Exit Exams/Laurent Pilon

This week and next week (inc. this coming Saturday) I am marking CEGEP English Exit exams all day with about fifty other markers at Dawson College here in Montreal. (These are essay-type exams that test English competency for students graduating from the system of preuniversity colleges here in Quebec.) I come home quite wiped after six hours of desciphering. Here I get the unparalleled opportunity to read, in scawly handwriting, gems like "The Author use description to force the reader to consider the narrative from the most important caracter point of view." (sic!!) There are exactly 4,611 exams to mark in all; each exam is marked twice, and in the interests of fairness, the markers get together to consult on their independently determined scores, in order to arrive at an eventual consensus. The consultations can be fun, although reconsidering such gems can be... well... a special form of masochistic entertainment. (Thankfully, there are some good essays in the bunch...)

On a more inspiring note, last night I went out with Jocelyne to La musee d'art contemporain to see an exhibit of sculptures by Laurent Pilon, one of Quebec's finest contemporary sculptors: large, "organic" plexiglass resin/fibreglass forms having a monumental quality that reminds me of Henry Moore... the link here doesn't do it justice, as the scuptures (including the ones pictured) are bright orange, pink, earthy brown . This superb exhibit was well worth the lengthy wait at the coat check at closing time (the gallery is free on Wed evenings, so crowded with all the artists who otherwise couldn't afford the admission)...

Perhaps on Sunday I'll get back to our Organic/Inorganic poetry debate... if not, it will have to go to the following week... in the meantime, I leave you those "organic" inorganic scuptures...