Nuit Blanche 2007 was actually something I was looking forward to in the days preceding. Unfortunately when the day actually arrived I had the beginnings of a flu that completely dampened my experience. Looking at Both Jenn and Alicia’s posts made me realize that I may have missed out on a lot of what Nuit Blanche had to offer. Nonetheless, I still made my rounds to a few of the venues (half of the time without an actual map) before calling it a night.
I too started along Church and experienced the same things Alicia did, only separately. The Bride holding the lamb was one of the first aspects of Nuit Blanche I witnessed, which at first scared me into thinking that a lot of what I was going to see that night might actually be trivial shock art. Fortunately, as I made my way down the street I realized there was much more going on.
Going back to the women with the lamb, I actually do think it needed a context to at least narrow a sense of concept. Though I do agree with Alicia that it might take away from its overall effectiveness, I still believe the artist’s intent is just as important as public interpretation. Especially given that the venue was such an open form directly for the masses.
I also went from Church to the Conrad Development Group installation by Sara Garham and while I thought the piece was interesting, I was not impressed with the fact that its end purpose was to sell and bring attention the property. I mean even the positioning of the piece farer emphasized the architectural beauty. I was just hoping to experience the art and not a sale pitch.
Afterwards I viewed the String of Diamonds installation at Trinity College Field. As it is true that the piece was not as successful as it was intended, I still think it was a really nice attempt. Form what I understand they had issues with theft and damage but I suppose that is some of the risks of producing public art.
(photograph from www.newmindspace.com/)
I then made my way to Heart House to see Night School which was completely packed to the point that we could hardly move or see anything.[ Though one pro was that I finally got a map!] Although before going to Night School I stopped off at Diaspora Dialogues & The Word On The Street in Queens Park which may have actually been the most interactive venue I visited. From what I saw between the massive crowd, people were going up and writing something that was being projected onto the upper walls of the tent. Unfortunately I was too far back to actually read what was being written.
So, a short transit ride later I found my sick self at 401 Richmond where there were a number of interesting things going on, both inside and out of the building. It was nice because it had its usual open gallery feel and it allowed people to discover the space on their own. My favourite part would have to be the area used to screen old sepia/black and white movies from around the 1920 or so. I am a big fan of the time periods so I really enjoyed being invited to view some of these films in such an open and relaxed environment. It was nice because it wasn’t trying to hard to say anything or be “art” it was just a nice attempt at escapism.
In the end, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to fully experience Nuit Blanche the way I had imagined it, but I figure there is always next year.
2 comments:
Oh no. It's too bad you got sick. Atleast it wasn't raining like it apparently did last year.
I forgot to mention that I also visited Diaspora Dialogues & The Word On The Street in Queens Park. It was an interesting concept but didn't hold my interest long enough to handle putting up with the large crowd for any length of time.
Did you happen to pass those empty tents leading up to and stretching all along Queen's Park? I think they were for some sort of book sale of sorts that possibly went on during the day. They were just so misleading and were actually the cause of us walking large distances for just that one art piece. When we saw the tents from a distance we assumed there would be things underneath them. It was extremely frustrating. This definitely could have been handled better since there were a lot of other clueless wanderers likely equally as frustrated!
Who is the artist who did the sculptural landscape of Toronto out of fabric and where was that shown? I've definitely seen that piece somewhere before.
Impressively enough, you were sick and still happened to visit a lot of cool sights at Nuit Blanche.
I really like the fabric sculpture of the Toronto skyline. Too bad, I didn't have a chance to see it in person.
It looks like you still had a lot of fun though, despite being ill.
And Alicia makes a good point, at least it wasn't raining like last year.
The rain would've made things worse, and then how would you ever get better?!
Post a Comment