nuit blah

after last year's experience of traipsing through the rainy streets to see sights like an eerie pit of fog on u of t's philosophers walk, a girl in a glass coffin on queen, and a pretty decent light installation in trinity bellwoods, i had some high hopes for this year's nuit blanche. i set off on my bike around 7:30 feeling like it was christmas eve and excited for the exhibits i'd read about.

i was really interested in the recreation of the cold war bomb shelter in the architecture building at u of t... but it didn't really hold up. also excited for event horizon, which was pretty amusing, but a bit too precious. deeparture was promising in my mind, as well, but all i took away from it were the idiotic and LOUD comments of the people in the theatre, who didn't even bother to sit, but just stood in the aisles, saying things like "wolves hunt in packs" (thanks, genius), and "this isn't even a movie! its just filming animals!" (die). i really would have loved to see the ghost station, as it promised the creepiness i was seeking, but when we got there, the line was over an hour long, and the idea of sharing the space with suburban yuppies and their off-spring kind of killed the beauty in it, for me.

trinity bellwoods made me feel like i was wandering through a mall, with scotia bank tents everywhere. the aquarium window at queen and dovercourt was pretty, and the giant locust at lamport stadium provided us with some delirious 3am laughs, watching people hurl their bodies into it, thinking that it would support their weight. no!

i couldn't help but compare the entire experience to a night earlier in the summer, when there was the most beautiful performance art undertaken in the abandoned monastery on major street. i still think about how great and inspiring that night was. i'll go out for nuit blanche next year to give it another chance, but the crowds and lack of inspiration in the work this year, kind of made me long for the time when art was an inaccessible pastime for the elite. sigh.