With over 100 art projects, Nuit Blanche hit Toronto with full force this past weekend! Running from sunset on Saturday to sunrise on Sunday, the elaborate outdoor exhibit featured 67 independent projects produced by Toronto’s art community and three curated exhibitions featuring 44 projects. Being this event’s eighth year in a row running, more than a million people attended this excellent display of art year after year.
This photoessay will highlight just a small percent of projects that were featured in Nuit Blanche 2013. To anyone who is intrigued in these unique pieces of art, I strongly recommend attending Nuit Blanche 2014 for a eye-opening experience!
From the Exhibition, “Off to a flying start”
Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei
This 3D sculpture of 3,144 bicycles creates an amazing labyrinth-like effect.
Plastic Bags by Pascale Marthine Tayou
This sculpture made entirely of plastic bags symbolizes how society has become consumed with buying. It also shows a politically correct way to turn waste into art.
From the Exhibition, “PARADE”
Queen of the Parade by Lisa Anita Wegner and Vanessa Lee Wishart
This 20-foot depiction of a parade queen challenges art viewers to think about femininity.
Ferris Wheel by Katharine Harvey
This sculpture returns PARADE to simpler roots with a steel structure and LED lights, while still giving away a sense of celebration.
Music Box by John Dickson
This unique, cuckobird-like sound sculpture adds a surreal atmosphere to PARADE with its eerie carnival music.
PARALLAX by Idea Tank Design Collective
This float uses light to show movement through horizontally stacked tubes of different lengths.
Rumbling Drumlins by AGATHOM Co.
This float creates a sense of wonder to the viewer and makes them ask questions about the art and design.
From the Exhibition, “Romancing the Anthropocene”
The Anthropocene by CALEDONIA DANCE CURRY A.K.A. SWOON
This creepy installation is made out of wheat pasted paper cut outs and takes inspiration from folk art, historic sources, German Expressionism, and Indonesian shadow puppets.
Mariner 9 by Kelly Richardson
This eerie video depicts a Martian landscape hundreds of years from now. It shows an abandoned planet with a few spacecrafts still search for signs of life that report back to no one.
Pink Punch v.2 by Polymetis, Michaela MacLeod, and Nicholas Croft
This glowing garden’s mission is to lure visitors off the streets with it’s bright colour and draw importance to trees in urban settings.
Shrine by John Notten
Symbolically unclean and yet ironically beautiful, this sculpture is made out of garbage bins and shaped into a Gothic Cathedral. It aims to make the viewer second guess faith, institution, and idols we revere.
From the Independents
Clothesline Canopy by Sherri Newman, Tara Gaskin, Kristiana Schuhmann, Zack Eisenstein, Selen Levi, Megan Carroll, Sam Bruegger, and William Vachon
This strange exhibition of 5,000 strung up socks represents those without adequate housing in Toronto.
Related articles
- Nuit Blanche 2013 at The Knit Cafe (torontoknitcafe.wordpress.com)
shannon writes... 