MiKE: Nuit Blanche

So Toronto copied Paris and some other European cities, in having "a free all night contemporary art thing" (so it says in the Nuit Blanche blurb) on the first weekend of October. From 7:03 pm (Don't ask me the significance of that) till the next morning, many art galleries venues would be open for guests to come in and take in the art. And there was a crowd. Everywhere!

I met Erica and Federico at 9:30pm, as they had reservations to go up CN Tower at 1 am. I had initially declined their invitation to go, so I did not have any reservations, but it eventually turned out alright - I put my name of the wait list and was able to get up 30 minutes after them. Art was everywhere downtown, centred on several zones, one of which was actually the University of Toronto, where we were, and then, at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD). I'll let the pictures help me tell the story:

As I mentioned, we started at the U of T, this is near Hart House (the large student recreation and activity centre) looking south. CN Tower forms the focus for many pieces of architecture around the city - you'd see lanes like this aligned toward it.

No, I did not have a religious conversion. Just found the texture of the bricks sticking out in the side of this cathedral quite pretty. By this time, we were just idly walking around town, headed in the general direction of CN Tower. We passed this cathedral on McCaul Street, walking south, in the direction of OCAD (but we did not know we were headed there).

Another shot of the cathedral, this time the doors, which look very much like it could have been used in the shooting of Batman or something - you know, the final scene where Batman has the Joker trapped in the cathedral, and something bad is going to happen. Anyway, imposing stairs and doors. Nice.

A shot looking south along McCaul street, with the OCAD building in the foreground and CN further back. It's a very interesting building: an entire floor (more? dunno - did not go up) suspended on its corners. And i think it got some kind of special lighting just for that night. As you can see (or maybe not), the streets were pretty crowded, and there was a real carnival atmosphere.

We went inside to have a look at the art being created. It seems like it was an open house of sorts, I think part of it was in the interest of recruitment of students, actually. Here is the textile workshop - they are working on silk screening.

And this is the metal jewellery workshop, where, according to the guides, some of the 2nd years were working on a copper solder project, and the 3rd year students on a silver ring project.

Walked out of this workshop, and on the hallway, we saw something rather bizarre, that led us to question if we were at an art school or museum. On the display case, there were a few artifacts; rather innocuous, but upon closer examination, were actually historical copper cervical caps, a copper IUD (which looked nasty, by the way, in the sense that it looked like it could cause real pain), and the used sheepskin condom of Giovanni Giacomo Casanova. Apparently, it had been used, and washed, and re-used, and, uh, hung up for all to see now. Weird.

Interesting exhibit, don't you think? A bricked up doorframe, some pieces hacked off with a sledgehammer, and chalked up writing declaring "no art here" (move along now, nothing to see). You see, I like 'clever' pieces like this, where there is a joke/ hidden message behind the art piece.

We went next to the ceramics studio, which organized a throw-a-thon: they were throwing clay the whole evening from 7 to midnight or something - and apparently quite a few pieces were done, including a HUGE flower pot like , err, thing. You can see below that visitors were also welcome to try their hand at throwing clay - the people with no aprons/overalls were visitors.




Then we went into the main gallery, and looked around. You can see I am no huge art fan. To me, the social phenomena of people going around appreciating the art is of more interest than the art pieces; well, for some of the pieces at least...

Except for these few. This one caught my eye because it looked like really old parchment paper. If you look closely enough (and i hope the camera and compression leaves enough detail), you'd find what this is actually made of - used coffee filters!

And this one. Nothing special about the materials, I think. The message is quite intriguing to me. What do you think the message is?

The main entrance lobby of OCAD. They had this eerie red lighting cast up the walls reflecting into the lobby.

Then we left the OCAD building, and walked on to Grange park, where we saw the source of the light beams that had shot long, distinctive shafts of light into the night sky (read: Toronto air sucks). I am not sure, but this light must have had a power rating of several kilowatts. These beams were visible from a great distance, and I guess it was a very effective means of advertising the locations of the exhibition zones.

Then we stumbled onto a gallery which was closed, but through the window, we saw this aluminium foil corn field-let. Once again, I wonder what the meaning of this is. Yes, I know, sometimes art need not have meaning - it is all down to what it moves one to feel at the point in time. But I'd be the first to say that I am not particularly happy with that interpretation.

We walked on some more, till we got to University Avenue. If you are wondering why there are so many shots of the CN Tower, I guess I was carried away by the idea planted on the Nuit Blanche website - to take pictures of the tower from all over downtown, and also from up the tower.

Another shot at the same location, this time with a portrait orientation. The tower was actually being lit up by very interesting architectural lighting; when I saw it close up, I found out that it was actually high power LED lighting panels all over the tower, synchronised by some central controlling device, which painted the tower with lights to make it look as if a beam of coloured light was running up the tower, and round the circular viewing stage. And since they had R/G/B LED panels, they could make the tower appear in any colour they wanted, and they did.
Another shot of CN tower (if you can find it!) This one along Front Street, the business district. It is not for no reason that Hollywood loves to shoot films in Toronto, especially shots which need a city skyline. It's beautiful, it's nearby, the city is (largely) cooperative, and it is cheaper due to the exchange rate (not at this time at least), and cheaper to rent - definitely cheaper than New York at any rate. Oh, and apparently, the Hulk was being filmed all over Toronto in August, including the U of T. Did I see any stars? Do you think I care?!?

A shot of the city, looking North West from CN Tower. These images are quite magical to me; containing a feeling of flying and floating - I am always reminded of aircraft landing approaches near to town when I see images like this; although, of course, if I were in a real airplane, I'd really hate to see the city centre so closeup (cos it means we're due for a rough landing - or are there actually cities out there so close to airports? Kai Tak?)

Another one. This one looking north. You have just to take my word for it, or have some idea of the city geography to know that OCAD is in the picture, and if you look closely enough, the U of T St. George campus (where we were), St. George Street, and Spadina Avenue, where I stay. Unfortunately, there is not enough resolution to make out my apartment block. This shot was taken by resting the camera right up against the glass of the window.

Another shot, north facing again, with the similar view as the one above, except that this one has the camera resting on a tripod, and pointed downward, so you see a lot of the city below and near the tower. This and the last photo are presented here in full resolution, so I would recommend opening it in its full resolution to have a look. Really, it's pretty.

A shot facing east. Again, this one is full resolution.

And then we went back. By the time we were done, and I said goodbye to the couple near the International Student Centre, it was about 2:40 am or so. I made it back home at about 3:10, and then got to sleep at nearly 4, thinking about the night. Given that the CN tower had free admission overnight, all the way till 7 am the next morning, I guess it would have been ideal to have gone there at dawn to capture the sunrise. Well, some people did, I saw the images, and unfortunately, it was foggy.