“It reminds me of a winery”: people try to explain the meanings of Nuit Blanche installations
“It reminds me of a winery”: people try to explain the meanings of Nuit Blanche installations
On Saturday, almost a million people flooded downtown Toronto for the all-night art crawl known as Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. In between navigating the crowds and filling up on food-truck snacks, some attendees were actually able to take in a few of the more than 120 contemporary-art installations on display. We asked onlookers—some in awe, others fighting off liquor-induced confusion—to try, in their own words, to explain the stuff they were looking at. Here’s what they had to say.
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- Gore Park hosted the <em>Planetterraeum</em>, a geodesic dome made by architecture students from the University of Waterloo. Live aerial imagery of Toronto was projected on the interior, and the live DJ blasting house music encouraged a mini dance party.
- (Image: Giordano Ciampini)
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Sean Ramsey<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 39<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Startup Founder<br /><br /> “I think it's a new take on our daily life. It's a look at the every day goings on—what's it like being in this bubble?”
- (Image: Giordano Ciampini)
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Sia Gee<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 29<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Musician<br /><br /> “It's about how people don't look up or down anymore—we are all lost in our own worlds. We just don't go after it anymore. So this installation is a new perspective. It's primal. But art is subjective, so who am I to say?”
- (Image: Giordano Ciampini)
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Peter Sermol<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 53<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Financial Advisor<br /><br /> “This one is brilliant—the design, the interior, the exterior, the vibrancy, the life!”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Daniel Samson</strong> and<strong> Paul Dhir</strong> created a life-sized version of the ancient Indian game Gyan Chauper (which was later reinvented as Snakes and Ladders). The point of the game is to teach children about the morality of right and wrong (if you cheat in the game, apparently you'll have bad karma).<br />
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Tanya Paradowski<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 21<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Piano Accompanist<br /><br /> “I guess it's about how unpredictable it is where you go in life. You have no idea what will happen to you.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Jordan Ratkouse<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 21<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Pilot<br /><br /> “You don't know what you want, but it happens anyway.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Jillian Beaulieu<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 35<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Lawyer<br /><br /> “It's about luck in life—life is what you roll and how those chances work to your advantage to overcome obstacles.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- The non-profit group <strong>Manifesto</strong> developed an installation called Graffiti Box Men. Artists were spray-painting boxes live, and break-dancers populated a small dance floor.<br />
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Brian Tong<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 28<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Talent Broker<br /><br /> “The first word that came to my mind was spirit. It's about encompassing a body—there's a spiritual aspect that's more molecular.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Judi Lopez<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 30<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Nonprofit Director<br /><br /> “I think it's about bringing together people from different walks of life and bringing the culture of graffiti into one solid place.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Emma Chadwick<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 48<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Writer<br /><br /> “You think it's a robot, but most of the graffiti on it is the antithesis of what a robot actually is.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Susan Hume-Smith<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 51<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Artist<br /><br /> “Well I think it represents an electronic person, and I think the snake eyes represent its soul.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <em>Walk Among Worlds</em> was created by Argentine artist <strong>Máximo Gonzáles</strong>, who used 7,000 beach ball globes (one for every million people on the planet) to create the impressive installation.<br />
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Bennett Sodel<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 21<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Student<br /><br /> “It reminds me of a winery, because it's green.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Maria Carmela<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 24<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Student<br /><br /> “It kind of represents our galaxy, and how connected everything is. It seems like a bunch of networks that make up the cosmos.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Raquel Genio<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 33<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Marketing Manager<br /><br /> “I think it represents how connected the countries are these days. With globalization we are much closer to one another.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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- <strong>Name:</strong> Negin Valizadeh<br /><br /> <strong>Age:</strong> 21<br /><br /> <strong>Profession:</strong> Interior Designer<br /><br /> “There are spots of blue that remain when the red lights turn on. To me, it represents gaps of hope in a world of chaos.”
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
- Nuit Blanche: people try to explain the installations
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