Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Televisualist: A Kinder, Gentler Televisualist
Transit City and Transit Cities
So, you're already choosing your outfit for this year's Nuit Blanche, right? Making predrink plans with your art buff besties? Getting extra sleep in advance—almost three months in advance? Google Mapping your routes and rendezvous points?
Um, right. But since the program for the third annual all-night art orgy was eagerly announced this morning, we thought we might as well tell you...that we are terrified. Seriously, we're pretty sure that (Scotiabank) Nuit Blanche 3.0 isn't a night of art viewing and partaking, oh no—it's a nightmare.
Skeptical? Believe this: hundreds of the undead will swarm College Park for a series of film shoots as part of Jillian McDonald's Zombies in Condoland. (Spectators are encouraged to dress up and play along, and makeup and costumes will be available on site.) Luis Jacob will fill Maple Leaf Gardens with the metallic echoes of robot voices droning on about the city, other people, and being in a world Without Persons. Meeky: The World's Strangest Little Boy, by Roy Kohn, is an appropriately bizarre multimedia shrine to a sideshow performer who disappeared in the late 1950s (go to MeekyIsHere.com, then tell us you think clowns are creepy). Liberty Village will be home to Shilpa Gupta's interactive video work Untitled (2005), in which participants guide the movements of seven camouflaged figures—a statement on chaos, violence, conformity, and (what else?) fear. Matt Suiv will simulate a building on fire (everyone's favourite way to die) by using seamless loops from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket as rear window projections. Poor, innocent books get torn up by Katherin L. Lannin for her House of Leaves, their innards used to paper a dark corridor, transforming it into a haunting cave (pictured above). And in Kelly Mark's Horroridor, viewers will pass through a long hallway surrounded by 20-foot visual and audio recordings of hundreds of people (well, horror movie actors) screaming bloody murder. No, we're not making this up. We like you better than that.
Order your free trial of California holy water, innocent citizens. Nuit Blanche is coming (on October 4, 2008, sunset to sunrise). We will, of course, have more about it soon.
Photo of Katherine L. Lannin's House of Leaves, courtesy of Nuit Blanche.
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i wonder what reasons torontoist will come up with for hating it this year?
well, Nuit Blanche was incredibly unspectacular last year. there were line-ups. there was so-so art (for the most part).
it felt more like a boozefest than an art festival.
last year's NB was indeed hate-worthy. it was great in concept, but weak in execution
Yeah, don't blame us, dude. We polled readers about last year's Nuit Blanche the day after it happened. 39% said it was "pretty lame, actually." (I'm of the "somewhat awesome" camp.)
Last year's Nuit Blanche was pretty lame, actually! Here's hoping for a better night of artsy shenanigans this year.
Seriously? A completely free all night art festival was "hate worthy" because of crowds and because the art wasn't up to your expectations? No offense, but I can't even comprehend that sentiment.
It was an awesome and 100% free event which in many cases solicited public participation.. of course there were going to be crowds! And personally, I found quite a few of the installations to be amazing.
My assumption is that the first one set the bar so high (admittedly I definitely liked the first one even more) that the second one looked bad in comparison, but I would still rate the second one as having been a blast.
I don't agree it was hate-worthy, but the enormous crowds made it impossible to see some of the installations/events, and some of same were pretty lame. People are allowed to dislike things that don't impress them, right?
"People are allowed to dislike things that don't impress them, right?"
I think your response to that would be "straw man is not a valid part of debate". :)
People are allowed to dislike anything they want, I don't care. I'm just saying that I personally don't understand someone having a negative opinion about something that to me seemed so electric.. Less favourable than the year before, sure, but negative? I just don't get it.
Oh my darlings, dont be a hater.
Last year we went out after 1 AM last year and had the city to ourselves - there were no lineups at 2 AM. We saw some great stuff, video in the Cadillac building, the hidden subway station at Bloor, this amazing kaleidescope project inside Hart House... dancers with radios in kensington. It was free, people were friendly and the bars were open late. DAMN FINE night. And free. Sure there was some hit n miss stuff too, but you get that everywhere. Come out with us this year, we'll show ya a good time. XO
james – Not intentionally a straw man, but it's what this sounds like to me: '"hate worthy" because [...] the art wasn't up to your expectations?'