Last Saturday I ventured to Les Territoires to see Timothée Messillier‘s exhibition Haustel: an Interruption of the Artistic Continuum.

Clutching my photocopied map, I navigated the first gallery: At my feet, a patchwork “beach” of stitched-together t-shirts swells at elevated peaks, upon which Burton-esque stick-figurines scale the micro-majestic dunes. On the walls, rough, floating shelves hold popsicle stick knick-knacks that call up bygone days of summer camp craft projects. Kitschy canvases of quilted fabric hang about a crucifix-at-Golgotha-like toy sword stuck in a foam stone. The room evokes the recollections of an early-Millennial youth re-envisioning his childhood rumpus room.

The second gallery contains a pre-fab shelf of CDs and DIY art ‘zines of which I was uncertain about touching. The floor is strewn with oily-tar-coloured woven mats, whose only explanation seems to be offered through literal cues in the few hand-drawn cardboard blueprints clipped to the wall.

I resolved to approach this exhibition with a sense of play. Haustel, while constructed on a base of literal and visual references to art history, is like a good-natured jab delivered by a well-read jokester: The delivery is disconcerting, but the cleverness is evident only though understanding.

The exhibition is to be punctuated by six public performances, in which the artist will, according to the press release, alter the gallery space over the course of its run. Some types of art are simply viewed and understood, while other types need context through which to effectively deliver the punch-line. Haustel falls perhaps into the latter, so taking in a performance would be advised in order to further appreciate the artistâ€s intent.

Public performances:
Thursday, May 16th at 6pm | Saturday, May 18th at 3pm | Thursday, May 23rd at 6pm | Saturday, May 25th at 3pm | Tuesday, June 4th at 6pm

Les Territoires, space 527
Timothée Messillier
Haustel: an Interruption of the Artistic Continuum
May 17 – June 8, 2013
www.lesterritoires.org

If you did not make the opening of Darsha Hewittâ€s Electrostatic Bell Choir at Skol, you may have done yourself and the artist a service.

That is not to say that Darsha Hewittâ€s first solo exhibition was not a success.

The installation itself is not bad. The desired enchanting effect, however, may have been lost among the cacophonic hoards of people bumping around in the darkness.

Struggling to get past the line-up at the bar, I pushed through the heavy black, theoretically “noise-cancelling” curtains and entered a darkened room scattered, almost excessively, with stacks of vintage Cathode Ray Tube televisions, timed to light up in random intervals.

A small tinkling of bells shuddered to life to the right of me as my ears contended with the pervading din beyond the curtain. A screen warmed up and emitted a soft glow against the darkness, backlighting a Smetanka-like arrangement of epileptic electroscopic bells that seemed to be arrested in an orgasmic electroshock against the captive screen.

A Pavlovian urgency herded the viewers through the curtain and into the room, like slow-moving moths to light, as a new crop of bells rang up from a pile of TVs across the room. It only took minutes before the gallery had heated to an uncomfortably humid climate, the high-pitched frequency emitting from the multiple tubes bearing down on my temples.

My suggestion is to experience the exhibition in solitude, (and to not miss the innocuous graphite works in the annex to the rear of the gallery). In the moments before the crowds poured through the curtains, I could sense the magical appeal of Hewittâ€s “interest in demystifying the invisible systems” that shoot and hum and whir unawares throughout our homes. By harnessing the potential of static electricity, she manages to evoke a sense of wonder and anticipation that I imagine was felt nearly three hundred years ago, when static energy was first converted into mechanical electricity.

Electrostatic Bell Choir fits nicely into the greater Elektra14 programming, by allowing a fresh young electronic artist like Hewitt to test her mettle in the solo realm. I highly suggest taking this one in, and invigorating yourself to the nostalgic wonders that can still be mined from abandoned technology.

Centre des arts actuels Skol, space 314
Darsha Hewitt
Electrostatic Bell Choir
May 2 – June 1, 2013
www.skol.ca