Night At Nuit Blanche

I think for this posting I can't be creative, expressive, or create some sort of narrative to describe my experience. Well I could but it wouldn't be as much of a narrative as it would be more critical. So that is the angle I will take for this posting I will just narrate my night and be very critical of the show.

I decided to experience Nuit Blanche with my girlfriend, mainly because she was my ride and she can get great discounts at hotels (I am only kidding). We left early in the afternoon so we could get to Toronto at a decent time, check in, and relax for a few hours before we went out and tackled the exhibit. Once settled in the hotel we sat and tried to map out some sort of agenda for the night so we could have a game plan for the night (this turned out to be useless). So once we thought we were all prepared for the night we went out for Thai food and stocked up on energy for our night of walking. After dinner we went out into the streets and just started walking. I was excited to see as much as possible that night and I felt like I would be able to walk until the morning, but once we started walking it just wasn’t anything I was expecting. I was hoping to see a lot of art and just any art but interesting art, enjoyable art. I was at least expecting to see something that I really liked. I am not going to say that there was nothing at all that appealed to me, because there were quite a few interesting pieces, its just I went to sleep feeling unsatisfied like what I wanted to see was not there. Also because there was so much to see I just felt rushed to do as much as possible and not really stop and just take some of the work in. Not to mention the amount of walking and how far apart each exhibit was from each other. There were some clusters of works and galleries but for the most part there were times when we would have walked blocks and blocks and no work anywhere near. As an improvement for next year things need to be closer together, streets need to be closed down and every gallery, exhibit, instillation etc. should be well labeled and in a place that is extremely visible and easy to read. This a massive event for the art world in Ontario so it should be organized so that everyone can have the time and ability to be able to see everything if they wanted. The way it is set up now makes it impossible to experience everything. Now that I have gotten all the complaints off my chest I am going to comment on one piece that I really enjoyed and was happy that I got to see it. My girlfriend and I stumbled on it as we were searching for something else and it was a great find. It was an installation piece called Detail of Crop, 2007 by Andrew Wait.

Detail of Crop was not labeled in the little Nuit Blanche handbook, but we found it on our way to see Midnight Mirage. Which is another reason why I was not happy with Nuit Blanche, many of the work was not highlighted in the booklet. What else was left out? What else did I have no idea was there? Why leave that out of the brochure? Is this art not as important as the others? If anything this work was better than the majority of what was being advertised in the booklet. The booklet was just one big let down after another. I will complement them on how well then hyped up each piece in the booklet. They made all the exhibits seem like they were worth seeing in the book, but once you got to a piece the majority of the time you were let down. Alright now that I have gotten off topic I should go back to explaining what I liked. There was something about this piece that just made me enjoy it. I have no idea what it was but looking at it caused me to become engulfed in the work. My mind was full of questions and all I wanted to do was stare at this crop behind glass. I wanted to walk through it; I wanted to know how and why he did this and most importantly why it was not included in the information booklet. I am not into trying to find meaning in the work as much as I am in to just being told what the point of a piece is.

Nuit Blanche was not all bad. I was with my girlfriend and I was just nice to be able to spend the weekend with her. As for the actual exhibit there would need to be significant changes for me to want to go again.