The new laureates of the Governor General’s awards have been announced. It’s nice to see that the GGs do not always go to nice, safe, Canadian artists who make nice, safe paintings of landscapes or sculptures than compliment your living room’s décor.
The headline news is that one of this year’s winners is Istvan Kantor, Monty Cantsin, Amen! Istvan’s an artist not afraid to get his hands dirty, whether he’s smearing his blood in the MOMA or humping a filing cabinet.
For those who are suspicious and/or bored of body-body performance art, let me assure you that Istvan’s vitality and passion can win over even the most hardened skeptics. His PleasureDome retrospective left me energized, inspired, and thanking my stars I had seen him perform some brilliant works that he said he may never perform again.
Plus, the man has style. (and a sixpack!)
Congratulations Istvan!
5 replies on “No-holds-barred, indeed”
That is great news. I am a bit ambivalent about Istvan’s work. I always feel like I’m supposed to be either shocked or aroused, and I’m neither. But remain a bit curious nonetheless, I respect the work, and it bodes well that he won a GG!
The first performance i saw of Monty’s was "My Ass Your Face" and I just thought: that’s great. The next time I saw him perform he was burning some books and a bunch of little kids in the audience began to help him and I thought: that’s great too. It all almost made sense (that’s great too). Amen for Amen!
i saw the "my ass in your face" performance too. i don’t remember my reaction, so much as his bum. not that there was anything of note about it, just that it was hovering somewhere around my visual line of sight.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040311/RUSSELL11/Columnists/Columnist?author=Russell+Smith