Nuit Blanche 2009 Photo Book

8/9/2019 Nuit Blanche 2009 Photo Book

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1 ...................About Nb

2 ...................DesigN PhilosoPhy

3 ...................FuN sliDe

5 ...................the City

7 ...................the APology ProjeCt

9 ...................WitChes CrADles

11..................resCue bubble

13..................goNe iNDiAN

15..................ghost Chorus

17..................souNDiNg sPACe

19..................rAbbit bAllooN

21..................immiNeNt DePArture

23..................AlieNAtioN

25..................VoDkA Pool

27..................sPeeD shiFt

29..................10 sCeNts

31..................beAutiFul light

33..................PWN the WAll

35..................CoNClusioN

36..................CreDits

inventory


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Nuit Blanche 2009a ree all-night comtemporary art thing

Nuit Blanche 2009, took place on the night o October 3. It looked

excellent this year. Perhaps more serious than past years, many o

the pieces were designed to make you consider the meaning o your

surroundings. With more perormance-based work than previous

years, there were many ways or getting you involved with the art.

For one sleepless night the city experienced a transormation by close

to 500 artists or Torontos ourth annual sunset to sunrise celebration

o contemporary art. Art was installed in galleries, museums ,and

other unexpected places; rom churches and grocery stores, to

chimney stacks and bus stations.

It was a night when even the iconic CN Tower became a piece o

installation art, seeming to bop and boogie with color and sound,

courtesy o the tunes supplied by CIUT Radio 89.5 FM. From dusk to

dawn, the ourth edition o Scotiabank Nuit Blanche eatured

12 hours o art, music and live perormance in 132 projects created by

more than 550 artists, local, national and international, supplementedby 459 volunteers. Nuit Blanche is both a high art event and a ree

community event that draws people out and into the streets o

Toronto to become part o a contemporary art phenomenon.

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Design Philosophycommunicating unreality

Nuit Blanche 2009 was an event eaturing highly abstract installations

inuenced by culturally and socially-rich meanings and symbolisms.

Following the photography phase o the project, I realized that I

would not succeed in communicating the essence o the event by

simply placing original images onto the page. No one image can

convey the multi-aceted conceptual nature intended by NB artists.

Following some reection, I decided that each spread will be separate

and unique, comprised o a collage rom various photos o eachart work. I would eventually supplement certain compositions with

illustrative elements, to enhance the ambiguity o my perception.

My approach is based not on pre-determined aesthetics or rigid

signature styles, rather, it grows naturally rom a quest or ideas,

thought, and answers. Designs are never imposed; they evolve rom

a rigorous inquiry into the particulars o composition, intended

messages, and the artistic style o the designer. They also represent

my determined belie that we can transorm problem-solving through

application o the creative method.

I eel that the fnal pieces o art in this book reect the mood I

experienced at the Nuit Blanche setting. The colorul, chaotic, blurry,

and indefnite study o the event constructively reects my outlook.


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Fun SlideThis ride reects the whirling, tilting

exhilaration o the bull market and its

less than thrilling collapse. Free to the

public and staed by recently downsized

businesspeople, the rides invite audience

members to kinetically contemplate the

ups and downs o the recent economic

crisis. Out o the darkened fnancial district,

screams will be heard!

Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan

Our promises o sweet nothings, I think, will be

more lling than the sweet nothings promised by

olks on Bay Street.

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The CITY

Yes the lines were too long, the streets too crowded,

and the TTC too packed. Almost a million Torontonians

spent Saturday night and the early hours o Sunday

morning scurrying around the city to experience wNuit

Blanche; lineups at almost all participating venues

oered a strong indication that NB had surpassed even

the most conservative audience estimates. Streets

were clogged with people experiencing everything

the strangeness this night had to oer. There was art

in car washes, art on outdoor billboards, art on street

corners and art in parks.

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Mayor David Miller

Im pleased and proud to have been able to be

part o the inaugural Nuit Blanche in Toronto. For

one exciting night Toronto became a city alive

with culture and buzzing with excitement. Nuit

Blanche really showcased Torontos proud and

vibrant arts scene. I look orward to many more

nights like this.


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The Apology Project

Fity-fve people will congest the entrance

o a tunnel while wearing brown paper bags

over their bodies and personally apologizingto everyone who walks through. I these

people were truthully sorry they would stop

obnoxiously congesting the tunnel and would

go home and sleep instead o being disruptive

or twelve hours. The piece exposes a double

image that makes you question the sincerity

behind the words I am sorry. Its also a tongue

and cheek reerence to the notion that Canadiansare overly apologetic.

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Maria Legault

Thinking about the nature o guilt and apology

and how we handle these as individuals and as

a society was what made me come up with this.

What does it mean to say we are sorry when it is

not accompanied by action?


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Tomer Diamant

I began to see pylons everywhere, to

notice how really ubiquitous they are.

Once you have a reason to notice them,

youd be shocked to see how many you

pass by every day, unclaimed pylonsthat have been abandoned for different

reasons. Theyre in the most public

spaces and yet theyre invisible.

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Rescue BubbleAs the humble oot soldiers o disposable

inrastructure, trafc pylons solicit an indierent

compliance in our daily navigations o the city.

Here however, hundreds are amassed into

a single glowing beacon o urgent concern.

This installation represents an attempt to link

imagery rom the world o Sci-Fi; that o the

solitary, ominous alien vanguard with our current

speculative economic reality in order to crystallizea eeling o a looming presence; a oreign,

spore-like organism at once amiliar and oreign,

promising and dangerous.


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Rebecca Belmore

Hell be dancing, and Ill be doing my own

thing, but I wont tell you what it is.

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Gone Ind ian

An artistically rezzed-up pickup truck that

drives slowly around downtown. Decked out in

traditional pow-wow regalia, the truck eatures

ongoing drumming and vocals, and a dancer that

erupts into action at unsuspecting moments.

Over the course o the night, the rhythms and

intonations o First Nations culture reverberate

against ofce buildings and re-territorialize the

fnancial district.


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Ghost Chorus

Against the auditory background o a looped

clip rom a track on the OMD album Dazzle

Ships (1983), a chorus o ghost-costumed

enchanters stands in a circle. Wearing sheets that

glow in the dark, they voice slang words long

dead, disused, or disavored in a gesture towards

reanimating them.

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Katie Bethune-Leamen

I really wanted do a piece that

glowed in the dark. The rest o the

elements o the work were taken

rom things I am working on right

now in my art practice, and the

parameters o NB itsel.


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Sounding Space

The north courtyard entrance o Scotia Plaza

transormed into an extraordinary, interactive

and collaborative musical instrument or NuitBlanche. Visitors touch, jump and play with

tiles, benches and planters to create music.

Covering 3500 square eet, the project alters the

space rom a place o serious fnancial business

into a musical playground. A space where you

can become the audience, the participant, and

the perormer.

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Karlen Chang

NB is not just discovering new art; it satises our deep thirst

or new ways to interact with each other. Were social

animals, online, at parties, and on our streets. Instead

o just being a passive audience we want new social

interactions that create meaningul experiences.


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Rabbit Balloon

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Je Koons

It comes rom my upbringing, I grew

up in south-central Pennsylvania, in a

rural community, and at special times o

the year, people would put things outin their ront yard or decoration, like

reindeer at Christmas time. In the spring,

around Easter time, there would be

rabbits, infatable rabbits. I was always

very struck by the generosity o the

neighbors in doing that, giving pleasure

to other people in that way.

It reects the needs o culture and society and can represent

so many dierent things to the viewer. In the looking glass

or through it, step right up and jump into this circle with the

hole in the middle and rise or all into a wonderland o your

own making. Its late, its late on this very magnifcent date.


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Imminent DEPARTURE

Lie-changing upheavals, whether caused by

personal, economic or historic events, serve as the

backdrop or this intervention in Torontos historic

terminus. The Great Hall o Union Station is the

arena or countless stories o last minute escapes,

lovers reunions, missed connections, riding the

rails, and uncertain arewells.

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Heather Nicol

I had lled the main hall with colour, shadow,

og and voices. People lay on the ground and

gave themselves up to their senses. This station,

which Ive rushed through a thousand times,

catching trains, leaving trains, became

de-amiliarized. Beautiul. Strange.


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Alienation

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Eugene Olin

Although this exhibit probably had a name,

meaning, and artist, this particular photograph

means something personal to me. The

composition contains a silhouette o a bicycle with

a gure whose back is turned away; the entire

scene is surrounded by red pylons. This reminds

me that sometimes humans become tired o the

ride and wish to take a break to nap on the side

o the road. Such individuals are isolated and

deemed social outcasts. Albert Einstein once said

Everything that is really great and inspiring

is created by the individual who can labour in

reedom. It seems the poor ellow in this shotgrew bored o the organization he works. On his

way home he decided to rest a while, becoming

alienated rom the cultural tradition.


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Vodka poolA pool o 80-proo alcohol with volatile and symbolic

qualities. Liquor and liquidity bear more than passing

associations to banks and money. Intoxicating, like the

euphoria o riches; evaporating, like the vanishing o

investments during economic downturns; alchemical,

like the transormation o use value into exchange

value. In black markets and other underground

economies, the connections are even more literal. During

wars and totalitarian regimes alcohol serves as both

an escape and a home-brewed currency or procuring

essential goods and services.

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Dan Mihaltianu

A key aspect o his practice concerns research into

liquids and their associations and unctions. From

the worlds oceans to nancial liquidity, rom political

transparency to liquor and ood culture.


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Erwin Redl

The ormal aspect o the works is

easily accessible. An interpretation and

understanding o this aspect is dependent upon

the viewers subjective reerences. Equally, the

various individuals interactions within the context

o the installation re-shape each viewers subjective

reerences and reveal a complex social phenomenon.

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Speed ShiftThe installation places two artifcial visual

realities, Minimal Art and advertising

billboards, in unmediated juxtaposition.

Consumer society made Oscar Wildes

aphorism Lie imitates art ar more than art

imitates Lie into Lie imitates commercials

ar more than commercials imitate Lie.

Advertising has taken over society.


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10 Scents

Public toilets are flled with unlikely materials

and scents, their aromas conjuring up landscapes,

characters and events rom Lewis Carrolls classicantasy and logic-twister Alices Adventures in

Wonderland. Rather than journeying down a

rabbit-hole, visitors engage in their own adventures

by just opening the door. Visual, textual, and olactory

clues may coalesce, or not, posing evocative sensory

conundrums to ponder and explore.

Chih-Chien Wang

Is it time already or dinner?

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D.A. Therrien

In Egyptian mythology, the god Taht (Apollo

in Greek) was represented as a beautiul

light and this light represented knowledgeitsel. In the Bible, angels are described as

beings o light, messengers o light.

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Beautiful light


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Beautiful light :

4 letter word machineThe 4 LETTER WORD MACHINE, the frst

installation in the BEAUTIFUL LIGHT series,

explores the purity o white light, the mystery

o language, the precision o digital codes and

the magic o 4 letters, A, C, G, T, representingthe DNA code, and consequently all known

lie describing both the observable physical

nature o consequently, all known lie.


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PWN the wallGrafti Research Lab, a cross-

Canadian collaborative team, is

debuting bombIR, which is an

inrared-LED equipped spray can

that allows writers to physically

paint with light. In the ongoing

battle between grafti artists and

those who revile their work as

visual pollution; painting with light

provides at least one nights respite.

Conclusion


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Conclusionfnal words

Much as attending the event, working on this book was exciting and

inspiring. While visiting the installations at NB, I was exposed to many

interesting people and their concepts. I saw many artists visions come

to lie in unusual, but successul ways. I consider this book to be my

own success. Although I used photographs o other art, I believe that

some part o me inherently exists in each composition. Whilst working

on each collage I attempted to interpret not only the intended

meaning o each installation, but augment it with its environment

and my own thoughts. I believe I succeeded in doing so.

At frst I was somewhat sceptical o the artistic integrity o Nuit

Blanche; based on previous experience. However ater the visit my

attitude changed completely. Many o the projects were incredibly

thoughtul and conceptual. Some were inspired by myth and history,

others touched upon serious social, political, and economic issues, yet

others seemed spontaneously abstract. I imagine that my creation

communicates the beauty, mystery, and certain chaos that I elt at the

overnight estival.

By taking such an atypical way o constructing this photography book,

I evolved as a graphic artist. I learned to meditate on the concept

beore delving into development and production. At the outset o the

project I was determined to express the essence o NB, and was able

to produce distinct spreads powerul on their own. Yet they sit very

well in a book ormat complementing one another and contributing

to the overall message. I am really proud o this work and aspire to be

challenged in such ways in the uture.

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Credits


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Creditsevgeny olin

To gather material or this book I attended the 2009 Nuit Blanche

estival, where I took photographs o several installations and the

downtown area o Toronto. I used my Nikon D90 DSLR camera to

capture numerous images o my encounters. Following the event,

I came upon the idea o communicating my experiences in collage

ormat. To enhance certain spreads I used my own drawings within

the compositions, made in Adobe Illustrator. The collage artworks

were shaped using Adobe Photoshop to combine and enhance

several photographs. Each spread is made to have a distinct character

within a continuous style used throughout the book. Certain

spreads have high contrast areas or an overwhelming eect, while

others are created on mid-tones; to preserve the academic theory

o environmental painting. The fnal spreads were combined using

Adobe Indesign, where I also added the typography.

This project was a wonderul experience; I not only increased my

technical knowledge o the sotware, but developed new ways o

discovering innovative solutions to design challenges. I would like tothank certain classmates who oered their critique and eedback. I

would also like to extend special gratitude or my design proessor

who presented us with the opportunity to work on this project and

was available or support and reerence.


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Documents

Nuit Blanche 2009 Photo Book