Recording Device

New Works by Brendan De Montigny

One Month Exhibit

Opening Friday May 18th, 2012 8pm
Music, food and drink

About Brendan De Montigny:

Brendan de Montigny was born in Vancouver BC. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University and is currently completing his Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa. With a background in painting, sculpture and print he is in a state of play and uses these methodologies to create works that are excessive in material. These works investigate a collapsed imagined world, where the fragmentations of real experienced memories are negotiated through late twentieth century popular cultural iconographic objects (ed. note: Star Wars!). The artwork is type of cultural sarcophagus that seeks to re-examine our past in order to understand our future.

For more info see: http://cargocollective.com/brendandemontigny

Watch Brendan open the coveted action figures:

On April 30th, 1912, Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated by Carl Laemmle in New York. At the time, Universal was exclusively interested in distributing one-, two-, and three-reelers for the “Universal Program” – a curated variety of shorter films. In the trades, Universal advertised against feature films, “The heart and soul, lungs and liver, backbone and stamina, brains and brawn of the moving picture business is THE SCIENTIFICALLY BALANCED PROGRAM. The exhibitor who is building for the future ought to see by now that every time he indulges in so-called “features” he is spending money for fluff that will never get him anywhere or anything.” Obviously, they reconsidered.

Today, Universal released a 100 Years, 100 Fun Facts list, a narrow if trivia laden read. This week they are also releasing Pillow Talk in a book-edition Bluray, with The Sting coming next month and the greatest summer film of all time, Jaws, coming to Bluray August 14th. The restoration tactics for these films are covered in a promotional 100th anniversary video, embedded below. While never without controversy (and still dismissive of many of their important holdings – ie, those early two-reelers or The Blue Dahlia), the restorative work should be highlighted against the horrible history of neglect and fateful destruction that has doomed the cinematic past – including Universal’s, like the fire at the Canadian Universal Film Company in Toronto on April 12th, 1915 (below). Anyway, Happy Birthday Universal. It’s crazy to think that in only 9 days Paramount Pictures will celebrate the same anniversary and that far from the valleys of Culver City, in New York, in spring 1912, a hundred years ago this week, the American studio system was quietly born.

Corman’s World is out this week on DVD and Bluray. Getting Jack Nicholson to talk candidly is the real coup of the film – equalling John Landis on Corman in Machete Maidens Unleashed. Besides promoting this release, I thought it would be nice to post an old trade ad for Kodak featuring Roger Corman. With Kodak wading through Chapter 11 restructuring, it’s a heyday piece of days gone by – when New World Pictures ruled and Cries and Whispers was thrown up at Drive-Ins. The next release in Shout Factory’s ongoing “Roger Corman Cult Classics” will be The Nurses Collection (Night Call Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses, Private Duty Nurses and The Young Nurses) – coming April 17, 2012.

Wurm Gallery | Invisible Cinema presents

COLD CUT

Greta Grip and Erin Robertson at Wurm Gallery

One Month Exhibit
March 29th – April 25th, 2012

Greta Grip and Erin Robertson play with their food. Meat in particular. Vanitas is a term for 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings often included imagery such as rotting meat, candles and skulls; reminders of our mortality. Jana Sterbak’s 1987, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for An Albino Anorectic. Sterbak’s intention was to address issues of fashion, consumption and the body, as “you are what you wear”.

Cold Cut introduces Greta Grip’s Homage to Artist Series which begins with a knitted Meat Dress. This Meat Dress, inspired by Jana Sterbak, was stitched together with fifteen knitted flank steaks. It was then scanned onto machine knitted fabric that can be purchased and worn by many. A QR (Quick Response) Code was generated in order to connect the machine knitted fabric to the hand knitted Meat Dress. Grip plays with the historically, slow and meticulous method of hand knitting with contemporary, instantly reproducible attained scans and QR codes. Robertson’s oil paintings of flesh and bone, in contrast explore the visceral in her interpretation of momento mori.

Cold Cut opens Thursday March 29, 7pm at Wurm Gallery, located in Invisible Cinema 319 Lisgar St. Ottawa. Food and drink will be served. This event is sponsored by Murray Street Kitchen Wine Charcuterie. Vegetarian snacks courtesy of the video vegans.

Ray Sager (aka Montag the Magnificent) came into to rent a video once and I made him sign our Midnight Video VHS of The Wizard of Gore. Behold! Now is your chance to do the same. He is coming to the Mayfair Theatre tomorrow night – Friday March 2nd, 2012 at 11pm – for a special 35mm screening of the magical (..errr) The Wizard of Gore. And look, it’s coming to Bluray on May 1st.

Wurm Gallery | Invisible Cinema presents:

emotional topologies

Photographic Works by Jennifer Stewart

One Month Exhibit
February 24 – March 28, 2012

Opening Friday February 24th, 2012 8pm onwards
The opening will feature a live performance by Eraserheads
(Omar David Rivero of J’envoie and Daughters of the Revolution // Jamie Kronick of the Paramedics).

About emotional topologies:

a one-to-one mapping between two figures that evolves in both directions. this narrative explores the convergence and continuity within one’s state of feelings.

a hollow body attempts to cultivate a truism of self.

Frames are being prepared:

Wurm Gallery | Invisible Cinema presents:

PETER GUINDON

“More Liquidation Landscapes”

One Month Exhibit
January 27th – February 22nd, 2012

Opening Night: Friday January 27th, 2012 8pm

About the show:

“My current images conjure up themes of glorified warfare in pop culture, the social dominance of the mesomorphic male, assorted gender role conflicts, general distrust amongst people, a caste system in regards to love, nepotism in politics and the workplace and a general feeling of natural selection in spite of hollow promises of equality… but it should be noted that in the end, these images also portray the artist’s new acceptance and comfort in his mediocrity.”

About Peter Guindon:

Before perverting the world in the pages of Cinema Sewer, Peter grew up in idyllic suburban Ottawa, acquired a BFA at the University of Windsor followed by an animation certificate at Algonquin. He spent the early to mid 2000s working as a professional animator until the Canadian 2D animation industry was gutted by lack of funding and slave labour overseas, and then resorted to menial labour in order to make ends meet. He wallowed in self-pity for a couple of years until he decided to re-invent his life. In 2010, he packed his belongings and moved to Asia to teach whilst trying to find fresh opportunities to showcase his artwork. He is taking in a new culture learning a new language and meeting new people. Peter Guindon heartily recommends stark lifestyle and geographical shifts for those failing to realise their passion in their current abyss. As for his work, Peter says, “I am inspired by the artwork of Bosch, Breughel, and George Tooker. I am also visually inspired by 1920s fashion, medieval architecture and regalia, as well as modern day smog-filled skies and devastated landscapes. I believe my works offer glimpses of all of these influences to a certain degree.”

Should be good, come check it out.

We have free passes to the Ottawa Sneak Preview of Liam Neeson man-movie The Grey this coming Monday, January 23rd at 7pm at Cineplex Odeon South Keys (2214 Banks St.). Transform from winter weary wimp to winter warrior wolf-eater in two hours. Become a survivalist by emailing info [at] invisiblecinema.ca with the subject: “The Grey” and include your name and phone number. We will call the winners.

“Christmas is coming early this year… and it’s murder.”

I love this succession of reports, so here it is. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” Apparently not. Our gift to the internet on this December 24th, 2011: the indecisive titling history of…

The Babysitter…

Murder For Christmas…

Silent Night, Evil Night…

…Black Christmas. Ca-Ching.