By Clea Haugo



"I am primarily examining the historic industrial buildings of Montréal and the Lachine Canal because it is my own environment; however these images are not exclusively specific to any region. They could exist anywhere."

By Clea Haugo



"These buildings are part of our urban history. They demonstrate how current day society depends on, and is simultaneously obsessed with, the façade and the beautiful image of a perfectly polished nail or condominium, whichever it may be."

By Clea Haugo



"I see buildings as individuals with personal expressions which are similar, in a way, to their human counterparts. I believe that spaces reflect the history of people who inhabit them."

By Clea Haugo



"The incongruous nature of these images where women are transplanted into scenes of industry allude to past and present notions of woman's relationship to consumerism, place and product."

By Clea Haugo


"I have always been fascinated with urban buildings such as factories, mills, train and shipyards, grain elevators and abandoned warehouses. These are not only large scale beautiful monuments in their abandoned state but are also the tired shells and remnants of lives lived. They represent prosperity and misfortune, war and industrialization, mass production and consumerism; the physical evidence of the move to urban centres."

Reading Montréal is pleased to present its first online exhibition: a series of works by Montréal-based artist Clea Haugo.

The exhibition features seven paintings from the series Win a Glorious Getaway to Factory No. 2! Depicting industrial buildings at once familiar and nameless, the works explore human relationships to architectural spaces. “The isolated factory,” writes Clea Haugo, “becomes an unlikely environment for the image of a carefree suburban housewife. The incongruous nature of these images where women are transplanted into scenes of factories, mills, train and ship yards, allude to past and present notions of woman’s relationship to consumerism, place, and product. The manufactured concept of the modern woman encounters the raw beauty of urban abandonment.”

Each painting is accompanied by commentary from Clea Haugo.

Taking in the Sun

"These industrial landscapes are fundamental icons of our cities. Imagine if one could view a place of industry, grain elevators for example, as a desired vacation destination."

"In the year 1923 there appeared in Paris a little volume on architecture that seemed written almost entirely in italics and capitals. "There exists a new spirit," it said. "A GREAT EPOCH HAS BEGUN." Its title was sweeping: Towards an Architecture -as though existing architecture did not merit the term. The book was signed by a brilliant, owlish young man who called himself Le Corbusier. Vain as he is, Le Corbusier himself would hardly claim to have invented modern architecture singlehanded, but his slim book and his later work to a large degree plotted its course. "Corbu's" personality and buildings have at times angered, shocked, outraged and offended people, but by the overwhelming vote of his colleagues everywhere, he is at 73 the most influential architect alive."



On May 5, 1961, Le Corbusier appeared on the cover of Time magazine in what was arguably mainstream acceptance, if not embrace, of his impact beyond the realm of architecture. In tribute to, and an extremely unscientific measure of, the architect's enduring influence, the following is a random sample of titles published since Vers une architecture first caused its ruckus in 1923.

Towards a Better understanding of the Consumer Price Index (1980)
Towards a (...read more...)

Last year, Voir newspaper launched a special insert on urbanism, architecture, design, and real estate called Voir la ville. In addition to articles on new projects, upcoming exhibitions, and local designers, the insert features an “open house” on a new condo development. The majority of advertisers are, naturally, developers and real estate agencies, and the insert is full of wide-angle shots of minimalist bedrooms and stainless-steel kitchens.

But this choice ad makes a weekly appearance. Unlike the other condo developments, from the “variations on a clone” school of design, the exposed brick and big windows of Loft Gen X emit cool, industrial toughness - a living space for the grunge-set. Those intrepid explorers who blazed a trail in plaid (and who, if www.loftgenx.com is to be believed, are apparently an advanced race of beings taller than their predecessors and more susceptible to the mental health benefits of exposure to daylight) are ripe for a little old-school loft living.

On closer inspection, however, Loft Gen X is not in fact the usual instant lifestyle conversion job, but a brand new building “inspired” by industrial architecture. The clever developers of the project have combined typical elements of industrial buildings such as large windows, (...read more...)