Arts
In Photos: Nuit Blanche in Liberty Village
I just wrapped up the first part of my Nuit Blanche in Liberty Village (the southwest part of Zone C). The area is still packed which kind of surprises me given it's not one of the more accessible neighbourhoods by foot or transit.
There's lots to see here beyond the "spoiler" I posted on Friday. At top is Purified by Fire, an installation by Matt Suib that has taken over a number of second and third story windows in the Liberty Market Building. It looks really sharp. All that's missing is a bit of smoke.
Not far away, at the back of the Liberty Towers Presentation Centre is Brian Joseph Davis's Original Soundtrack. The large, raw space is an ideal backdrop for the mashup of Scarface and other sounds from DVD's stuck at their "menu" stage.
South of Liberty on Pardee Avenue is one of the neighbourhood's many interactive installations. Jacob Dahlgren's I, the world, things, life is a huge wall of dartboards. I waited my turn to throw about a half dozen darts with, I think, about four of them hitting the mark.
Ruark Lewis' Euphemisms for the Intimate Enemy continues to draw a crowd outside Druxy's. Apparently it takes only five hundred and fifty 55 gallon drums to fully block the passage up Mowat Avenue past the Carpet Factory.
There are no ultimate games scheduled tonight for Lamport Stadium, but that hasn't stopped a bunch of tripped out mascots from flailing about as part of Jon Sasaki's I Promise It Will Always be This Way. All this is missing is some overpriced beer and hot dogs. And yeah, this is one of those performance pieces that just might provoke even a jaded BFA grad (not me) to pop the why is this art? question.
Since I'm a big fan of shipping containers, I especially enjoyed the sound and light show that is Brendan Fernandes' Future....Perfect. Who says photos can't be back lit?
Oh...and what else? There's a lot more to see here (as I write this there's still more than five hours until dawn) including Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace.
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Can't wait to hear friends' stories and see photos of the other zones as well.
Happy NB 2008!
How did the organizers think moving more exhibits into queen west/liberty village areas was a smart idea? The streetcar service in those areas is terrible on a NORMAL day. Did they think cutting the service in half and increasing the demand by 10 would go over well?
Next year, they should close streets like McCaul for pedestrians but other than the incredible number of drunk/puking people in the club district, I had a great time!
Also, biking is the way to go. Makes downtown shrink significantly.
i saw them drop an original Nintendo system and then go at it with sledgehammers...:s
Yes. It was my favourite. Mainly because I can relate... I like smashing stuff.
Last year's concentration on the Yorkville/UofT area is really the most ideal. It was comical to see hundreds of thousands of people filing through King's College circle this year hoping to find a repeat of the UFO spectacle, only to be greeted by an unlit empty lawn. Perhaps the organizers were playing a practical joke on all the rowdy drunk kids, or it was simply bad planning.
I was worried that Nuit Blanche would quickly become a victim of it's own success similar to the Taste of Danforth. But after this year's lack lustre performance I think the crowd will be smaller next year.
My favourite site I visited: Zombies In Condoland... although I wished they organized a mass Zombie attack on people, like in the movies, have participants gather in a large group, then walk around the site together attacking us!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomms/2915050275/
if you've never been downtown during [insert any festival/event], TTC is always busy and your feet are always the best vehicle. Bikes really just got in the way and I saw cops ticketing a few cyclists for breaking traffic rules (although really, everybody was!)
"Anyone who can't hoof this event really shouldn't come."
That's easy to say when you live in the downtown core. Move out to Scarborough or Etobicoke and I doubt you'll be saying the same thing. Aside from the TTC challenges faced downtown, try getting home when the subway only goes to Broadview and Christie and the blue night buses are few and far between.
I don't know about you, but walking from Liberty Village to Scarborough isn't my idea of fun.
What they really need to do in the future is stop relying on the TTC to move people around. They'll never get the amount of support they need. It's nice having the different neighbourhoods involved, but as the event starts spreading out it can complicate things. Keeping the zones closer together would make walking between them more reasonable. The effort required to get between zones really isn't the issue. The issue is the time it takes to get from place to place. Spending half the night traveling between locations tends to put a damper on the mood.
Wait for the zombie walk, much better time.
I agree with Librty being an awesome stop though
You missed the coconut!
And here's the "morning after": http://www.purple4mee.com/2008/10/sunday-stroll.html
Toronto became a community on one magical night thank you Scotia bank for supporting art and bringing it to us.