The first thing you see when entering Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain is a mind-bending tableau: a massive granite boulder has squashed an upright piano, the sparkling grey rock perching on top of the instrument’s obliterated lid. However, the piano didn’t splinter and crack, but it has simply folded in on itself, absorbing the brutal attack from above. The scene is both comical and tragic (anyone who has ever seen a Wile E. Coyote cartoon may get an instant flashback). It is only as I approached the installation piece that I noticed that the piano isn’t constructed out of wood at all, but is a perfect reproduction made of rusted metal, expertly crafted down to the piano hinges and manufacturer’s trademark. Titled Coriolis, this work by Maskull Lasserre captures the spontaneity of disaster, that split-second of violent impact, while at the same time creating a paradoxical image that our brain can’t quite process.

This theme of paradox is continued throughout the exhibition, each sculptural piece a riff on music and death. Lasserre transforms objects by integrating materials from divergent sources, creating deadly, improbable  instruments such as Sonata Blade, a meat cleaver with a violin string attachment, and Six Shot – Six String, an elegant construction of several violin heads which serve as a visor for a handgun (complete with Mafia-style violin case). That these instruments are functional is demonstrated in a dramatically lit video, where a concert musician, dressed in white shirt and black suit, manipulates each object. It is fascinating to watch the violinist transform into James Bond as he aims his deadly weapon.

Mortality also creeps into unexpected places is a series of sculptural pieces where Lasserre transformed everyday objects through artistic intervention. My favourite work is a hand axe, titled Secret Carpentry, fully intact, except that its wooden handle has been carved into the filigrane form of a snake skeleton. Now doubly menacing, the tool becomes unusable. I imagine holding the axe and inwardly recoil at the thought of holding the snake vertebrae while at the same time being fascinated by the object’s intricate beauty.

Subverting instruments of beauty by transforming them into instruments of death, Lasserre’s sublime works continually delight and surprise.

Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain, space 216
Maskull Lasserre
Vertigo
November 19 – December 24, 2011
www.pfoac.com