Product Nothing | The works of neighbors

Invite fellow artists from Mile-Ex and Little Italy, this is what Karen Trask and Paul Litherland have done in their Product Nothing space where, until April 10, the works of 52 artists from their neighborhood are gathered. , including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Sophie Jodoin, Dominique Pétrin and Denis Farley, but also a seven-and-a-half-year-old artist! An unpretentious exhibition with the aim of friendly encounters.

Eric Clement
The Press

Product Rien is a 575 sq. ft. contemporary art space^⁠2 located in the building that the artists Paul Litherland and Karen Trask acquired in 2019. The size of a large living room to organize exhibitions at the rate of one per month. “We also sometimes rent this space to make our workshops in the back profitable,” says Paul Litherland.

The building does not look like much. Its white brick facade resembles that of an old warehouse. In fact, it is an old factory, Oriental Product. Time has erased a few letters from the sign, hence the name of the place… Product Nothing! “When we bought, on March 28, 2019, we had to clean up deeply, because it had been a tofu factory for 40 years! says Paul Litherland, photographer and documentarian. Had to do a lot of washing! »

The two artists completed their restoration in mid-January 2020 and began exhibiting exactly two years ago. Product Nothing is not a commercial gallery. “We created the space in a spirit of contribution,” says Paul Litherland. Neighbor is their third exhibition of the year. And the first physical opening in two years.

A slew of artists from the neighborhood

Some 120 people came to the small room on the day of the opening. Most were the artists, their families and friends. The event had a very sympathetic community flavor. The premises had been ventilated and visitors wore face coverings.

In front of the building, a green installation was placed by Kim Sawchuk, professor and artist from Concordia: plastic flowers in the colors of Ukraine put in large rain boots. A nod to the Ukrainian people. Inside, it looks like Gertrude Stein, at the beginning of the XX^and century, with his modern art canvases lining the walls, from floor to ceiling, of his Parisian apartment.

Paul Litherland and Karen Trask covered the four walls of the space with around fifty works. For each wall, a plan shows who created what. In the entrance, we discover a video of Alain Thibault, the founder of Elektra, the digital art festival of Montreal. Fukushima my love evokes the nuclear tragedy that occurred in Japan in 2011, the film Hiroshima my lovewritten by Marguerite Duras and directed by Alain Resnais in 1959, and the installation Untitled (Human Mask), by French artist Pierre Huyghe. A mixture of references and two characters identified by their voice. A female voice that comments on the situation and another that corresponds to the inner voice of the artist. The 8 min video is the first scene of a work in development.

Chris Salter and Alex Saunier also present a video, Forms of the Living, especially on the pandemic and our “human” relationships. Nearby, a “classic” work by Dominique Pétrin, You know that we know that we know, typical of his wallpaper work. And Timepieceby Leigh Kotsilidis, a panel of 369 small clocks out of phase.

The organizers have placed a captivating book of photographs on the theme of the party, by Jean-François Prost, on a pedestal. There are also two Anthropomorphic structuresby Francine Lalonde, The balancing act of recycling, by Michel Harvey, a column of recycled bottles that forms a character. The painting Holding on #7, by Élaine Despins, two beautiful hands of an elderly person. Four photos by Guillaume Brisson-Darveau, Crisis: clothing for an uncertain future. With a character wearing futuristic “clothes”. Between flower, bug and explosion!

Works that stand out

We liked the graphite drawing marshalling yard, by Peter Krausz. As well as the painting in the form of a tribute to Ukraine, Lagimodiere by car in January/Slava Ukraina, by Kim Sawchuk. And the contribution of Léo (Éléonore) Amyot, a seven-and-a-half-year-old artist who made her drawing “as part of research on abandoned and stray animals”.

Highlights include a beautiful pencil drawing, Hate, of the always so talented and delicate Sophie Jodoin. It really looks like hair. There are also two eloquent photographs by Denis Farley, from his series Parallel Network 1 and 2. Its famous telecommunications antennas that make the environment ugly. And then At, a very interesting little sculptural work by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. One wonders what this metallic form placed on a base is. In fact, as Rafael is the king of the materialization of the invisible, this cloud shape is a 3D print, in metal, of the modeling of the air that one moves when one says the word “Au” in ” In the moonlight “.

Please note that there are only a few days left to see the exhibition. Neighbor. The space is open Thursday to Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., at 6909, rue Marconi, not far from the Jean-Talon market.