Rating: NNN
NO OBJECTION TO ABJECTION is Pleasure Dome’s program of five powerful works by Donigan Cumming, a Montreal-based artist who makes videos about his poor, frail and disenfranchised friends and neighbours. The issue is whether Cumming is exploiting or helping these people. In My Dinner With Weegee, we meet retired professor Martin Corbin, an elderly alcoholic who can no longer take care of himself. Cumming listens to Corbin’s stories, drives him to the hospital to dry out, but also pushes the sickly man to examine his sad life. It’s the same with If Only I, in which Cumming introduces us to the ill and terribly depressed Colleen and her street saviour, Colin, who candidly reveal the desperation of their situation. Cumming wants us to see them in their natural state, but it’s an unintentionally uncomfortable experience. You find yourself vacillating between applauding his frankness and wishing he’d just leave these people alone. Cumming will be present to introduce his works. NNN (March 8, 8 pm, Cinecycle)
