John and I went out to Toronto's Nuit Blanche last night. Of course, we did our kind of "all ages" version, that is, we were on the streets by sundown. Two and a half hours later we returned to our lair. We started at Yorkville at Mr Monkman's pulsing boulder. For us a nice touch was a young fellow watering the stone with a garden hose. Above, we see the origami spheres, "Wasabi-Sabi made by the Unincorporated Artists Collective for the Bata Shoe Museum.
This was an installation in the cloister of Hart House featuring a few ice-fishing buildings set atop a floor of ice blocks. We liked the beer-drinking guys who inhabited the installation. Hart House also offered our personal favourite piece in this year's night of art. It was Marina Abromavic's "Imponderalia". Two nude people stand on either side of a narrow doorway making it necessary for viewers to squeeze past them to leave the space. Living caryatids. We loved our couple. We thought someone had come up with a lovely pairing. Both short and slender; she with the perky breasts, he with a perky penis. Interesting to slide past them. I kept thinking, "Oh, I don't want my dirty jacket to rub against their lovely, lithe bodies. John says he said, "Pardon me!"
We walked down past OCAD and on to City Hall to see Daniel Lanois' installation: Later That Night at the Drive-In, a sound and video installation. Fun fluff. Photogenic!
Thats the Canada Permanent building on University Avenue in the background with its weather tower and the City Hall reflective pool doing what it does best.
One musical interlude was accompanied by a video of a fantastically, talented show dancer. Brazilian, I'd like to think. John caught these local photographers documenting it.
That was our wander. 2 1/2 hours. I think the people-watching is worth the price of admission. And Nuit Blanche is free!
I really find Nuit Blanche hit or miss, and lately it has been mostly miss.
ReplyDeleteFF