My Nuit Blanche Experience!

Hey guys,

My experience at Nuit Blanche was pretty interesting. I was able to check out some different works within Zone A. Amongst the artists whose works I saw are Mircea Cantor, Sara Graham, Adrian Piper, and Sheridan’s own, and fabulous, Lisa Neighbor! A lot of the exhibitions were done collaboratively between artists, and some even included the general public.

We began at Church and Wellesley where performance art predominated, stretching across two city blocks. This group exhibition titled Nightless City was an interpretation of a red light district. This was probably my favorite part of the night.

The first thing we noticed as we walked into the area were two men dressed in uniforms who applied yellow tape, forming positive and negative signs on either side of the yellow road line. This aroused much discussion amongst me and my friends as we contemplated its meaning. We came to the conclusion that it must have been a statement about HIV and AIDS, shedding light upon its large scale and indirectly showing how this medical condition continues to be a relevant issue. The fact that the artists chose to apply these signs to the ground we walked on is a statement in itself, perhaps suggesting that we are insensitive or oblivious to the issue.

Red lights glowed everywhere. These towers displaying the title of the exhibition also blew foggy smoke and diffused a faint red glow across the area creating mood and ambiance.

“This Aint the Rosedale Library” was pretty interesting as well. In this piece, a gentleman seated at a computer was silhouetted in a shop window. The contents upon his computer screen were also projected on the window for audiences to read. Seats were set up in front of the window to seat viewers, indicating that it was a spectacle intended for viewing. It was interesting because although we couldn’t make out the man’s physical identity, we were able to read the ideas of his mind as he typed them out before us.

The most controversial and bold performance art piece done on Church Street was the bride holding a lamb. It took quite a few glimpses before finally realizing that this alien-like creature slung around this zombie-walking bride’s shoulders was indeed a real animal, dead and skinned, head still in tact. Because of the shock factor, this art piece dominates all memories that night. I do not believe in killing animals to make a statement, which is likely the reason why this piece infuriated me, but at the same time intrigued me. I wondered, what kind of statement was so important that it needed to take a life in order to be portrayed? My friends and I immediately understood that the sacrifice of the lamb within the context of the piece was a reference to the bible. It isn’t news that the Church/Wellesley region is known for its openness towards sexuality. The location alone in which this performance took place also fit the piece within a certain context; it implied that perhaps the bride was a wedded lesbian, refusing conformity to western religion, therefore sacrificing acceptance; or vice versa, that she was wedded in a heterosexual relationship denying her true sexuality as a lesbian woman. Because this work was so ambiguous, it excited me but also disgusted me. Some of my favorite works of art are those left open-ended. However, here, the idea that other audiences could have potentially totally bypassed the thought process, merely asking the rhetorical question “how is that art?”, made me feel uneasy. It made me feel as though others would interpret it as being art made for shock value alone. At the same time, if an explanation was somehow attached to this piece then the ambiguousness would all be gone, and I don’t think that would have made the piece better either.

We then ventured up to Charles Street where we saw Sarah Graham’s Canard Development Group and Mircea Cantor’s "Deeparture".

Graham’s conceptual installation was a very confusing piece. The mounted description stated that “CDG is an installation consisting of a mobile sales office in which the roof is suspended by large balloons”. This is a cool idea in theory, but if what I saw was the finished piece, it must to have been very symbolic! There WAS no hanging office. From what I saw, there were several orange balloons and string suspending a red tarp several feet above us. Though the shapes and colors didn’t coincide with the descriptive statement, they were interesting on their own nonetheless.

“Deeparture” was a projected film which took place in the Isabel Bader Theatre and was created by Mircea Cantor. The artist’s intent was to create an environment where the prey (deer) and the predator (wolf) could be put under surveillance. The work’s description suggests that the artist wanted her audience to be kept on their toes while the film shifted “between tension and ambivalence”. However, what I think most viewers were more interested in was the fact that both creatures appeared fairly tame and disinterested, and that the wolf didn’t choose to kill within the white-walled gallery setting. Here's a video:

We then headed over to Hart House and saw a lot of things that I could mention here. The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery held quite a few interesting visual art pieces, one of which is this light installation piece titled “I Really Should…”. Adrian Piper’s “Funk Lessons” was an interesting video where Piper taught specific funk dance moves. I took a video of the film to show how the audience's interaction but it's too big to upload!

The last things I want to talk about are Lisa Neighbor’s light installations. After being taught for several years by Lisa, I know that she is crazy about lights in artwork. Her Spiderweb light definitely added character to the entranceway and was a great way to light up the evening. The red street lamps she installed all around Hart House further emphasized a medieval appeal to the ancient architecture. I wish they would have photographed better though!

Now I have some speculations in light of the event in general. I think that Nuit Blanche is a fantastic way of getting the general public involved in art by pulling it out of a gallery setting. However, as an art student used to the traditional method of art-viewing, I found the extreme crowds and quick-paced quality of downtown Toronto to be quite distracting in the art-viewing process! Like Amish said in class, Nuit Blanche does require some advanced preparation. I don’t know about you guys, but I found my motivation dwindling and my feet getting sore after much aimless walking! I guess that if I want to last longer at Nuit Blanche I will definitely need to do more research and planning in advance so that I see more art at a shorter distance! A TTC day pass would also have been handy. Although this was Nuit Blanche’s second annual, it was my first time out. I now know better for next year!