Saturday, September 30, 2006

Nuit Blanche (9) Ennis College

Cinema Se Soir.
They got some wierd arthouse films playing.

The Apotheosis of the Shadow

This is @ the Bata Shoe Mueseum.
You can learn about the artist, Mario Martinelli, and his work of capturing people's shadows all over the world here.

iIlluminated Truck

The artist is playing with unexpected sources of lights here. They are
red glowing suitcases inside the cabin of a old, white abandoned truck
outside of a furniture store.

Wired coffee man

I don't know who did this. No sign. But very neat.

A bunch of galleries

These are some of the shows I don't have time to investigate on WQW

Isn't she cute?

Free hugs!

Intermisso

Taking a break.
Having breakfast @ Friendly's.

Nuit Blanche (8) - Spin Gallery

This is by far one of my fav for the night.

The whole exhibits theme is history. Mostly related to Canada.

When I thought first ascended the stairs to the gallery, I thought I was
doing a different sort of ascending. Bonnie Devine's "Tree Standing in
Water: Cedar, Pine, Spruce" filled the room with willowy, dreamy music.

I rather like John Abraham's two works "Iceberg" (a giant iceberg like
those I used to see in the Narrows as a kid) and "Battles of the Plains
of Abraham" which had a grotesque danse macabre feeling to it.

Speaking of death, my absolute favorite work has to be "A Collection of
Skulls," it's a collection of paper mache skulls mounted on the wall.
Very stark. Powerful.

Nuit Blanche (7) Royal Carwash

This is sort of interesting.
Rebecca Belmore and Osvaldo Yoro designed a memorial for Neil
Stonechild.

It's an ice sculpture with each block spelling out one letter of Neil's
last name.

It's kind of plain to me, but everybody seems to love it. Especially
kids. They all want to touch it.

A brief interlude - Engine Gallery

They're not official part of Nuit Blanche but nevertheless has an
exhibit on by Steve Nederveen.

Boy, am I totally NOT disappointed about going in. The Tao Te Ching
inspired collection was a in the form of tradional Chinese landscape
paintings set to modern techniques and materials. Acrylic, photo
transfers, gold foil, resin on wood panels.

Nuit Blanche (6) - W Lofts

Much like the Bhemian Embassy, W Lofts ($990 / Month) also is doing a
show tonight. "Cinderrela Story" are about Cuban Familes living in the
old fortifications around Havana. It's neat. But it does kind of
resembles slideshow pictures of somebody's family vacation.....

Nuit Blanche (5) - Drake Hotel

I can't actually get in here. Everybody seems to have VIP reservations.

But I did get a picture of the guy controlling the light projection show
from the bus shelter.

Nuit Blanche (4) - Queen's Car Wash

Instead of poping in loonies for 5 minutes of suction, the Queen's Car
Wash has been converted to four mini movie screening rooms. The artist,
Dana Claxto, has four movies exploring First Nation relations.

They are kind of weird.

Nuit Blanche (3) - Bohemian Embassy

Baywood Homes, the people who are about to build condos starting at
$159,000 are also putting out an exhibit.

I don't know what it is. It looks like some kind of Soviet Agitprop
mixed with 80's punk.

Nuit Blache (2) - The Gladestone

The Gladestone is my Second Venue and there are so much stuff happening
right now, and later.

Really, The Gladestone has enough events for me to devote the whole
night, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.

The number of works here, the many, varied shows, the weird-ass people
happening is astonishing. It really cement the Gladestone as the premier
hipster venue for the city.

Gordon Becker's "Blue Dancer" is just a marvel.