Heard of Nuit Blanche all these years, never participated until tonight. An all-night out door art viewing experience. It was freezing cold. Why didn't they do this during warmer months? Thousands overflown the streets downtown, most were young people out to party.
Street-art painted robot made of carton boxes and an LCD monitor for the head, stood tall with the help of strings. Were they helping it standing up, or strangling it?
A forest of egg sags made of plastic globe balls. I like balls.
Used cloth items turned into a patterned shape with holes. The message? Garbage look cool when you light them with colored lights.
Toothbrush, dust buster, or tickle feathers. Two for the price of one.
Crowd swarmed the streets, mechanical palm trees amid downtown - video 1.2mb
Got inside the 401 Richmond building for some warmth. Unexpectedly met a troupe of dancing ladies - video 4.1mb
Stand up poetry club with laser light installation - video 1.5mb.
Chrome ball press-play button, that didn't do anything.
Screenprinting for the public to try - video 843kb
Viewing art along the corridors inside the 401 Richmond building, I stumbled into this OpenStudio, a printmaking workshop opened tonight for the public to try out. What a surprise! Of course I was in. Took off my jacket & scarf, rolled up sleeves, pulled on latex gloves and dived in. I smeared and rolled paint around on a plexiglass plate. What a mess. The paint/ink don't dry. They got everywhere. When I wasn't happy with the image, I just wiped the plate clean and repaint.
Once happied, I handed the plate to the lady at the printing press. She put it face up, placed printmaking paper on top, pulled a cover over and let us took turn to roll the big wheel. The wheel crushed the plate, forcing wet paint deep into paper. Sounds hot!
The prints were peeled off and gave to us. These are called a monoprint because each plate prints only one image and no more. Plates were then cleaned to be reused. I scrubbed my hands with soap multiple times to remove paints, then happily left with the print below that concluded a night of viewing and creating art in the city.
Past midnight, time for a different party. Headed over to the village and danced the night away.
