Posts Tagged ‘posing’

Nuit Blanche 2018

Posted: October 5, 2018 in events, people
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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.

4 people in costume, performance art, on glass covered bridge

below: From behind the burlap (or tarp?) Nathan Phillips Square, from an installation ‘Radical Histories 2012-2018’ by Ibrahaim Mahama.

looking at the back of the 3D Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips, looking through burlap and tarps that have been stitched together

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.

making shadows against the fabric draped around City Hall and Nathan Phillips square

below: We found a photo shoot on Bay Street.

two young women posing on the street

below: On Bloor Street, nothing to do with Nuit Blanche but it looked cool.   Reflections and lights.

reflections in a window that has been lit with a red light, a mannequin is reflected from the store across the street

below: Eaton Centre, a quieter moment that night.

a young boy leans against his father as he reads a book, MIghty Robot, at the Eaton Centre

below: Checking the map.   Yonge Dundas Square – the installation there was very unimpressive so I took people pics instead.

a couple looks at the Nuit Blanche map

below: At Church of the Redeemer (Avenue Road and Bloor), Korean Dancers.  “Star Moon Water Stone” by Ensemble Jeng Yi

two Korean women in traditional costume, gold dresses, and decorated hair

below: Drummers, same venue as above.

drummers, performing, Church of the Redeemer, Nuit Blanche

below: ‘This Storm is You’ at the Ontario Science Centre, an installation by Zahra Saleki.   Photography on the walls and stories on the floor.

art installation for Nuit Blanche at the Ontario Science Centre, by Zahra Saleki called 'This Storm is You'.

below: Walk among the stories.  “Every story deserves to be lit.  Grab a sharpie and write yours.”

lit sign, large capital letters in pale blue, 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.

white lanterns, rectangular, with tea lights in the bottom, scattered around the floor, people walking around them.

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.

black and white photo of a man leaning forward, finger pointed to ground, slow shutter speed, blurred motion,

four photographs on a black wall, by zahra Saleki, figures in 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.

installation of blue lights shining on fabric banners

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.

two large signs at Scarborough Nuit Blanche, from the installation called Everything I wanted to tell you. Back lights say We worked so hard to make this place home

below: More of the words.  “People hold on so tightly to a specific narrative of this place”.

words projected onto the side of a building at Scarborough Civic Centre, part of Nuit Blanche installation, Everything I wanted to tell you by Hiba Abdallah

below: More projections at Scarborough Civic Centre.  Sorry, not sure which installation this is.

large projections on the concrete wall of Scarborough Civic Center

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

piles of inflatable globes are arranged at Scarborough Town Centre, people are walking around them and through a tunnel made of them

below: Weaving stories, ‘Interlacing’ by Community Arts Guild, at Scarborough Town Centre.

three people are taking their turn weaving coloured strips of fabric into a community weaving project

below: Watching a performance at the Scarborough Civic Centre.

people line the edge of a balcony to watch a performance below

below: Running through the lights.

woman runs past a white screen that is being lit with coloured lights, making her shadow coloured

below: Reflections, Aga Khan Museum

in front of the Aga Khan museum, a large white lit ball is reflected in the pool of water

below: more Aga Khan

Aga Khan at Nuit Blanche

below: Showing ‘Insomnia’, a video filmed in Tehran showing simply the view out his bedroom window, by Simin Keramati, Aga Khan Museum

a room in the Aga Khan that is showing a video made in Tehran, two people are sitting on stools as they watch it, orange carpet on the floor, old decorated bookcases against the walls.

side of the Aga Khan museum lit in bluish purple light

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.

clear plastic bags full of trash are pilled up against a clear wall at Yonge Dundas square

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….

bald white mannequin with dark sunglasses and very dark red lipstick, looking at the camera, wearing an orange and brown top with a collar, reflected red, ywllow, and green lights behind her.

 

Canada 151

Posted: July 2, 2018 in events, people
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a greoup of three people in red and white clothes st Yonge Dundas square for Canada Day, a girl in a red and white striped long dress and two women in red and white polka dots and stripes

Happy Canada Day weekend!

a group of women pose with little Canadian flags, for a picture, at Yonge Dundas Square for Canada Day.

switching into summer

Posted: May 23, 2018 in people
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The weather’s been all over the place, warm, cold, hot, cold again, back and forth…. like May weather usually is.  We were fortunate to have great weather this past holiday Monday and a lot of people took advantage of the day!  As I walked around, this is some of what I saw.

a man stands and watches another man playing the drums outside on Yonge street, some other people standing around too

by the fountain at Nathan Phillips Square, a man dressed in orange hugs a man dressed in brown who is checking his phone after just taking a selfie

women and men standing outside the Eaton Centre on Yonge street

people crossing the street at an intersection, a woman in a pink top and white sweater is pushing a stroller with a fluffy small white dog in it, a man in a blue Jay t shirt, camo jacket and baseball hat, smoking a cigarette, is walking beside her

Graffiti alley, walking past an uber 5000 mural, a man and a woman with their backs to the camera. on the back of the man's camo coloured jacket are the words true freedom is being unknown

two women in the O of the 3D Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips square in front of city hall, examining photos that they have taken on their phone

2 young men and 2 young women walking down Graffiti Alley

a woman in a purple dress is sitting on the sidewalk, patting the cat wearing the superman costume that is sitting on a box. other people standing around, corner of Yonge and Dundas

a girl and her mother playing in the fountain at Nathan Phillips Square, in front of city hall,

a woman in jeans and pink top poses in the doorway of one of the back doors in Graffiti Alley

Halloween ’17

Posted: November 1, 2017 in events, people
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candle in a pumpkin carved into a spider jack o'lantern

Another year of jack o’lanterns and giant spiders

a giant spider halloween decoration in front of a house

and other creative spooky and creepy decorations.  Clowns and pumpkin heads.

life sized skeleton in a front yard, one with a creepy clown face and one with a pumpkin head

And even bunnies can be fearsome.   Bunny with baseball bat.

three life sized skeletons in a front yard, a rabbit mask on one which is also holding a baseball bat, a pumpkin head, and one with a bear mask that is half brown and half black

It’s a time for dressing up in costumes and having fun….  for kids

kids in Halloween costumes laughing together

…. and for adults (night time photos taken on Church street)

below: What’s scarier than Donald Trump?  Three Trumps! Thrice the thrills.

three men in suits and ties with large cardboard Donald Trump faces

a group dressed up for Halloween, night time, street party, 2 women, 2 men, toy guns, gangsters and burlesque.

woman in black with large black antlers stand against a wall, an older man is looking at her

a large inflatable dinosaur costume, a death ghoul costume, and many people standing around them posing for photos at a night time halloween party on Church St., toronto

posing for photos in Halloween costumes

Not everyone was scary – look at these cute and cuddly animals!

a group in full animal costumes pose for a photo, a walrus, a shark, a cat, a leopard,

a man wearing a cowboy hat with a sheriff's bagde, and a skull mask checks his phone while standing outside pizza pizza, window lit up and people inside including a man making pizza

two men in gruesome halloween masks and baseball caps

Smurfs!

two people dressed as smurfs for Halloween, a large smurfette and a smaller male smurf with a red hat

Even Marilyn stopped for a picture.

a man dressed in drag as Marilyn Munro with blond wig and white dress, posing with an Asian woman

 

a young man in purple jacket and white face with the word damaged written across his forehead

a young woman poses as a black faced zombie between two men with creepy clown masks on

an Asian woman with black cat ears poses with a man in white boa and very large day of the dead head hat

close up of a person in a furry, hairy monstrous mask with bloody fangs

a boy with his arm made up to look like his hand is fallen off

South Asian Festival

Posted: July 24, 2017 in events, people
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Toronto in the summer means street festivals every weekend.   One of the festivals this past weekend was the 15th annual South Asian Festival in ‘Little India’.   Gerrard Street East was closed to traffic between Greenwood and Coxwell for the occasion.

below: Shopping, strolling and playing games.  Try your skill at cricket or buy some jewellery or some clothing.

street scene at South Asian festival. a man hits a ball with a cricket bat, two women in head scarves are talking, men behind a table are selling jewellery and clothes

a woman leans on the top of a rack of clothing for sale, sidewalk sale, as part of the South Asian Festival on the Gerrard Street.

three women are looking at a blouse (dress?), red and white pattern, on a hanger at an outdoor sidewalk sale, as part of a street festival. They are looking at the same piece of clothing

mother and daughter look at bangles, jewellery, for sale outside, at street festival. Both are wearing sunglasses

an older man sits behind a small table covered with a white cloth. on the table are toys that he is selling. he is holding an orange Nemo shaped bubble maker plastic toy. behind him, a man is standing smoking a cigarette

Like all street festivals, there was lots of food and drink available.

below: Extracting sugar cane juice.

a man shreds sugar cane in a machine to extract the sugar cane juice which he is then selling, outside, street festival, Little India

below: Fresh baked naan, straight from the oven.

a man removes freshly baked naan from a tandoori oven

There were many photo ops provided.  For instance, there were cut outs for faces in pictures of Bollywood actors.

at a street festival, two people are putting their heads through cut outs while others take their picture, cut outs are on faces of Bollywood actors and actresses.

… and a richly decorated cart (What is it’s proper name?)

an older couple pose for a picture while they are sitting in a decorated cart, purple velvet, and many colourful tassles

and mannequins in traditional costumes.

two young boyus pose with a manniquin dressed in traditional Indian (South Asian) costume

below: There was also entertainment.   In this case, a rapper in Hindi and English.

a man with a black shirt with the word security on the back watches a performance of a rap artist who is on a stage with many people watching him

one woman adjusts the floral headband on another woman, both are dressed in traditional South Asian clothing

young kids lean over a yellow barricade as they watch a performance a girl is giving a thumbs up sign

a woman is airbrushing black paint onto a stencil on the upper part of a small girls arm, temporary tattoo

a woman with shiny bangles, bracelets, on her wrist puts her hand on her boyfriend's lower back

… and there was even a large elephant parked beside Victoria Whole Foods!  It looks a bit tacky with the big advertising  banner on its side but it was still a popular place to take selfies.

a couple, man and woman, each with a dog on a leash, is taking a selfie in front of a large elephant sculpture

road losed sign and yellow metal barricades, street festival going on behind the sign & barricade. Also racks of sarees for sale and in the distance, a large fake elephant

nuit rose

Posted: June 28, 2016 in events, people
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Nuit Rose,
a festival of queer art and performance

On Saturday night events were held at a number of venues that were concentrated in two locations, along Queen St. West and in the Church-Wellesley village area.  I hung out around two parks in the village, Norman Jewison Park which runs east of Yonge and Barbara Hall Park on Church street.  In hindsight, I wish I had had more time, or had been more organized, to get to more of the events.

Red Pepper Spectacle Arts led a Light Parade that started at Norman Jewison park.    A small contingent, most wearing or carrying a light-emitting object, walked through the park, along and then back down Church Street.  From the  – sparklers, glow sticks

people walking in a night time parade for nuit rose, down Church St., one man is holding up a light stick, a woman is holding a sparkler, other people have lanterns and glow sticks.

to the more elaborate

Two guys in drag with lights all over their costume, holding large fans

a man holding a large pole with a bird head on the top of it, with rainbow coloured fabric, meant to be the bird's wings.

below: and an eagle on stilts

A woman in a flowing costume with eagle head, up on stilts, in a night time parade for nuit rose

below: Note to self: for night time parades take more photos at the start of the parade because once people start moving it’s more difficult to get them in focus!

people walking in a parade, glow sticks, some costumes, a woman with pink butterfly wings

a paper lantern in the shape of a floating flower, out of focus

below: Where else would you be able to sit on a unicorn and get your picture taken?

two people sitting on unicorns to have their picture taken with a person in a red wig hamming it up in front of them, nuit rose, night time.

A young man is sitting on a pink unicorn

below: And after a unicorn pose, have your photo taken standing with a well-lit couple.

a man with lights in his shirt poses beside two statues that light up

below: 360 degrees by Iain Downie, 360 stars, 60 in each of the six Pride colours in the garden.

under a tree in a park, with roses in the background, many coloured 3D stick shapes that have been covered with yarn, lie on the ground.

a group of people stand around a stage watching a dance performance

below: Dance performance, ‘By Chance’ by Janessa Pudwell and Tanya Svazas Cronin.

We pass by hundreds of people on a daily basis who we may never see again. Sometimes we share a glance that lasts a bit longer. This piece is about the relationships that could be created if we acted on those glances. These are the fleeting chances, exchanged through our eyes that will never be fully realized. Instead these people may only appear once in our lives as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”

two women performing a dance on a stage., one is seated and the other is standing, some people are sitting beside the stage and watching the show.

Dancers performing in front of a video playing on a screen, night time performance, some of the dancers are partly blurry

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blog_dancers_line_close_up

dancers performing in front a screen that's showing a video, night time, nuit rose performance

a hand holding a camera, two dancers out of focus in the background.

#nuitrose | #nuitroseTO | #nuitrosetoronto

playing in bubbles

Posted: October 8, 2015 in events, people
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Totally unexpected… walked past Yonge Dundas Square this afternoon and happened upon Shopper’s Drug Mart’s 15th birthday party for their Optimum program.   There was a DJ, music playing, and a couple of people dancing.  There were acrobats but I just missed their performance.  The main attraction was a large clear plastic bubble filled with many bits of coloured paper the people were lining up for…. a life sized confetti globe.

blog_optimum_bubble_balloon
Once inside, people were posing for photographs.

Two women stand inside a large clear plastic bubble with many bits of coloured paper. They are posing for a photograph.

Pictures were printed on the spot for those who wanted them.

A man stands inside a large clear plastic bubble with many bits of coloured paper. He is posing for a photograph. In the foreground is part of the back of the photographer, his camera, and the laptop showing the photo.

It was also part of a contest for gift cards and vacations.

A woman stands inside a large clear plastic bubble with many bits of coloured paper. She is posing for a photograph.

A boy stands inside a large clear plastic bubble with many bits of coloured paper. He is batting at the papers and smiling.

I didn’t go in the bubble but I did score a loot bag by showing my Optimum card.
I now have some candy and a small bottle of brown nail polish.

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#15daysofhappy

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