of fear the majority of the stories that follow are shards from broken relationships delusions and disillusions about love and cold hard sex sex with strangers forceful sex glassy eyed duty sex and on one surprising occasion sex with a pixie this all sounds much more exciting than it really is the truth is that for all her attempts at a cutting cool detachment waterfall trips and delivers little more than anecdotal jolts of discomfort if the unsettling evocative is the calling card of au courant writers then it goes without saying that its attainment has been pushed to newer riskier limits the only thing i have falls on the safe side of this line somewhere between oddball and trendy there is novelty to be found here somewhere unfortunately it s a quality that exists mostly inside the first half dozen stories by the time in the very near future arrives whatever spunk we found is lost to the monotonous tone that carries the entire collection shake it up drop some wordplay rhythm imagery anything but for god s sake don t continue this love letter to the catastrophes of failed intimacy at her best waterfall taps into a creative verve that conjures up surprises that in order to preserve the collection s strengths intact are best left discovered by the reader in aurelia art dissatisfaction finds poignancy in obsessive imitation it is here that the open ending reaches a peak the bottom drops and what remains is a taste of intrigue the promise of possibility the title story the only thing i have on the other hand reveals an infantile and pathetic protagonist who oscillates between desperately clinging to and rejecting his partner as his underdeveloped thought process swings from hot to cold with such a spineless jellyfish how can any reader react with anything less than glee when the story drops him alone into a snowy ditch miles from civilization and takes his cell phone away one thing that is interesting if not innovative is waterfall s use of sex as an analgesic this thread is followed throughout the book as characters drop in and out of hotel rooms with a glossy urban chic that for all its allure leaves them as empty and discarded as the illusions they once maintained these are characters connected by their recurrent inability to overcome stagnation and defeat waterfall is clearly interested in exploring the human tendency towards fear induced paralysis but how much is this exploration caught up in truth the universality of this theme seems to want to make statements that feel too contrived given such a small space these stories might have enough kick to stand up individually but together they lose themselves in a collection about as diverse and palatable as a bowl of smarties reviewed by marianne perron 2010 posted by mp filed in uncategorized comments are off but you can trackback from your own site the montreal fiores november 7 2009 david fiore montrealfiores wordpress com we re not usually in the habit of reviewing unpublished works but david fiore s online short story collection is a veritable diamond in the rough that might not make its way to you soon enough besides after publishing a flippant review of his novella chimera lucida we owe him one but that s not the only reason to check out his wordpress site the montreal fiores is a collection of charmingly skewed recollections that take the reader everywhere from the sordid depths of verdun to the west island they lovingly recreate the down and out shoestring adventures of our quiet hero a snarky intellectual with a penchant for the unexpected and at times ridiculous make no mistake the montreal fiores are not about david fiore nor are they memoires proper these are stories about montreal with its beautiful losers and the threat of genius slipping through the cracks alongside the riffraff fiore is not an i but an eye and a damned good one at that anyone who s visited the faubourg will laugh at le fuckedbourg s dry account of the wasteland that spans between guy concordia and atwater s mecca for the pathetic and forlorn and perhaps even shed a tear depending on the sharpness of their nostalgia le charme discret de madame bourgeois is a bitter ode to slumlords everywhere with its tenant wars and régie du logement ending ever wonder about the kind of louts who read pornography in public red planet funnies has got a tale for you something for everyone indeed this is the real underbelly of our claustrophobic little island and i for one appreciate the gift of sampling it from a safe distance we re talking track marks hell holes clowns and hookers fiore has seen it all anti intellectuals and those overwhelmed by the cryptic verbosity of chimera lucida will be relieved to learn that the montreal fiores takes on a much more natural candid voice fans of word play and fiore s wit will be relieved to find healthy doses of it punctuating the oft acerbic tone when it comes to sharp punchy dialogue fiore succeeds this is a conversation with balls and the never boring witticisms hit the mark and reel you in for more still fiore does at times lose sight of the uninitiated le marquee du stade could be about the mating habits of the yuktun for all i know and every so often an establishment creeps in whose nature i can t quite decipher in an unusual way however the flaws add to the charm and make these stories all the more genuine and heart felt what better way to examine the undulations of weirdos and dead beats than through the yarns of a tender critic get thee to the internet o philiac this is an endeavour with balls reviewed by marianne perron 2009 posted by mp filed in uncategorized comments are off but you can trackback from your own site unisex love poems july 21 2009 angela szczepaniak dc books 2008 hit me with more of your sour puss angela szczepaniak s unisex love poems files alphabetical suit against a whole host of typographical errors that sentence us to symptomatic reading through typecast eyes by hailing their audience from a number of sites that are just around the bend of contemporary cultural plausibility szczepaniak s narratroopers get the drop on some of the most deeply entrenched fonts of folly on the phoneme farm we re all so damned committed to this series of riposte cards from the edge re cooks the cookbooks restores manual control over the dating conventions and puts the sic in the forensics that govern our daily lives of course szczepaniak knows better than to waste her imagination on a world completely free of these and other itchier twitchier irritants for better or worse the dietary romantic and juridical models that we ve inherited are here to stay the situation the author appears to be saying calls for rash action and that s exactly what we get when slug of apartment 5d begins running a diagnostic check on the brailled blemishes each one a perfect letter h that have torsaded his torso assuming that something within the building is responsible for this calligraphic callousness he leaves no dust mote unturned and no door un knocked the neighbors prove singularly unsympathetic to his quest but he does make one ally of sorts butterfingers the woman in apt 4f whose gossamered glossolalia provides an i...