The Benefits Of Nuit Blanche Festival For Artists And Audiences

Nuit Blanche is an experience for new audiences as they are given a glimpse of different art institutions in Toronto and Scarborough. Another insight is that Nuit Blanche has become a huge attraction as it gave artists an opportunity to exhibit new ideas. My thoughts align with the two points that Leah Sandals has stated in the article.

El Seed’s installation titled “Mirrors of Babel, 2018” proposed a large scale of a calligraphic architecture. Seed’s installation is depicted on an Arabic two-part poem. This piece was exhibited at Yonge-Dundas Square and Scarborough Town Centre. One of the elements of art that Seed’s used to define his installation is line. The use of line helps analyze the movement and mood. Seed uses lines to direct the viewer’s eyes in each part of the artwork. It leads the viewer’s eye around the installation. The artists used calligraphy to express that messages can also be applied to art. The line conveys a sense of energy as they are curved and soft. This directs the viewer to follow the line in comparison to just look at it from one point and look at one spot in isolation. Personally, installation art is an experience for new audiences as they are given the chance to walk through it and engage the artwork as a whole. However, in some cases such as “Mirrors of Babel” it was designed for audiences to walk around and view it. Mirrors of Babel is significant as it showcases the voices of indigenous and immigrants in Canada.

Maximo Gonzalez’ installation titled “Walk Among Worlds, 2014” is an artwork that is composed of globes in different sizes. As stated in the Nuit Blanche website “Walk Among Worlds aims for contemplation and drives to reformulate viewers’ understandings. The world, more correctly conceived, is an accumulation of parallel worlds: some more visible than others, some closer or more distant, but all part of the same organic, vital structure”. One of the elements of art that Gonzalez provides into his piece is shape & form. He uses small globes and big globes to represent first and third world countries. Gonzalez used the shape circles that can represent continuous movement. The installation reaches all the way to the ceiling and around the edges. People were able to go under the installation and engage with the art. As circles represent a continuous movement it directs the viewer’s eye from bottom to the top. As the globe is an element that is three-dimensional it takes up space it falls into the component of form. It is categorized as a geometric shape that defines volume of space.

In regard to the article, Sandals points out that Nuit Blanche is a great chance for artists to seek new ideas. This gives them an opportunity to showcase their art with thousands of people and exhibit them in unusual places. Walk Among Worlds was exhibited at a mall and therefore attracted thousands of viewers.