Waterlicht is a large-scale light installation by Daan Roosegaarde, a Dutch artist. It showed at the Bentway, in front of Fort York, for three nights this past weekend.
below: Light, like water flowing under the Gardiner.
below: The fluid patterns of light and smoke created waves and angles of blue.
below: One of many selfies
below: From above
This year’s Nuit Blanche was on September 28th and 29th. The night’s activities were spread over a large number of locations around the city. That was a few days ago so yes, I am a bit behind. I was laid low for a couple of days with this cold that’s been going around… or I took a few days to recover from being up until 3:30 a.m.!
below: Part of ‘Continuum: Pushing Towards the Light’ by Brandy Leary and the Anandam Dancetheatre. They made they way across the glass enclosed bridge over Queen Street between the Eaton Centre and The Bay store.
below: From behind the burlap (or tarp?) Nathan Phillips Square, from an installation ‘Radical Histories 2012-2018’ by Ibrahaim Mahama.
below: More from the same installation, this time from the “right” side. It was great for making shadow figures. Thanks to Jude for starting off the evening with me… and getting creative (silly?) too.
below: We found a photo shoot on Bay Street.
below: On Bloor Street, nothing to do with Nuit Blanche but it looked cool. Reflections and lights.
below: Eaton Centre, a quieter moment that night.
below: Checking the map. Yonge Dundas Square – the installation there was very unimpressive so I took people pics instead.
below: At Church of the Redeemer (Avenue Road and Bloor), Korean Dancers. “Star Moon Water Stone” by Ensemble Jeng Yi
below: Drummers, same venue as above.
below: ‘This Storm is You’ at the Ontario Science Centre, an installation by Zahra Saleki. Photography on the walls and stories on the floor.
below: Walk among the stories. “Every story deserves to be lit. Grab a sharpie and write yours.”
below: Smile!.. and a testament to the start of love. Two of many lit stories.
below: Saleki’s photos displayed here are abstract dance photographs in black and white. Negative images and slowing the camera to produce the blur of motion.
below: This is what you saw when you first got off the subway (is the SRT a subway?) at Scarborough Town Centre. It’s part of the ‘The Things They Carried’ Babel series. The motifs are similar to those on the installation at Yonge -Dundas Square, that oops, I don’t have a picture of.
below: At Scarborough Civic Centre, ‘Everything I Wanted to Tell You’ by Hiba Abdallah. A series of words in lights projected onto several buildings. The words changed every few seconds to tell a story or two.
below: More of the words. “People hold on so tightly to a specific narrative of this place”.
below: More projections at Scarborough Civic Centre. Sorry, not sure which installation this is.
below: Scarborough Town Centre (mall) had a mountain of inflatable globes you could walk under, or just look at. ‘Walk Among Worlds’ by Maximo Gonzalez
below: Weaving stories, ‘Interlacing’ by Community Arts Guild, at Scarborough Town Centre.
below: Watching a performance at the Scarborough Civic Centre.
below: Running through the lights.
below: Reflections, Aga Khan Museum
below: more Aga Khan
below: Showing ‘Insomnia’, a video filmed in Tehran showing simply the view out his bedroom window, by Simin Keramati, Aga Khan Museum
below: Trash at Yonge Dundas Square. Nothing to do with Nuit Blanche, just an ordinary day’s worth of garbage. It just happened to catch my eye as I was walking down the stairs to the subway.
Ending with rubbish would be a weird way to end a post, so here’s another mannequin. I saw lots of them that night too, unfazed by the activity around them, unmoved by the night’s events.
below: I’m out here every night. Nice of you to finally notice….
April 20, 4/20, 420 day with its annual marijuana protest. The nature of the “protest” has changed over the years now that the fight for legalization is almost over. This year was more like a group of friends hanging out together at Nathan Phillips Square and enjoying the warmest day that we’ve had in a while. A few items, seeds, edibles, etc, were available for sale. The group didn’t have a permit for the event (they were turned down) but that didn’t stop them. The police (and other security) presence was very visible but confrontations were kept to a minimum – at least for the time that I was there which was early on. I left while Nathan Phillips Square wasn’t crowded.
below: Green whistles were distributed and there were times when the sound they made was quite loud!
Run Like a Diva,
5 km run and a half marathon in the Port Lands.
below: Pink tutus were given to all those who registered to participate in the event.
1700 people ran the 5K event and almost as many (I think) ran the half marathon.
The original plan was to hold this event on the Toronto Islands but with this spring’s flooding, the run was moved to the mainland. It was a charity event in support of Rethink Breast Cancer.
below: It was great to see a few men joining the fun, complete with their pink outfits.
below: Near the end of the event, participants were given pink boas and shiny tiaras to wear with their tutus.
below: Coming to the end!
#runlikeadiva | #divastoronto
April 1st was International Pillow Fight day and like previous years, a group gathered at Nathan Phillips Square armed with pillows and ready for a fight. Swinging, ducking and hitting as well as laughing and smiling, ensued.
below: Superman made an appearance
below: A well deserved rest after a fight well fought.
5th annual yogathon at Yonge Dundas Square
#riseforacause | #yogathontoronto | #riseforacausetoronto
Sharing Dance
Organized by the National Ballet School,
the 3rd annual Sharing Dance event was held at Yonge Dundas Square.
A chance to laugh a little and learn a few moves.
#sharingdance
Canstruction is a non-profit competition where teams create sculptures of canned and packaged food that is then donated to food banks. The event is held in many cities around the world including Toronto. Since its inception in 1992, Canstruction has contributed more than 17.5 million pounds of food to food programs globally.
Planning for the 17th annual Toronto Canstruction began in January. The “build night” where the teams come together to build the sculptures was held on the 16th of May at the Toronto Dominion Centre. The sculptures are now in the many lobbies of the TD Centre buildings and they will remain on view until the 21st of May. At that time they will be “decanstructed”.
A sample of this year’s entries:
below: A winning emoji, ‘EmojiCAN’ built by GM BluePlan Engineering Ltd. Emojis, the little symbols popularized by social media, understood by everyone no matter what language they speak.
below: ‘Let’s End Hunger by All Measures’ by Walsh Canada. “Food Banks Canada estimates that in 2015 852,137 Canadians turned to food banks each month for food. The need for food banks spiked in 2009 and has hovered at record levels ever since.”
below: A lovebot made of cans by Cecconi Simone Ltd.
below: A close up of part of ‘Hungerbling’ by Hatch. It features Drake and comes with lyrics.
You used to call me on my cell phone
Late night when you need my food
Call me on my cell phone
Late night when you need my food
And I know when that hunger bling
That can only mean one thing
I know when that hunger bling
That can only mean one thing”
below: ‘CANadian MAyPoLE’ by Candevcon Limited. “We often dance around the issue of hunger, but this time the children have the formula to fight it.”
below: Close up of ‘Perspectives on Hunger and Heroes’ by ARUP. A tribute to the late David Bowie since “hunger has many faces”.
Get your head wrapped!
Considering the cold temperatures, not to mention the rain, snow and hail, there was a great turn out for Turban Up! at Yonge Dundas square today. The event was organized by the Sikh Youth Federation to help raise awareness about Sikh religion and culture. There were martial arts demonstrations, food, an art exhibit, and other examples of Sikh culture, but the main event was the turban wrapping. Numerous eager and friendly volunteers were available to wrap a turban for you in your choice of colour. A few people sported black and dark blue turbans but bright colours were very popular – colours like turquoise, bright greens and blues, as well as pink, orange and red. A veritable rainbow of turbans.
below: He’s out of focus but I like his gumption. Thanks for the smile!
#sikhyouthfederation | #turbanup | #ydsquare
Refugees in a State Apartment, Jens Ullrich,
Photo exhibit, on a fence outside the Italian Consulate, Dundas West at Beverley.
Part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
Ullrich has taken found black and white photographs of the interior of a large home near Bremen Germany. The photos were taken in the late 1920’s. Each photograph is of a different room in the villa and to each picture Ullrich has added one person. If you knew nothing about the series, you wouldn’t know that the subjects were refugees.
In each photomontage, singular individuals are depicted—usually with their faces hidden from the camera—within empty yet elaborately fashioned spaces that emphasize their solitude and unstable status. “
One of the concepts behind this series of images was the desire to
respectfully capture the disparate emotions of these individuals and their precarious situations.”
#CONTACT16
as I walk Toronto 