PDA Projects
Fun Gun by Hugo Gaudet-Dion.Elgin Street’s newest gallery, PDA Projects, opens a new exhibition on Oct. 24 aimed at bridging the Ottawa and Gatineau art scenes.
The two-week exhibit will showcase the work of three emerging Québécois artists.
They’re trying to visually display the millennial generation’s culture through drawings, sculptures and sketches.
The exhibition, “Sweet and Sour,” will highlight issues facing the millennial generation today by using the visuals that defined their childhoods, according to Brendan A. de Montigny, 30, curator of the exhibit and co-director of PDA Projects.
“Be it video games, comic books, the classic Saturday cartoons, all three artists work around this idea of appropriating pop-culture references.”
The show, which will be the third for the gallery, will have its formal opening on Oct. 30. The evening will feature a live performance piece by of Hugo Gaudet-Dion, one of the three artists being showcased.
Gaudet-Dion will explore the trivialization of death, violence, and sex in the western world.
“My work is really playful but still dramatic,” says Gaudet-Dion.
“I’m mostly interested about how society can love extreme things and situations, especially when the extreme is presented in a fictional approach,” he continues.
“Cartoons, theatre, video games, comics, movies can take something bad and uncomfortable in real life and transform it [into]something funny and addictive for people.”
His pieces, as seen with his drawing Fun Gun, burst with excitement while delving deep into issues than one might not realize at first glance.
“The pieces exude a lot of energy and intensity, they’re colorful and vibrant,” says Gaudet-Dion. “I am very interested in presentation that trivializes sex, death, violence, disease, substance use problems.”
The other two artists being showcased are Alysha Farling, a Montréal based artist whose work is being shown for the first time in Ottawa, and Maxime Boisvert-Huneault, who, along with Gaudet-Dion, is from Gatineau.
The fact that all three artists are Québécois is no coincidence, says de Montigny. By bringing in more local Quebec artists, de Montigny believes PDA Projects can help overcome the disconnect that exists between the art scenes of Ottawa and Gatineau.
“Art is not owned by one province, especially when talking about our generation and Canadian art,” says de Montigny. “I think it links us through images, not speech. It has to do with emotion, passion, creativity, and that is cross-provincial.”
Plus, with the number of artists emerging from areas such as the older parts of Hull right now, the timing could not be better, he says.
“I think that Old Hull and Ottawa is about to hit a renaissance,” says de Montigny. “There are a lot of young people in the city right now doing great things.”
The older area of Hull has become a hub for young artists due to the cheap rent and large studios, according to Meredith Snider, 32, co-director of PDA Projects.
“This happens all the time with places that are cheaper to live,” says Snider. “You can get more bang for your buck in Old Hull. [Artists] get larger studios while still being close to city.”
With this growing blend of Quebec and Ottawa artists, deMontigny believes art has the ability to serve a greater purpose for all those in the region.
“Can art bring Ottawa and Gatineau together? I think the answer to that is yes.”