Did you attend Nuit Blanche?
Being a fairly busy chap, I haven’t previously gone to Nuit Blanche. I don’t know why; I just didn’t make it, ever. Nuit Blanche started in 2006 when I was likely even busier. I bet a lot of folks have that same excuse, reason, or sidestep nature, but this year it changed for me. I was pleasantly surprised and sorry that I hadn’t attended more over the past 17 years. I am sure I have missed a lot of interesting artistic presentations.
Nuit Blanche is French for a “sleepless night”, which actually wasn’t true for me as I am far too old to stay up all night, but apparently, others do, so many establishments around Toronto stay open all night to accommodate the revelers until the wee hours of the morning. Nuit Blanche is an all-around Toronto event with lots of locations for the many artists who exhibit.
Contemporary art is the subject of Nuit Blanche, so from that point of view, one is viewing what is de rigueur in the Toronto art world. For example, bamboo seems to be the going thing these days. You can even buy tissues made from bamboo. A nice soft buff colour they are, and as far as I can tell, they have no dust exploding when they are taken from the package.
You may have seen in the past the fantastic scaffolding made from bamboo that is quite evident in Hong Kong. We have recently watched YouTube episodes where the ancient art of building indigenous homes with bamboo are magically there for you to see. There it was in the Scarborough Town Centre, more or less the centre, with the overhanging balcony, very large whimsical constructions all made from bamboo. We were suitably impressed, and they reminded me in part of Theo Jansen’s moving sculptures that wander along beaches in The Netherlands. They are made from electrical tubing and referred to as kinetic. A little bit of wind and away they go. The town centre sculptures didn’t move but they implied movement in their shapes and angles, which were in part somewhat alive in their nature. I predict that we are going to see a lot more bamboo rather than electrical tubes, but these were an interesting start brought to our attention by artist Leeroy New.
The first thing that struck me with interest was the entrance to the town centre where fabric patterns were displayed and explained. I hadn’t previously understood the knowledge that is required to comprehend these unique fabric patterns and how various communities relate to these fabric designs every day. It was enlightening, to say the least, and reminded me I should have started attending long ago. This particular piece was brought to us by Levyl-Alexander J. Love, but there were a number of others to see.
Onward to a corridor where a beautiful piece of poetry written by Par Nair to her mother was embroidered onto one of her mother’s Saris. We all need poetry in our lives and this piece was very touching and calming and something to seriously contemplate in our own lives.
Peter Marsh CSPWC OSA SCA TWS
1 Comments
Brad Burt
Thanks for the enjoyable stroll through your keen eyes and sharp observations. It reminded me of our long-ago strolls through the autumn woods up north where you’d point out things I never would have seen.
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