Sunday ambles

What to do, what to do…

When it is Sunday, the end of a two-week holiday.

 

Spent from having spent the last three days writing a manifesto… Not Communist, it has already been done. Not a Global Refuse, (Refus global) it too, has already been penned. Not hugely revolutionary, but very meaningful to me.

 

Time for an amble through the neighbouring Burgs. Saint-Henri and Griffintown it will be for me today.

 

On top of that, the St Jacques overpass going over Décarie is open!

First on the list is the Bibliothèque Saint-Henri on Notre Dame Ouest, where they are hosting an exhibition entitled “Saint Henri des Tanneries; un village sous la ville”, held over until January 13^th.  This details the period during which this tannery was in operation, its impact on the city as well as what came after the tanning (animals, not the human skin) industry went industrial. We are presented with the artefacts found and dug up during the Turcot Exchange excavations, those artefacts and the site itself, which most history buffs and archeologists would have preferred could have been left intact, with the Turcot working around the site instead of reburying it.

 

Contrary to what I may have thought before entering the library, the small exhibit was surprisingly informative and captivating.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see quite a few people in the library for the exhibit, meandering along as I was doing, from case to case.

 

I was provoked by a display which taught about what happened to families as the industrial age bloomed, and the women went to work at the new tanneries; their children were sent to asylums!

And I was inspired by a reading chair/ workout bicycle with a table for all to use! I think I’m going to add one of these in my house.

Next stop was a walk around Notre Dame, my destination was the Salvation Army, but I never reached.  I was help hostage by an exhibition at 1700 La Poste. It was my first time in this former Post Canada building which became an architects’ firm, a building that I had always admired from a distance.

This exhibition space was opened five years ago, and I can’t believe I never went in before! Floored, bowled over, awed and stunned by the space, and the use of the space. I was greeted warmly upon entering and given all the background information on the exhibition space, the owner, and the artist being displayed. I could have stayed there for hours.

I discovered an artist, Ed Pien that I had not known about before, and I ask myself under what rock I was lying under all of these years? Brutal and beautiful, ephemeral and real, his work is a multitude of contrasts. I was spun in his web of threads as I meandered into his world.

And then I went to the basement, where I was taken aback, drawn in and washed into his waves of sound, image and movements. Shadows, shadows of houses, movements, whispers, in and out as I interact with the shadows.

It was a difficult place to leave, but I had another stopover before the day was to come to a close.

 

So off I went, to make my way to Arsenal, a spectacular contemporary art space, however it was closed. Sometimes, though, misfortune breeds fortune, for it gave me the opportunity to scope out the outside, wandering around in the wonderment of the grounds. For the building itself is a jewel of a place, and right in front of it is this truly wonderful mural, which plays into the reflections of the windows.

I had to photograph, next to the gallery, a frozen cooling system, as it brought me back to the time when I was working at an oil plant in Alberta. There had been an explosion at the coker (where the sand and oil are separated), which had created this massive tower of twisted iron, steel and metal, and a 75-foot wall of a frozen waterfall with parts intertwined. Cameras were strictly forbidden, and anyone caught taking pictures were threatened with expulsion, so unfortunately, I have none, but I still got expulsed from the site.

Time to make my way back home, renewed, rejuvenated, snapping pictures along the way.

What better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon, and what a wonderful way to recharge my batteries before the onstart of a new week.