Okay, I didn’t really run into that many installations, but I did spend all Saturday night at Nuit Blanche thinking about art, who makes it, what is it and how it works.
We began at the Wychwood Barns, not one of the most heavily attended sites – at least compared to crazy Bay Street – where a film exhibition meditated on the meaning of immigration and industry. We walked up to the screen and stood alongside 40 people through the near 20-minute presentation. I’m always gobsmacked in these moments, when people show appreciation and pay so much attention .
Inside the barns, placed inside the organic garden, wired sculptures of bees changed colour in gorgeous ways and next door, in the main space, we walked along an installation of feather and painted wood chips not sure exactly what it was about. Then four dancers, one of them singing, emerged from one of the studios and did a full-out dance performance. I’m still not sure what it was about, but so what? What I loved about it was that, as they danced, people were drawn in to the space. By the time they were done, there were nearly 100 people there.
It was a venue characterized by a beautiful calm, distinguishing it from the rest of Nuit Blanche, which unfolds like a mammoth party. We’d decided to focus on the exhibitions on Bay and took a route via Massey Hall where’s we’d hoped to take in Gordon Monahan’s sound installation. No way. Art lovers were lined up from the entrance on Victoria all the way out to Yonge making for a 45-minute weight wait. We took a pass, though it’s worth noting that even among those in line the vibe was very good.
Over at City Hall, thousands of people just stood or wandered or went up to the ramps on the square’s perimeters – normally closed but open for the event – to take in the major light intallation there. Gotta tell you, it wasn’t much, but even so, it had its moments. When we arrived the word VAST shone from between the two towers and didn’t change for a while – until 10 pm when different four-letter words started flashing, words like FACE, HAND, DEAD, LIVE. As the words appeared you could hear the thousands of people saying them out loud, but softly, creating a haunting collective murmer. Exactly what interactive art at Nuit Blanche is about.
Trekking down Bay, we were amused by the carnival rides representing the ups and down of the economy and then breathed in the fumes of the Vodka Pool in Commerce Court, marvelling at the fact that thousands of people were allowed to roam the building lobby and were so spectacularly well-behaved.
We caught the last few seconds of Rebecca Belmore’s brilliant performance, pissed off that we’d missed one of the night’s high points. But that’s the way it was for us – just missing one thing, spending too much time at another, declining a 45-minute wait at Massey Hall.
But somehow, that didn’t matter. It was, no doubt, the least successful of all my years at Nuit Blanche.
But heading along Shuter on our way home, we saw about 10 people walking single file down the street, all wearing white jumpsuits, adorned with sparkles and lights. Great idea – turn yourselves into your own art installation and capture the spirit of the night.
As we walked into our house in the dead of night, there were still people streaming down our street to get to the Wychwood Barns.
Beautiful.[rssbreak]
What did you think?
