Happy New Year!!! Memefest is an amazing organisation/event/friendly competition that I’ve been partnered with for many years. Based in Slovenia, with nodes spread out internationally (remarkably and importantly, outside of traditional centres of “power”), Memefest explores the boundaries of communication practice, pushing for radical approaches that operate outside of the conventional/commercial/advertising model.
Four Minutes to Midnight is proud to co-present the inaugural Howl! concert featuring solo and collaborative performances by cellist Rebecca Foon, Sam Shalabi on oud and our good friend Stefan Christoff on piano. It’ll be a night of beautiful, intimate music celebrating Montreal’s fiercely independent arts community. The perfect way to kick-off the holidays with your friends and family.
The concert takes place next Thursday, December 16th at L’Envers, the beautiful loft space on Van Horne that hosted CKUT’s Art’s Birthday festivities last year (which was a whole lot of fun!).
>> RSVP and more info on Facebook here
First up, long admired political art collective, The Beehive Design Collective, have launched a kickstarter campaign to mark their 10 year anniversary. I remember first seeing their work during the FTAA protests in Quebec City back in 2001, and just recently referenced their work in a class I was teaching as an example of an approach to a visual essay. Check out the video above to learn more about their important and inspirational work, and if you’re in the states, help ’em out so they can keep printing and get yourself some beautiful posters while you’re at it.
The early view from our table
Another great Expozine weekend is in the books, and as tiring, stressful and hectic as it was, I’m pretty sad it’s over and we’re going to have to wait a whole year for the next opportunity to see so many amazing independent creators and creations.
As a member of the illustrious board, headed by the indefatiguable Louis Rastelli (with big shoutouts to Billy Mavreas, Genevieve Boyer, Pascal-Angelo Fioramore, Michelle Lacombe and Graham Hall) I spent Friday setting up hundreds of tables and chairs while hoping that issue XI of Four Minutes to Midnight would be printed and bound in time by my printers Kata Soho (kids, remember, don’t leave printing to the last minute!). Everything worked out in the end, and I was able to enjoy the opening event at Sala with some good friends and great performances by Sherwin Tija (reading from his collection of Pseudo-Haikus and new zine, “The Little Cancer that could”) and Super Fossil Power. There was a nice turnout, but unfortunately, as was to be expected, a lot of zinesters I was hoping to meet were MIA as they frantically finished their wares.
Poster by Billy Mavreas
It’s my favourite time of the year! Expozine 2010 is right around the corner (THIS weekend!) and I’m beyond excited to get to see so many of my friends again and all the work they’ve been up to in a sweaty church basement jam-packed with geeky zinesters. And equally excited to discover new art for my walls, new zines for my mind, and new people to collaborate with. I’ve met some of my best friends through this event, and it’s one of the main reasons I’m still in Montreal, with its amazing community of independent artists. It’s going to be a fabulous weekend!
As part of the inaugural Quebec BDS Conference, Artists Against Apartheid is presenting an amazing and unique concert featuring detroit MC Invincible and Cuban Hip Hop ensemble Obsesión. The concert is taking place at le Consulat this Saturday, full details here.
Being a big fan of Invincible’s music, I was honoured to be asked to design the poster for the event and enlisted my good friend Kirsten McCrea to help with the ornamentation, resulting in my first ever 100% hand-drawn poster! (or at least since I finished design school aeons ago…)
I’ll also be a panelist during the BDS conference itself, participating in the artist’s roundtable workshop between 4 and 6 PM on Saturday. I’ll be speaking about Imaging Apartheid and my work for the Palestinian cause from a personal perspective, the role of cultural workers in social justice struggles generally, and Palestine specifically. So please register for the conference or come by for the individual workshops—it promises to be an educational and inspiring weekend.
Kevin Yuen Kit Lo is a Montreal-based freelance art director and graphic designer. He has previously worked at the agencies Sid Lee, Bluesponge and Cossette, and currently teaches in the Design and Computation Arts department at Concordia University. He runs an independent design and communications consulting practice under the name of LOKi design, specialising in work within the cultural sphere. He publishes the zine Four Minutes to Midnight, exploring the intersections of typography, poetics and politics.
As a community organiser and activist, Kevin is engaged on many levels with various non-profit organisations in Montreal and beyond. He is a founding member of Howl! Arts Collective, a member of the Artivistic Collective, a board member for Archive Montreal, a contributing editor at Art threat, and a long-standing jury member for Memefest. 2356 publishing is also involved in organising and documenting events in Montreal that bridge the gap between art and activism.
His work has been widely exhibited, recognised and awarded, including a Cannes Cyber Lion, several SXSW interactive awards, and recognition for design excellence from Print and Communication Arts.
He holds an MA in Typo/Graphic Design from the London College of Printing and a Graduate Certificate Degree and BFA in Design Art from Concordia University.
As part of Pop Montreal John is putting on a For the Sake of the Songs tribute show to the prolific composer and performer Van Dyke Parks this Sunday at le Cagibi.
As always, all proceeds go to the Mile End mission.
I was very happy to have my gaza poster included as part of the Power to the Poster Exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska. The printing looks beautiful and I’m honoured to be included amongst such an important collection. Thanks Justin!
In a related note, please visit the Imaging Apartheid website and submit your work! The deadline is fast approaching!
