Gillman Auction on Saturday

If you’ve spent any time wandering up and down Duluth Street, you’ve probably spotted what you thought was a deserted store with a bright turquoise-green interior, frozen in time. The story is a little more complicated than that.

77 rue Duluth was owned by a certain Mr. Gillman, who was a fixture of the neighbourhood for many, many years. He supplied local businesses with wholesale goods and sundry sweets until a couple of years ago, when his health took a turn for the worse. He recently passed away and now his space is being transformed, but his memory lives on.

The new owner, Binky Holleran, will install the second incarnation of her Fuschia café in the space, but not before celebrating it with artistic interventions and a documentary about P. Gillman’s life (if you knew Mr. Gillman and have some memories to share, she invites you to drop by Fuschia Wednesday to Saturday between noon and seven, or drop a note in the mail slot). To help raise funds for this heritage do-gooding, Binky is hosting an auction of the curios left behind, such as the beautifully-package vintage Noxema product pictured below.

A couple of weeks ago, Montreal artist Sarah Wendt performed a contemporary dance piece/living installation of sorts to celebrate the space. After her final performance, there was a fund-raising event with music, of which I snapped a few photos (with my ISO-challenged camera). Click on the pics below for the respective photo sets. Il y a aussi un super compte-rendu écrit de la soirée, et de l’histoire derrière tout ça, ici.