This past Saturday, Toronto held it's version of the "All Night Contemporary Art Thing". This was actually my first chance to take the Festival in. Last year I sort of got a taste of what it was all about, I was at a Newfy-Chinese wedding banquet at the Dynasty restaurant. Young art lovers crashed the open bar claiming they thought it was some kind of art exhibit. At the end of the evening we tried to check out a Nuit Blanche exhibit at the Japan Foundation, but I was hardly in the mindset to take it in. Monkeys and copious amounts of alcohol just don't mix.This year with no other obligations I was determined to take it all in. Having heard about how busy the downtown core was we made plans to start late in the North end of the city and work our way downtown. The exhibit was divided into 3 zones: Zone A Downtown North; Zone B Downtown South; Zone C Southwest.
11:30 PM Having had a late dinner and a brief nap we met up with friends on the Baldwin steps lookout below Casa Loma. A bit of caffeine mixed with herbal medicinal liquer to kickstart the evening. We note that we have a good view of our apartment from the Casa Loma Steps and we left the kitchen light on.
11:45 PM We walk through a small art gallery exhibit set up in the Casa Loma Spadina Museum. We walk through what looks like a teepee shower curtain.
12:00 AM The Casa Loma Coach house has a neat little exhibit in what looks like a small high school gym, some kind of interpretive dance. Looks a lot like a fatboy slim video. 4 dance leaders dressed in white lead an open participation dance pack. Very thrilleresque but without the zombie makeup.
12:30 AM We decide to try and check out the Atom Egoyan exhibit which we think is at Innis College. Turns out the exhibit is not at Innis College rather it is sponsored by Innis College but on back campus. Walking onto back campus for the first time we get a glimpse of the kind of crowds we are going to deal with. The exhibit is a sort of photo video audio cutout from Egoyan's most recent film Adoration. 4 suburban homes around Christmas time with various characters from the film performing monologues related to the film whose subject matter is terrorism. Purposely confusing and a bit disorienting. After about 5 minutes we have reached the end of the loop and decide to check out stuff in Hart House.
12:45 AM After some Baileys and Hot Chocolate we wander into Hart House which is just jam packed. The hallways really are only designed for people to walk one abreast and certainly not the large number of people wandering through, feeling a bit claustrophobic. We check out a video exhibit which does the obvious comparison of body parts to fruits, vegetables and plants. One person can't contain himself, "that was a dick, that was totally a dick". Another person "is it wrong to be turned on". We decide to try and meet up with a friend on front campus.
1:00 AM We wander out towards King's College circle and contemplate taking a shortcut across but realize the rain and sprinkler system has led to massive puddles. We find our friend and decide to head to Queens Park to experience the "Sound Forest", as we walk through the darkness I wander right into a little tree branch my eye is a bit scratched up but I wander on. We pass through the underpass near Queen's Park and Wellesley and into the South West edge of Queen's Park. The sound of drums and the distinct smell of reefer draws us to the midwest portion of the park. We get there and realize that this "Sound Forest" has degenerated into a Drum Circle/ NORML rally hippies jumping up and down to the beat of the drum people break out the hackeysack. We decide to head South East.
1:30 AM Just to the East of the Parliament building we spot a fake vaudeville type exhibit which succeeds in it's probable goal of making people lineup to gawk at the freak. We decide the line is too long an instead head to some exhibit at nearby Provincial government building which is basically just pictures of various phases of the moon projected onto the side of the building.
2:00 AM We head South East to the Hydro One building to see this exhibit that is supposed to look like a Waterfall. It does.
2:30 AM We head to College Park to check out Zombies in Condoland, one of the most hyped exhibits of the night. We get there and it looks more like an OCAP rally. Some guy with a blowhorn directing the Zombies, scolding a zombie for smacking on a window too hard. Surprisingly not many zombies, perhaps they liked their condos and decided to stay in for the night. About 5 minutes after we get there the guy with the blowhorn tells the Zombies to take 15, it felt a bit like Zombie Juliard or that we were on the set of a movie. Most of the Zombies break character and give out a self congratulatory cheer. Someone asks to check out the map, Zombies, maps, backpacks, it feels a bit like we are playing Dungeons and Dragons. Deciding these Zombies were lame we head towards Ryerson to check out some ducks. Some of our group decide they've had enough "art" for one night and bail. Now there's 4 trying to see as much art as they can and get back to their home base in Coney Island before the morning.
2:15 AM
We arrive at Ryerson and notice the duck exhibit isn't working and the ducks are gone. There's some Storm Trooper looking metal sculpture. We carry on towards Dundas Square.
2:30 AM We arrive at Dundas Square and realize that the exhibit "15 Seconds" is some dude in what looks like a Prison Tower shining a spotlight. Drunk Girl does cartwheels for about 5 minutes for jackass with camera who keeps "accidentally" missing the shot. Finally the spotlight flashes on her, about freaking time. We are handed a book from a stranger for some "Nuit Blanche Drawing experiment". We are asked to draw something awesome and then pass it on. Not surprisingly the book is filled with pictures of dicks. I am apparently in need of some awesome drawing lessons because I draw a blank. We run into Leighann's friends who are coming up from the South they mention an exhibit in some alleyway near Massey Hall where they have constructed a real drop ceiling like the type one usually finds in an office buiding.
2:45 AM We walk down Victoria street to some drop ceiling exhibit. Security guards all over the place to protect people from taking the strategically strewn art such as christmas tree decorations,Chinese laneterns, old computer monitors, no it's not garbage it's art which reminds me I need to take out the kitchen art at home it's starting to smell like rotten fruit.
3:00 AM We stop in the Eaton Centre to use the bathrooms. It has a very strange apocalyptic feel much like in Dawn of the Dead the denizens of the night are drawn to the mall. We walk across Queen Street and the crowds are just massive. We hit Nathan Phillips square and they've done some cool stuff with the office lights turning them on and off to recreate classic video games such as missle command, pacman, and pong. Wanting to avoid the crowds we decide to cut back north.
3:30 AM We hit University and Dundas and try to hit Hong Shing a very good restaurant in the area, but it is packed. We decide to keep walking along Dundas. In front of 52 division people are writing in chalk. Vandals are writing anti-police slogans on the 52 division sign. People are drawing chalk outlines. We walk past OCAD and the AGO and there are just massive lineups so we keep walking.
3:45 AM We get to Spadina and Queen and see a fairly empty and open Chinese restaurant we decide to stop and eat at Rol Jui. The food comes quick. We discuss whether we want to hit any more exhibits. It is suggested we walk back towards Yonge Street, given the crowds we opt instead to just walk home.
4:45 AM We walk north up Spadina and see what looks to be a pedestrian TTC vehicle collision.
5:30 AM We arrive back home. After about 6 hours of walking probably in the neighborhood of 10K we saw at least a dozen exhibits. In retrospect I think we'd like to have started a little further out West in the Liberty Village and worked our way back up perhaps next year we'll avoid the entertainment district entirely.
