Ballz Montreal
Zine, 40 pgs, BallzMontreal.com, [email protected]
Ballz Montreal (BMTL) is a scattered snapshot of modern life and confusion in Canada’s second largest city. It looks like a playbill but the content is definitely not orderly. This doesn’t play things safe at any point. Instead, it’s micro-statements and found visuals that exposit on certain themes in certain ways. Many of the biggest surnames on the planet (Trump, Musk, Putin) appear. No clear shots taken but plenty of angular language, splattered. Font sizes vary. Images (and tweets) are literally cut, pasted and copied. A pretty kick-ass listing of 1990’s hip-hop hits acts as an intermission halfway through.
Then, it’s back to the jagged poetry and scrappy scrapbook stuff. There’s probably a political undercurrent to this entire zine but lack of narrative leaves that decision up to the reader. Possibly, photos of Canadian VIPs Peter Mansbridge and (a young) David Suzuki might help the reader get on-course a bit. But that said, it’s not a bad thing to get loopy once in a while. In the spirit of this statement, BMTL is a worthy art-as-trash project and one that is probably worth trying to decode. (Cam Gordon)