Nuit Blanche

Last night was a crazy night. The city of Toronto was a buzz of activity, even more than usual. And when the city is like that you can’t just sit idle.

So I didn’t.

The evening started off with going to see a play called Tiny Dinamite by Abi Morgan with my friends Blake and Galen. It’s being put on by a new theatre group called Theatre Smash that some Queen’s Alum and others have put together. Very cool. I happen to know the director and producer, and my good friend Kate was the assistant director. It’s a really well done show, and it’s still playing this week. If you get a chance, go see it. The next stop with B and Galen was a good-bye party for a girl at our church who is moving away, leaving the country. It was a fairly chill night, and there was lots of great food to sample.

Next stop: Nuit Blanche. This was an all night exhibition of contemporary art sponsored by Scotiabank. There were things to see all over the city. I started out with my pals Blake and Jam on Queen St W. Then we started meeting up with Kate, Joan and Isaac. Then it was Anton, Lisa and her brother. Then it was Elaine and Jeremy and…As you can tell, the first part of our adventuring turned out to be more about trying not to lose each other instead of really getting going. So, we decided to split up and meet back on Queen W at the Camera Bar at 3am. Good plan. Jam, Blake and I then hopped in a cab and decided to head over to check out the fun at OCAD, where we met up with Mark and Jam’s cousin.

Wow, ok, so OCAD and Grange Park was covered in different activities. A giant game of Twister, games of chess, marbles and jacks. Our first stop was to see the pool of floating penguins. A very “steamy” walk through a locker room/pool area following the story of the gay penguin couple at the San Fransisco zoo. Weird. We didn’t really feel there was much to the showing, so we ploughed through, and were dissapointed to see a few measley balloon penguins floating in the pool. Here the disillusionment started.

Inside the OCAD building there were several movies playing on the wall. As we were already at a point of feeling irreverent towards the art, this is where the real fun got going! We paused at this one movie – a movie with people in a building doing weird things. One shot was of someone’s mouth approaching an eye, out of nowhere Blake said quite audibly “LICK IT!”. Ha!And guess what? The person did! Ahaha. Next we went upstairs to another movie. This one was of a picture on a wall, where the camera kept moving closer and closer. B decided to put up his umbrella and walk across the screen. Oh my gosh! Too funny. A few moments later, Jam who was sitting with me, nudge his umbrella towards me. I had my own, but I got the message. We opened them up and walked in front of the screen also. Hilarious. Blake and Mark were killing themselves behind the scenes, the funniest part being that most people thought it was part of the show!

The hilarity continued in the “Ball room”, a room filled with about 10, 000 dodge balls. It was great. We launched balls for a good 45 minutes at anyone and everyone. Such a great stress reliever and it was so fun. Especially because us crew would gang up and then try and intice someone to fight us. So good. We totally scared some people off the floor. After that B left us, and the rest of us crew headed to Camera Bar. About 20 minutes later, after fighting tooth and nail for a cab (we apparently weren’t a good enough fare!) we took the street car and got to the bar just before last call. (Thanks Jam, best beer ever!) We met up with Lisa, Kim, Enoch and Anton and chilled a little. Then at almost 5:30 am we decided to head back to OCAD to see if we could get free breakfast. But not without taking another trip to the Ball Room with Colin. So much fun!

After the venture, breakfast was attempted, but it turned out to be more sad than good, and so we all respectively drifted off home, and I hit the pillow at 7am! What a night!

Andy Warhol

In my search for me time this weekend, I decided to do something I haven’t done in about 2 years – I took myself to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I decided that I should stop talking about how great it would be to see the Andy Warhol exhibit, and so, I said to myself “Self, let’s go!” And I went.

The exhibit itself is good. I’ve had a fascination with Andy Warhol’s work for a little while now, and I’ve briefly starting reading a biography on him. He was an interesting man, and an even more interesting artist. It was a treat to see a representative collection of Andy’s works – works presented as they were intended to be presented, instead of being a reproduction on a t-shirt or some other type of pop culture kitsch. Although those pieces still are effectively elements of the Andy Warhol experience, there is something to be said for seeing the real thing.

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.
- Andy Warhol

I was pleasantly surprised by the video art pieces that were on display. I had no idea that Andy was into this kind of art, and this was my first experience seeing any of it. His video works are in and of themselves striking because they are almost key in beginning to understand Andy’s fascination with voyerism. His “screen tests” were shots of faces of people asked to stand in front of camera for 2 -3 minutes without blinking. You can almost see the point for a lot of people where the narcissitic element of being video taped ends and the realm of voyerism, or being watched helplessly begins.

I’m afraid if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all its meaning.
- Andy Warhol

I was particularly interesting in the piece entitled “Blow Job”, which is actually a video of a man’s face taken as he is receiving fellatio. What’s most engaging is the dissociative sense that one gets from being the voyeur as in one is watching what should be a seemingly private moment, drinking it in for the sake of watching. Yet, the subject has allowed himself to be on the screen to view. Furthermore, the subject seems to only be half in the moment, as you can tell that he always conscious of the camera that is sharing the experience with him – as if he is being a voyeur of us the audience as we stare at him. This awareness of the “real but not quite real” was very typical of Andy. There was very little under the surface, because you were staring at the surface subject and the dissociative voyerism didn’t allow you to engage further. It is deeply superficial.

I am a deeply superficial person.
- Andy Warhol

I was also very excited to begin to see many of Andy’s disaster series. I have to confess, like most, I am best acquainted with Andy’s works based on pop icons. I didn’t know about the paintings that related to death and destruction (although there are even elements of this in his pop work too). There was something bouffonesque about it – you wanted to look at it, you wanted to think of it as art, yet it didn’t feel quite right in the pit of your stomach. How could gore be art? Can we observe death like so and feel good about it? What’s even funnier, is that I found myself most engaged by the piece “White 1947″, which consists of a picture of a woman which is quite picturesque. Little would make you initially see it’s gruesome nature. Although it is very beautiful, it is actually a picture from a newspaper or Life magazine of a woman who committed suicide by jumping off the Empire State building and landed on top of a diplomatic limo. She’s so beautiful in a classical way – yet we are staring a little else but the beauty of death.

Death means a lot of money, honey. Death can really make you look like a star.
- Andy WarholWhat for me was the final engaging aspect was going into the gift shop after the show and finding myself surrounded by Andy Warhol art collectibles similar to what you find here. Somehow, it was just ironic. It was here I found myself smiling thinking “Here is the true Andy Warhol experience”. There were plastic Marilyn lips, Jackie paperweights, and reproductions of the whole Andy experience. It was a commercialisation of Andy’s voyerism. It was his 15 minutes of fame wrapped in plastic. And perhaps, if you don’t know why I think this ironic, one should just think about Andy’s work a little and see if you come to the same conclusion.

 

I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.
- Andy Warhol

Pieces of Art

It seems that taking pictures of oneself for artsy purposes does pay off. Although I have been too lazy to get on my own artsy initiative, my friend Sue’s from work has kindly passed on my self-portrait pictures to her artist friend Eleanor Chapman and she’s done her digital art magic on them. Yes, folks. I am now featured as art. Very cool.

Check out Eleanor’s gallery here or use the link on the sidebar. (Oh, but please note, there is some artsy nakedness on this site – don’t be afraid).

Another poem

The Divine Image
by William Blake

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

A poem

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Over the weekend…

Over the weekend I looked up my uncle’s website for his artwork, it’s now posted on the side. Please check it out! He’s an amazing painter – all self taught. He also does wood work and he’s a fantastic handyman. He’s still going strong, even after he lost a thumb and forefinger in a carving accident.

For years I’ve been blessed to know his work, but I hadn’t really seen much until I went to Africa. He has tons of work around the house. Below is my favourite picture, it hangs in the front hallway of 27 Vlei Rd, and I used to look at it every day while drinking my tea. Hope you like it too!

The Blue Man Experience

WOW!

So, I literally have just stepped into the house after what one could call a VERY interesting night of performance. I was just lucky enough to experience The Blue Man Group (see link) in Toronto, and it was sooooo good!

My friend Kris is working for The Men these days, and he managed to get me a couple of tickets to tonight’s performance, and I couldn’t have been luckier. It was amazing. It’s so hard to describe the whole thing. The show is something that just has to be experience first hand, and I suggest if you get the chance to see the group here, or at any other location, jump on the opportunity. It is a plethora of sights, sounds, and events that makes up a very original and innovative show. It’s hard to say whether this is performance art, or a theatre piece, or something that is a mix of the two (with tongue-in-cheek intentions), but all in all it’s very tight, and very well done. The calibre of the timing of the performers, band, and even the crew is so incredible, that it’s just a pleasure to watch. Plus, there is major audience participation and amusement, so I feel pretty good about saying that no one will be bored at this show. Wow.

Tonight was also fun because I ended up taking my collegue from work, Kaleena. She’s just great, and sure we see each other at work all the time, but you don’t always get a chance to hang out with someone in the “real world”. It was a real pleasure to go with her because she was so able to get into the whole show, and we both have an appreciation for music, so we could also share in that. I was so glad that in the end I was able to go with someone who could enjoy the experience as much as I did. Very cool.

All in all, a very fun night, which is nice because this long weekend is a weekend of hard work, and not too much excitement, so I’m glad it’s had a good highlight. Yay! And I reiterate: “Wow!”