Almost But Not Quite Revenant

Found in Canada's Globe & Mail:

Brendan Flanagan at Angell Gallery

$2,000-$12,000. Until Oct. 10, 890 Queen St. W., Toronto; 416-530-0444

The title of painter Brendan Flanagan's new exhibition, now at Toronto's Angell Gallery, is Revenant - a word, that, despite its wide use in popular culture, I nevertheless had to look up. One quick Google, however, reveals that the word primarily means "a folkloric corpse that returns from the grave."

Revenant is apparently also a comic horror film, a video game, a record label, a character in some other video game called Soul Calibur III, a comic book (2000-08), and the title of the 13th episode of a TV series called Legend of the Seeker.

So along comes this young, Toronto-based painter (Flanagan is 26) and, fuelled by the clattering, oozing, gibbering throng of the zombie-esque, walking-dead just over his shoulder, proceeds to paint these hectic, disturbing, chromatically shrieky paintings...

(Kippah tip: SL)

Now, as you of you know, a revenant is someone who returns to his/her ancestral home after a long absence. That's the true primary definition:


rev·e·nant: (rĕv'ə-nənt)
1. One that returns after a lengthy absence.

rev·e·nant (rv-nnt)
n.
1. One that returns after a lengthy absence.

rev·enant (rev′ə nənt)
noun
a person who returns, as after a long absence

And being in Canada, he could find the word used in this March 16, 1999 judgment of a Supreme Court case and there's no ghost there:

27291 - CITY OF SEPT‑ÎLES v. CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 2589, LABOUR COURT, 2862‑3775 QUÉBEC INC. AND SERVICES SANITAIRES DU ST‑LAURENT INC.

Droit du travail ‑ Droit administratif - Accréditation - Contrôle judiciaire - Concession partielle d’une entreprise - Entretien ménager - Transmission des droits et obligations selon l’art. 45 du Code du travail, L.R.Q. 1977, ch. C-27 - Rétrocession et concessions successives d’entreprise - Transfert de l’accréditation visant les employés affectés à l’entretien ménager lors d’une première concession d’entreprise par Ivanhoe inc., conformément à l’art. 45 - Fin du contrat - Ivanhoe confiant ensuite à quatre nouveaux entrepreneurs l’entretien ménager - La Cour d’appel a-t-elle erré en refusant d’intervenir pour casser les décisions des instances inférieures qui ont conclu à l’application de l’art. 45 à des contrats de fourniture de services, revenant ainsi à la notion fonctionnelle de l’entreprise qui avait été rejetée dans U.E.S., local 298 c. Bibeault, [1988] 2 R.C.S. 1048, et dans Lester (W.W.)(1978) Ltd. c. Association unie des compagnons et apprentis de l’industrie de la plomberie et de la tuyauterie, section locale 740, [1990] 3 R.C.S. 644...

[Labor law - Administrative law - Certification - Judicial review - Operation in part by another of an undertaking - Janitorial Services - Transfer of rights and obligations under s. 45 of the Labor Code, RSQ 1977, c. C-27 - Surrender and successive operation by others of an undertaking - Transfer of certification for janitorial employees under s. 45 when initially Ivanhoe operation of transferring to another undertaking - Termination of contract - then Ivanhoe Assigning janitorial services to four new contractors - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in Refusing to intervene and quash the lower court decisions holding that s. 45 applied to contracts for services, Thus returning to the functional concept of an undertaking, Which was dismissed in UES, Local 298 v. Bibeault, [1988] 2 SCR 1048, and Lester (WW ) (1978) Ltd.. v. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, Local 740, [1990] 3 SCR 644]

I refer you all to this post where I explain and insist that the meaning of revenant, of returning after a lenghty absence to a rightful legacy, should be applied to those Jews who have moved back into areas of their ancestral homeland, Judea and Samaria, the Golan and previously Gaza and other territories.