what we saw today

This afternoon William and I saw "Green Hornet" in 3D. Quite enjoyed it, especially the numerous post-modern reinterpretations of the story which manage to steer the story into its original formula. Good buddy picture too. I was apprehensive when I was buying tickets and noticed it was rated 14A but the violence was quite clean. There is a lot of killing but no torture or real brutality.
This evening we went the MacKenzie Art Gallery opening with performances by New Dance Horizons for their 25th anniversary. I just watched the first two. They were slow, one person, introspective pieces. While there were certainly some interesting moments (Robin Poitras using bed springs wired up to be an electric guitar) but there were also many aspects that remained inexplicable even after reading the program notes. Paul-Andre Fortier performs with a cardboard box which, according to the program, is just "ordinary". However, it has labels and coloured tape on it that draw my attention (all details in minimalist work garners undue attention) and I just don't know why a generic box wasn't chosen. There is no pay-off to the details. The movements he is doing is about us paying attention to him, his body, his time and space as a performer. There is no deception, it is formalistic and we watch the raw material of the body. This ideological take on the art does not transfer to their use of new media devices being arbitrarily affixed to their exhibition. A couple of times in the performance there is audio, seemingly from a microphone he is handling or is strapped to him (as if it is hearing his heartbeat) but again there is no explanation or justification. The viewer is unable to put together the supposedly associated elements.
William was not in the mood to watch more dance so we stuck to the gallery for the second half. He has some very sophisticated observations about the Morriseau painting that was up, "The White Man's Curse". He pointed out the the second man, carrying the cross, has a spiral inside his head so he must be confused. This led us to a great little conversation about colonizations.