Toronto’s annual Nuit Blanche festivities are all about setting art into motion, so that’s once again how we captured our white night on the town, with this gallery of animated GIFs.
Installation: Chase
Artist: Blaine Campbell; Megan Wilson. Canada.
The Reaction: The butler did it in the grand ballroom just off Commerce Court. Nevermind. People seemed to miss the point of Chase, but maybe that’s forgivable since description is such a mouthful: an outdoor video installation worshipping/mirroring/celebrating the ornate 1,000-pound Czechoslovakian crystal chandelier found in Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre. The projection operated in “an endless on-off cycle,” moving from light to dark, abstract to tangible, “with a multitude of crystal facets catching and refracting light in ever-changing patterns.” But the signage inadvertently, I think, cast a shadow on the Commerce Court wall, prompting audiences to begin experimenting with shadows and shapes, and effectively rendering the chandelier a prop. One moment it was an elaborate theatrical backdrop. Then, a crystallized quasi-moon in the distance. I say artists and audiences win either way.
Art or…: A game of Clue?
Overheard: “This is not about the shadows—it’s about the chandelier. My son did that.” —Love, Mom
Next: An all-night workout at the Gladstone
