Nuit Blanche 2017

Hey! I see it's been a while since I posted anything. I had an odd summer, let's say, and perhaps I'll chat about it another time.


For now, I wanted to let you know how my Nuit Blanche experience was this year. So, here we go:

At Nathan Phillips Square, the theme was "The Century of Revolutions," covering movements worldwide, from the Russian Revolution in 1917, up to recent times. The displays were in a series of shipping containers.
Before dark, I got this pic of the whole setup, from the southwest corner of NPS:

After dark, here's what it looked like, from the opposite direction:

Background left is a hot air balloon that took passengers up about 50-60 feet in the air.
It wasn't related to NB - it was a publicity thing for an alcoholic beverage.

There were many slogans like this painted on the sides of the shipping containers throughout the installation.
It covered many of the revolutions over the years (Cuba, China, the Arab Spring, etc), but also included newer or ongoing subjects, like racism and poverty.

This was an interesting booth, where people could choose a slogan, get it printed via a silkscreening process, and have it posted on the wall there.

I met with a friend this year, who had suggested we visit the installations at the Aga Khan Museum in Don Mills. I had never been there, and thought it was a good idea.
There were periodic shuttle buses to the museum from near the Gardiner Museum at the top of Queen's Park, so we quickly took in a few of the exhibits near Dundas St. West.

As part of a larger exhibit entitled Calculating Upon the Unforeseen, there were several installations, including this one, called Embassy.
It was essentially "a building under construction," with scaffolding inside, and people were encouraged to enter and climb around different levels:

Also part of this exhibit was this video installation, 1967: A People Kind of Place, sort of in tribute to Canada's sesquicentennial, of a project from our centennial year, 1967. It was kind of a satirical comment on Canada's immigration policy, where they built a mock landing pad in one of the western provinces for actual "aliens" to land.
Here's a bit of it:

And another piece of the exhibit was this more abstract video installation, entitled The Future is a Distorted Landscape, projected on the wall of a building near Dundas and Centre Streets:

Then, it was a scramble through Queen's Park (sadly, missing several installations there) to catch the shuttle bus just in the nick of time, and up to this amazing Modernist building, the Aga Khan Museum:

I'll take a minute to describe this remarkable place: It is a large plaza, with rows of evergreen trees everywhere, and several large, shallow reflecting pools. The two main buildings are the museum itself, and the Ismaili Centre. I was immediately taken with it, and would encourage anyone to visit, if only to wander the grounds!

The highlight of the visit, and indeed of the whole night, was this breathtaking video installation by Shahzia Sikander, entitled Disruption As Rapture. It was inspired by a manuscript from the 1700's, the Gulshan-i 'Ishq, and the installation seems to be a continually-morphing animation of some of the illustrations.
Here are a couple of videos I took of the piece. I found the piece profoundly moving, and I'm afraid these may not do it justice, but I hope some of its beauty comes across.
In the first video, I tried to shoot the piece, and its twin, in one of the reflecting pools, but it wasn't until I zoomed in that I could get the full effect. I'm leaving the entire thing intact, though, so you can see that reflecting pool, and perhaps make out the tiny coloured lights within it:

(That's the roof of the Ismaili Centre in the background)


This second video is focused more on the screen.
From the distance I was away, the camera picked up more of the crowd noise than the beautiful music that accompanied this piece, but I think some of it comes across anyway.

I couldn't leave the piece without taking more pictures of it. It lasted about 10 minutes, and ran on a continuous loop, so I could stick around until it restarted, and try to capture more.

There is a flight through the sky, possibly on some sort of "magic carpet":

A wedding ceremony, joining these two characters together in an ornate palace:

A multi-headed monster threatens them, but is beheaded by the hero (seen here at left, beginning to fade out as the picture changes):

Then, everything slowly changes, dissolving into a shimmering field of stars.

I was amazed and delighted by this installation, and know these videos and pictures don't do it justice, but hopefully, some of its awesomeness was captured for you.


During the night, we were allowed to see the exhibits in the museum itself, for a small donation. The museum is modest by, say, ROM standards, but still had many amazing pieces on display, including metalware, china, illuminated manuscripts (that were comparable to many European ones of the same period that I've seen), and much more. There was also an entire room of huge, hand-woven tapestries from different centuries, which took my breath away.

We were allowed to take pictures in the main gallery (sans flash), and I thought this ornate carved door-piece was very striking:

I also liked this helmet and shield, also very ornately decorated.
It occurs to me that this set must have been ceremonial; it would certainly be a shame for something so gorgeous to be used in actual combat!

And, to top off this wonderful night (and place) the crowd was invited to the Ismaili Centre to witness a full Sufi ceremony.

Quite a crowd, as you can see by the lineup!

The ceremony was about an hour long, and consisted of practitioners chanting, hymn-singing and swaying in rhythm, while sitting cross-legged in a large circle.
The climax of the ceremony featured actual "whirling dervishes," both male and female, who spun around and around (as the spirit moved them) within the circle, with right hands pointing to the sky and left hands to the earth.
I left with a real appreciation for the devotion and discipline of the followers of this branch of Islam.



I've said this quite a few times in this blog, but I'm truly grateful to live in a city like Toronto, where we all have the opportunity to witness and learn about so many people and cultures from all over this blue marble in space. Events like this give us the opportunity to experience the world as seen through the eyes of contemporary artists, as well, this year for instance, of witnessing something that is traditional and deeply devotional.
We should all take the opportunity to connect like this every day.