Review of the exhibition "Journeys" at CCA Montreal

About a year ago, in the eventful Montreal metropolis, an exhibition named, “Journeys: How traveling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment” took place at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). This unpopular museum theme was looking at how travelling tangible things and people rearrange our environment from a perspective that takes diffusion as much as place making into account. The exhibit consisted of fifteen sections indicated by vignettes to demonstrate that place is “an objective location that has both uniqueness and interdependence with other places” as well as “a subjective social and cultural construct – somewhere that has personal meaning for individuals or groups”. (Knox, Paul L., Marston, Sallie A., Nash, Alan E.) Numerous journeys were presented such as the traveling coconut, the immigration of Senegalese workers into Italy, and many more intriguing wanderings.

A sub-section that struck me was that of the movement of houses in Newfoundland entitled, ”Configuration - The accumulation of buildings from other places rearranges an established urban grid”. This “journey” of somewhat 30,000 people relocating in order to follow fish populations in destinations such as Arnold’s Cove in Placentia Bay is painted in a sensorial manner. We are offered a map of Arnold’s Cove with its resettled communities, pictures of the houses, which were displaced, and snapshots taken during the internal migration. These static images tend to our desire to visualize in order to grasp such concept.

The public becomes aware after reading the first official statement describing the aims of the resettlement program by Newfoundland premier, Joey Smallwood, that the migration was voluntary and influenced by both push and pull factors. What attracted to move the migrants to a new location and to constitute and shape a new place was that they would find employment in the fishing industry. The impelling of these persons to abandon their community was caused by the government’s decision to only financially aid the families if the whole community agreed to relocate as an entity. Arnold’s Cove therefore doubled in size by 1970 as it was inhabited by hundreds of resettled families that socially constructed an entirely new place consisting of new arrangements.

Nelson Squires’ chiaroscuro short film “The Move” (1970) was additionally included in the “Configuration” sub-section, which walks one through the process of displacing a Newfoundland house to later establish a home. This audiovisual mediator tracks the Newfoundlanders’ mobility while catering to our appeal to cinema as a window of perspective. Conjointly, the exposition grants us a simplification of reality. A model depicting how a boat tugged the house across a river lies in the center of the room, however we are denied the privilege of pleasing our sense of touch.

Although it is quite difficult to re-express ideas in a museum setting, the CCA exquisitely epitomized the Newfoundlanders’ excursion in a vivid fashion. The ideas that are conveyed nonetheless are obviously transmitted subjectively. Parts of the Newfoundlanders’ journey are omitted. Letters of the moving communities to their loved ones aren’t presented to see how they were experiencing it from their perspective and not a legislative one. The archives provided are that of legal nature and the only personal tangible objects on display are a memory-map and a structural model made from memory of Barron’s Cove. It would have been beneficial to see local artwork, postcards, or any written document demonstrating the migrants’ feelings towards the move in furtherance of having an encompassed understanding. All things considered, the theme of traveling people reshaping their environment is one of common interest since it is inevitable and recurring everyday. From my speculation, all in all, the museum successfully got the message across to me and to the public.

References

Exhibition:

Journeys: How traveling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment

Knox, Paul L., Marston, Sallie A., Nash, Alan E. (2010) Human Geography Places and regions in Global Context (3^rd Canadian Edition) Pearson. Ontario: Toronto.

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Referencing numerous texts of a particular style or even genres, pastiches paint a colorful and explicit picture that makes us look deeper. They group information and project it in a clear and very understandable way so that the message is quickly conveyed. Nirvana’s rock song “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the band puts together a video along the lines of a “teen lifestyle” theme. Their video contains mainly cheerleaders, basketball players, and a large crowd. These are all symbols of the teenage surroundings in high school. These are the types of people that are classified according to the so-called species that live in the high school realm, which convey the teenage lifestyle. The cheerleaders also have anarchy signs on their red uniforms, which connotes that teens protest and always have some reason to rebel against systems or rules and regulations.  From a semiotic perspective, we can focus on the presence of a janitor, who is one of the elders in the high school world. He can possibly signify the view of the adolescents according to the future and how they envision the separate generations. By the crowd who is bobbing their heads at the same rhythm and the similar attire in this video, we can easily presume that this is a sign of conformity. Last but not least, there is a constant spotlight on Kurt Cobain’s face while he is signing. This shifts our attention from anything on the screen but himself, which is what young adults do. They strive for attention and like to be concentrated on, as if being the center of the universe. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is undoubtedly a pastiche because it mimics not only teen spirit, but also their way of life.

Shutter Island at a repertory theatre in Montreal

Trying to get through a busy schedule and our hasty lifestyle, people of this present society escape to theaters to forget their problems and the life they live. Cinemas have become a haven that shelter us and let us submerge into a reality constructed by a visionary director, weather it be one that is passionate or just getting by the given script (a industrially generic director). Never the less, we all are accustomed to the usual Famous Players, Guzzos, and other mainstream cinemas. In this semester’s “Introduction to Film” class, given this assignment, I attended a repertory cinema and viewed Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island”. I had already seen this film at a Guzzo on its opening night because the preview had caught my attention. When I realized that this film is also being screened at a repertory cinema I decided to watch it once more to see if the experience altered my feelings about the film itself.

            I chose to attend Cinema du Parc, which gave me a sort of culture shock. The venue was a lot smaller and compressed compared to the spacial grandeur that is offered by Hollywood picture screening theaters. The cinema also had a mezzanine gallery containing works that can be classified in the world of cinematic visual art. This was an opportunity to broaden my artistic horizons and kill two birds with one stone since I had the privilege of viewing a work of art (the main film) and seeing photographs in a mini gallery before hand. The hall of the screened movie was somber and gloomier than the habitual ones I’ve previously sat in. Dim light washed the room. The rows of the seats were closer together and I personally felt compact and more to myself. The feeling was much like being a part of a pack of sardines except for people weren’t representing the sardines in this simile; the seats were. The room wasn’t even half capacitated. With the emptiness of this hall I experienced individualism. There was no pressure to change your facial expression according to the audience’s reaction (not that I personally do). You were basically emotionally unaccompanied. The film evoked your sentiments and you were forced to think, suffer, undergo crude emotions, and let the atmosphere alleviate your cinematic experience.

            The cinema really reflected the film in a way. This foreign atmosphere was mysterious to me. Dark and stuffy, it made me feel like Leonardo Dicaprio in the moving picture, in a place surrounded by people I wasn’t used to being around.  This film starts off much like any other Hollywood one would, with a storyline that seems usual, and previously used by other directors. As the film progresses though you see that Scorsese has made a work of art. The decor and staging is incredible and full of dramatic potential. The story is set in 1954, where a martial named Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck arrive at a mental hospital on a secluded island of New England. Shutter Island is located on an old concentration camp that was converted into a psychiatric institution for the criminally insane after the war. The story starts off usual and we can assume we know what will happen. Even if the actors are renowned and easy to identify with, they seem to give a different and more passionate performance in “Shutter Island”. The cinematography clearly doesn’t go unnoticed. Scorsese’s mise-en-scene is undoubtedly thought out and has a tremendous impact on the viewer. This is particularly seen in the scene where Dicaprio places all his deceased children in order of height and Scorsese gives us a “bird’s eye view” medium shot that is kept for quite a few seconds.

The strongest scenes of the film are dream-like. These are numerous scenes of vivid flashbacks.  One consists of a female corpse along with a young girl and several other victims of war all frozen together that is monochromatically painted with a cyan color. Another is one of Teddy Daniels’ frequent nightmares where he re witnesses his wife dieing in the fire and she slowly disintegrates in his arms while standing in a sort of ash-rain. These scenes, although beautiful, provoke the viewers  and force them to feel. Paranoia is also a psychological disorder constantly present in the narrative and is embodied by the light and shadow, which stimulates the spectator’s imagination. The director establishes a grey area between reason and madness and we are sometimes (I’d say often) unable to distinguish reality from fantasy. On the topic of sound, Scorsese does make great use of it non-diegetically, although not in a cliché fashion. It enrobes the film perfectly and respects its themes.

After the film had ended, I came to the conclusion that repertory cinema isn’t a pastime or some place you go to simply “do something tonight”. This was an experience that drifted from the spacious halls, comfortable seating, and wide variety of snacks and accompaniments. People who attended repertory cinemas were there to pay for something worth watching and thinking over. They were individuals and not a bunch of teenagers uniting just for the sake of going out. It was refreshing to see a storyline that wasn’t expected and completely foreshadowed by its previews. The experience at the repertory cinema compared to a commercial theater was that the viewer was expected to have the film as a focal point and not their surroundings.

Ahhh the infamous Manet!

“Luncheon Lunacy”

The realm of the arts has become saturated over the previous centuries and artists have become less considerate of “copying” and “copyright laws”. In this day and age it is difficult to produce a work that has not been influenced by what has come before it and appropriation has risen to new heights. Édouart Manet’s “Déjeuner sur l’Herbe” or “Breakfast in the Open Air” painting that was originally titled “Le Bain” or “The Bath” is a large oil-on-canvas painting produced in 1863. This canonic piece possessed a revolutionary power and shock value that inspired many to concoct their own work stemming from this very canvas. Among the many, a 1980’s New-Wave band created by Malcolm McLaren appropriated this artwork some a hundred years later. The "African-derived drum sound" (Russell A. Trunk’s Excusive Magazine) style band was named “Bow Wow Wow” and they produced a CD cover that also caused controversy in their time. The scandal mainly revolved around the lead singer Annabella Lwin taking over for the 19^th century Victorine Meurent. “Le Déjeuner” was and still is a multi-faceted artwork that can spark a heated discussion, and for this very reason Bow Wow Wow chose to appropriate it in 1981.

Manet’s original piece was a mixture of all three genres of painting: landscape, still life, and portrait. All of these aspects of the piece are stunning though striking all at once since they all don’t fit proportionally together. The image appears unreal and even dreamlike. This was due to the scale of the landscape not matching the scale of the figures. They didn’t match up for the single reason that the whole painting was conceived indoors in Manet’s atelier, although the current style at the time was for painters to take their easel outdoors. Manet’s painting is considered controversial and even scandalous to some extent. For the 19^th century, something so liberated and advanced was “regarded as crude and even unfinished.”(The Private Life of a Masterpiece) To Manet contents were of secondary importance, he left behind the thematic focal point and concentrated on form and esthetics. He was interested in producing appealing compositions, attractive contrasts, and a play of colors. To him the “how” overpowered the “what” in his creations. “Le Déjeuner” was immediately refused when Manet applied for the 1863 annual exhibition of the Academy Royale in Paris and was sent to be exhibited in the Salon des Refuses. This was a gallery put together by Napoleon the third to expose the outstanding number of works that were rejected that particular year. Although at first it was not allowed to be seen, the second the critics laid eyes on the piece they scolded and immediately gave it bad judgment. The canvas’ size was considered far too large for such a mundane subject, being four people having an everyday picnic. What shocked the viewers was that the work had no allegorical or idealized figures in it. It was obscene and no one could possibly make any sense of it. It puzzled many as they pondered on a hidden meaning and tried to figure out the implied narrative. Some came up with the theory that the posing nude, that was a depiction of Manet’s favorite model Victorine Meurent, could be a well-regarded prostitute in the midst of an orgy. This was backed up by Manet’s subtle painting of a frog in the grass of his landscape, given that in the nineteenth century “frog” was a common term for “prostitute”. Also, it was outrageous to see common faces in the piece. Manet’s future brother in law and brother posed for the male figures in the canvas, and the female in the foreground was just an ordinary woman. She wasn’t a symbolic representation for something grander such as Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” seeing as her clothes were disposed of next to the delightful fruit basket. People could now identify with the hero in paintings and find the hero in themselves. In sum, with this masterpiece, which was said to be a gem of the nineteenth century French culture, Manet became the chief of impressionism and paved the way for future modernist painting.

The work finally entered pop culture in the 1980’s when the pop group “Bow Wow Wow” appropriated it, who also claim that they made viewers more aware of the original. The creator of the group, McLaren, purposely desired to create uproar with the CD cover of the popular album “See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy!” hence the effect the original painting had on the population at its first exhibition. This technique not only worked out to the band’s advantage, but also was named one of the best album covers of all time. On the contrary with “Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe”, the 80’s photographed CD cover focused more on the work’s content over its form. They opted the recreation of this masterpiece for what it represented thematically: confusion, controversy, and lack of correspondence. They attempted to give a creative and even more modern spin on the original by placing themselves in Manet’s cinematic scene. "It was a beautiful album and meant to be done in good taste – and I of course had my hesitations about [the album cover] because I was underage! And that was obviously what the uproar was all about because I was being accused of posing nude for other reasons. But I did it because at the time it felt to me that this would be a brilliant re-creation of this painting”, claims Annabella Lwin in her interview with Russell A. Trunk. The photographer in charge of this appropriation, Andy Earl, knew that chaos awaited him even as he was shooting the band. He assured the young nude teen that the image would not turn out in away way sexual; she would look beautiful. The photograph therefore didn’t contradict the conventions of beauty like the front-lit Victorine that was made to look flat and have all her defects made visible. The creator of the group was searching for public attention while demonstrating his affection towards the arts. He certainly got it with this album cover, especially with it getting banned in the UK and in the US.

To conclude, Édouart Manet’s “Déjeuner sur l’herbe” was a canonic realist painting of the 19^th century that stood as a muse to following artists and fueled their art work. Even though bathed in lukewarm praise at its first appearance, the piece took the world by storm and inspired the pop group Bow Wow Wow to appropriate the painting with the means of photography. They took the challenge to re-shock the people and push them out of their comfort zone for a second time. Manet and McLaren were visionaries who searched to create analytically with a conscious and the desire to explore the possibilities of the art world.

WORKS CITED

Fiero, K. Gloria. The Humanistic Tradition, Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.

The Private Life of a Masterpiece. DVD

Annecarlini.com/ex_interviews.php?id=635,  80’s – Bow Wow Wow ‘Putting The Wow Back Into Music’. Russell Trunk’s Excusive Magazine. Web

An essay comparing the novels: "The Magician" & "The Cask of Amontillado"

“The wrath of vengeance”

            Revenge is the act of retaliation for an offense or injury caused to one by another. It can overwhelm a person, shake them to their very core and become the most important facet of their life. Revenge is often associated with anger, animosity, and even obsession. The person exacting revenge feels that he has been wronged and feels justified in righting that wrong. Throughout the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe and the novel “The Magician” by W.S. Maugham, the authors develop the feelings of revenge possessed by the central characters Arthur and Montresor. In these tales, Arthur Burdon, a self-opinionated surgeon loses his future wife to a flamboyant magician, and Montresor, a commoner, is often offended by his higher status peer Fortunato. Throughout their suffering, they seek justice, but when justice’s restorative power fails, vengeance is the only option that alters personalities and turns frail men puissant.

            Arthur and Montresor are similar in the sense that they are both portrayed as vulnerable and sensitive characters at the very beginning as a first impression to the reader. Arthur doesn’t have an opinion to get across, is narrow minded, and Montresor is someone who sits and is often subjected to offenses. For a peer to have injured him numerous times, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe, p.1567), there must have been some sign of weakness Montresor was exuding for someone to feel the liberty to mock him so often and effortlessly. In addition, he waited to get mentally injured and humiliated thousands of times before taking any sort of action whether it be revenge or a verbal response. Also throughout the story we see that he is of inferior status than Fortunato from the way he speaks of him, “…although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared” (Poe, p.1567). In sort, this makes him a frail character in the beginning of the short Poe story. The evil flourishes from his desire to get revenge, which in sort makes him puissant or evil in a sense. “Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated”, claims George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright. “The Magician’s” Arthur never quite believed in Haddo’s far-fetched stories such as him defeating three lions with three bullets or creating life out of nothing. He was also always bothered by not knowing whether Haddo was being sincere or not, which intimidated this young man. “It disturbed his practical mind never to be certain if Haddo was serious, or if, as now, he was plainly making game of them” (Maugham, p.59). Similarly, when Haddo asks Arthur what he has to say about Porhoet’s occult experience involving the realization of his mother’s death, the young surgeon replies “nothing”, since he never voices his neutral opinion of the black arts. This points out that Arthur is frightened into submission by Oliver Haddo’s presence and remarks.

            As the story progresses though, we see that revenge has depleted Arthur and Montresor to their very soul. Both these men develop a sense of wittiness, slyness, and unexpected mental strength. The revenger feels dominant because he is consuming others when he himself is being consumed by the greater power of vengeance. This desire for retribution acts as a puppet master controlling the strings of the person who allows himself to become a marionette in the hands of revenge. It is evident that they are being controlled by their shift in behavior. Arthur publicly expresses his change of views on the occult and puts a mental stop to his skepticism, “I’m so broken, so confused, that I cannot think sanely. At this moment everything seems possible. My faith in all the truths that have supported me is tottering.” (Maugham, p.118) This is a big step into open-mindedness when before he would “…laugh[ed] heartily” (Maugham, p.73) at any reference to magic. On the other hand, Montresor's precise premeditated plan demonstrates his dedication to his act. Only someone evil and disturbed could have carried out all of his deliberate wicked planning, “There were no attendants at home; … I had told them that I shall not return until the morning, and had given them the explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance” (Poe, p.1568). For a person to plot a murder because a peer has insulted them numerous times is an extreme and abnormal solution, which makes us question his sanity. In addition, he ironically mocks Fortunato of his death, “’I drink,’ he said, ‘to the buried that repose around us.’ ‘And I to your long life’” (Poe, p.1569). The two revenge driven men took private vengeance because justice couldn’t be served through the law. The court can’t punish verbal injuries or a fiancée leaving her man with no proof of force, so they sought justice personally “I shall not take any steps of my own till I find that the law is powerless” (Maugham, p.163).

            All things considered, Maugham’s “The Magician” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” are two striking tales that take us through the consumptive steps that revenge takes to completely alter a person’s personality and drive them out of character. The characters Arthur and Montresor are exhausted of their persona and converted to the complete opposite. From being adynamic, these two men take power and matters into their own hands and let revenge be their guide. This animalistic response to injury lets them turn the roles around and stand on dominant ground, instead of being submissive as they originated in the stories. 

LED Sheet Lighting!

The term innovation dates back to the 15^th century and means “the introduction of something new, a new idea, method, or device” (Merriam Webster dictionary.) In other words, it is a new way of doing something. It refers to revolutionary alterations in thinking, products, and processes. “A distinction is made between invention, an idea that is thereafter manifested, and innovation, ideas applied successfully with a significant result” (Mckeown 2008). In many fields, something new must be considerably different to be innovative. The goal of innovation is positive and substantial change, to make something better. An innovation is not always created to fit a particular frame but to expand with a wide range of possibilities. Grote’s new LightForm technology of paper-thin LED technology will change lighting in advertisement in ways we haven't even begun to imagine and shift the evolution of illumination with this totally new branch of publicity. Steeve Angers, a sales representative of Lumi-ere Media, who uses this clever technology for publicity and advertisement in restaurant menus, is also a pioneer in this new business. He had come to restaurant Quartier dressed “to the T” with a smile up to his ears grasping on to a rectangular menu. He approached me and my father, saying “Are you ready to see the best menu in the world?” With this he showed us an illuminated menu that made my gears grind and think of all the possible opportunities.

To understand the concept of LED sheet lighting, it is substantial to first have an idea of what simple LED lighting really is. A Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that converts electricity into light, which has been around since the 1960s in America, but is just now beginning to appear in the advertising and communications market. LED lighting was actually invented in Russia in the 1920s and then later introduced to the United States as a practical electronic component in 1962. It is an electronic light source that has several advantages over traditional light sources. The advantages are lower energy consumption, greater longevity, improved robustness, and a noticeably a smaller size. LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, instead of an abrupt burn out of traditional light bulbs. LEDs can have a long life span. One report estimates a recorded 35,000 to 50,000 hours of life when compared to fluorescent light tubes which normally last about 10,000 to 15,000 hours, both depending on their conditions of use including temperature and time of usage (switching on and off). Thus, LED is efficient and this is why it should be chosen for advertisement lighting (news.thomasnet.com).

Grote’s newest edition to LED technology will significantly alter the advertising world through its innovative ways of being used for various facets of publicity. Grote industries is a manufacturer and marketer of vehicle lighting and safety that was founded a hundred years ago and has remained family owned, starting from when William Grote opened the doors for business. Grote Industries gave a conference on March 19^th 2009 in Louisville, KY stating, "LightForm is a game changer that will dramatically alter the way the industry uses lighting, while challenging all of our imaginations in the process," (Grote, Dominic). The engineers already subjected the product through stress tests including heat and cold, extreme humidity levels, and salt baths to examine its capacities. Grote also claimed “LifeForm is already hardened and robust-far beyond the mere prototype stage.” LED sheet design not only contributes to the vehicle and safety business but also has leaped into the creative media spectrum, such as Steeve Angers has demonstrated with his involvement in Lumi-ere Media. LED paper lighting could refresh existing media options by illuminating static ads. This implies marrying with existing technology. It can go beyond traditional media by being wrapped around columns, illuminate floors, and being used in concave walls. LightForm increases advertising effectiveness and brand visibility by making it possible for publicity to be seen through the clutter and making people stop and stare. All in all, the possibilities of advertisement opportunities are endless with LED paper.

LED sheets change the illumination aspect of advertising with their breakthrough new design that makes décor and publicity easy and convenient. LED sheets are an Illuminated spread of paper-thin material, similar to plastic that can be flexed, bent, twisted and rolled. They are highly malleable and can be installed pretty much on any type of surface whether concave or convex. This product requires very little energy and can be fully illuminated by a small handheld battery pack. For example, the lit up menus have to be charged a total of twelve hours to run for two whole weeks. This proves that it is convenient and practical. Measuring less than one millimeter thick, LightForm is a highly advanced, thin-film, solid-state lighting device. “When one considers the weight, energy use and aerodynamic advantages associated with an exterior application of LightForm, we've really accomplished something significant but when you consider that you can now bend your lighting around corners, over contoured areas and into complicated shapes, we've simply changed the entire lighting equation,” claims William Grote, CEO of Grote Industries, at a press conference. Its dimensions make complicated lighting easy instead of putting let’s say a housing for neon light bulbs behind a poster. By replacing this technology with that of LED sheet lighting it is possible to place a sheet of illuminated paper behind the poster or just print on the sheet itself. Altogether, the practical design of this new technology makes it an innovation, which without a doubt will sweep the nation.

Moreover, Grote’s new LED sheet lighting, that numerous media companies such as Lumi-ere Media have used to expand their horizons, is perceptibly shifting and molding the communications field in ways that are continuous and everlasting. With this technology’s history of simple LED illumination, its new form, and its wide range of capabilities make it an innovation to the media domain.

A look at Artist Marcel Dzama

“Marcel Dzama: Rebel With A Cause”

Marcel Dzama is a German artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba that voiced nationalistic sentiment throughout his work. He was born in 1974, making him currently 36 years old, and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in his hometown. His interest in the arts seems to be widespread considering his involvement in watercolor illustrations, installations, sculptures, collage, assemblage, and even film. This makes Dzama a flexible artist experimenting and utilizing every medium possible to get his message across.

His installation, recently mounted in the Museum of Contemporary Art, named “The Underground” (2008) is constructed out of wood, ceramic, fiberglass, resin, sand, metal, and fabric.  This multi-composited sculpture consists of three scarlet-masked soldiers holding AK-47s behind a squatting nude female. She is seen urinating into the mouth of a suited man underground through a translucent tube. Next to them, sits a pipe-smoking dog in a burrow witnessing the scene. The figures here all share a high degree of primitivism with their cartoonish form.  “The Underground” conveys ideas of birth with the cave representing the womb and the tube symbolizing the umbilical cord nourishing the only well dressed male. The work also depicts ideas of death and war, which seam to be the subjects Dzama is fond of. This is made evident with the combat setting he built and the famous soldiers in the background. Many elements can be deciphered in this image such as a portrayal of political issues, for example the hideout of Saddam Hussein. This sculpture, most importantly, embodies the mythology that one constructs in their thoughts with a childish spin.

“Untitled: Winnipeg Was Won, Winnipeg Was One” is one of Dzama’s illustrations made up of graphite, ink, and watercolor on piano paper. This painting, like his others feature torture scenes, graphic erotic escapades, and carnavalesque ballet dancers. These scenes, although notorious and daring, depict the aesthetically attractive and somewhat choreographed behavior of several figures. His reoccurring characters are delicate and illustrate the artist’s interest in minimalism. Marcel limits his color palette to somber earth tones such as root-beer browns and grey washed navys, and the three values: white, grey, and black with a repeated punch of crimson. This artificially bright pigment depicts themes of war, nostalgia, and even politics. Just like his other pieces shown at the gallery, his concoction is truly instinctive and visceral while dealing with crude and elemental emotions.

Marcel’s work can be compared to a scene in the film “Schindler’s List”. When coming close to his illustrations and paintings, the young Hebrew girl wrapped in a red dress amidst the black and white crowd instantly came to mind. This was also done to attract attention to a singled out character and to remind us of the holocaust’s bloodshed. In Marcel’s case he wishes to make the violence more perceptible by focalizing it.

All things considered, Marcel Dzama is a modernist artist for the reason that he freely expresses himself and creates subjectively with personally selected limitations. He, like many modernists, has blurred the lines between mediums such as sculpture and painting, hence generating his own distinctive style. Dzama instills his knowledge and his “id” in his productions with a juvenile spontaneity that will surely leave a vivid imprint in our minds.