At times, the uglier aspects of ascendant foodie culture appear as a desperate desire to plug up a vast emptiness. Reflected in the thrusting knives and grimacing one-upmanship of competitive cooking shows, or the self-righteous castigation of a local co-op member over another’s choice of cheese, culinary acumen can often seem more a weapon than a means of sustenance or simple enjoyment.

The Montreal-based filmmaker and media artist Caroline Martel belongs to a vital artistic and critical tradition within Canada that actively engages with the history of technology and communications, a lineage that includes Marshall McLuhan, Hugh Kenner, and Glenn Gould.

The Born For cycle has been described by film scholar P. Adams Sitney as “one of the most important and original sequences in the American avant-garde.”

Some men, when they laugh, sound like geese hissing, others like grumbling goslings; some recall the sigh of woodland pigeons, or doves in their widowhood; others the hoot-owl; one an Indian rooster, another a peacock; others give out a peep-peep, like chicks.

James Esber and Jane Fine have shared a life together since 1986, and in the last several months, their partnership has entered a new phase with the birth of a new entity by the name of J. Fiber. On the occasion of the first exhibition of their collaborative work, which will be on view at Pierogi/Brooklyn until April 14, the videomaker and writer Jim Supanick paid a visit to the artists’ studios.