"Balloonscape"...deflated

"Balloonscape" is an installation that was done in the Eaton Centre and was conceived of by Anna Madelska. This piece is meant to be a "psychedelic landscape" that people are encouraged to add to and explore. I was in the Eaton Centre in the afternoon, before Nuit Blanche started and I saw a group of people setting up, and it seemed like it was going to be a lot of work, and it appears that it was. This was one of my least favourite pieces from Nuit Blanche. It was quite colourful, which was enjoyable, but the structure appeared as though it collapsed and turned into a big mess, and just looked more like a pile of balloons than anything else. I suppose the point of this artistic exercise was to work with notions of space, structure, and community. If there was an initial design to which viewers added on and altered, then a sort of community building was then technically created. However, it seemed more like a Chucky Cheese event than an architectural challenge. I'm not too sure that the Eaton Centre adds anything to this piece. Could there have been a more appropriate space for the installation? Balloons are a commercial thing that consumers buy and they are often used for parties, an event that people go shopping for, so in some respects I guess this space could be a good fit for the project. But what if it had been staged on the green area by King's College instead of the UFO project? Perhaps it would have developed into more of a student housing project. Process based works such as this one are interesting, but I feel that this piece was lacking. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I could have seen evidence of viewers' contributions, if the structure was not limited in size, but could have extended throughout the Eaton Centre like a giant maze.

UFO story continued

The people in the bio-hazard suits, the police, the fire-fighters and the military officials all conversing and guarding the site while trying to keep the public uninformed was a nice touch. There was also a jumbo screen set up to the side of the crash and on it was a woman who appeared to be an anchor delivering the breaking news. Even the old and historic campus building that was lit up in the background added a haunting feeling and provided a nice contrast between the old (humans, their land and their buildings) and the new (whatever crashed and whatever was in it). While I'm sure other people must have loved this installation, I personally believe that it would have been more successful if performed outside of Nuit Blanche. I admired all of the work that went into this project, but because it was part of the show, it seemed obviously fake and so it was difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. The artists were quite successful in creating a specific atmosphere and gathering people together. However, I did not overhear any worried conversations amongst viewers, which is a type of dialogue that would probably occur at the site of an accident and possible alien invasion. I think everyone was just there to watch the show. It would be interesting to see this staged again under different circumstances, perhaps on one sunny afternoon during the work-week. A very different response might occur.

UFO? This is not the "chosen one"...

The next piece I visited was "Event Horizon, by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, staged on the green area at U of T's King's College Circle and Front Campus. This piece calls itself a "conceptual intervention" and attempts to create a UFO crash à la Will Smith Independence Day blockbuster style. I have to say, the artists went to great lengths to make this artwork seem believable, however I did not personally buy into it. This field was flooded with smoke, and a crash scene is created, complete with emergency vehicles, firefighters and even the military. The crash site has metal barriers around it to separate the crowd from danger, including that which unknown life-forms pose. The presence of the military implies secrecy, danger and extra-terrestrials. The army doesn't usually show up for normal crashes, but Hollywood has taught us that they are on-scene if aliens are involved.

"Emergency Room Recruitment Centre" Continued

This is a picture of my cousin and I dancing (while being video-taped which I found to be weird) in the room after triage. She wrote "Stop drive-thrus" on her bandage, as she believes that they should be banned for what they are doing to our air quality. We weren't dying to dance together, but this older woman (who I am guessing was an organizer) kept saying "dance, dance".... so we did. I completely understand that the point of this piece was to create a visual performance in response to current and unfolding global events, and I think it is an interesting idea, I just don't know how successful I thought it was. The triage thing was cute, and the people who wore bandages on their heads looked like they were hurt. The fact that the causes/crises were written on the head bandages could have meant that their crises were hurting them and causing people pain, while simultaneously acting as a label to identify the problem that caused each individual to visit the "emergency room". However, these bandages also looked a little like badges of honour; people supporting their cause by exposing to the eyes of others, whereas people in a health-care emergency room are more quiet (if the reason isn't visually obvious) about the reasons that brought them to the hospital. The artists chose not to have any chairs in this waiting room and decided on dancing instead, which I'm assuming was to promote mingling and discussion of each others' causes; crises that could unite us. I found the atmosphere to be light rather than serious, which is perhaps a positive point when dealing with depressing topics. I found myself confused in the second room; unsure of why someone was speaking into a mic, why we were being photographed and why we were asked to dance. Was the dance a celebration of understanding and uniting over global issues? The first part of the piece, in the first room, was a triage. The job of triage staff is to order patients based on the importance of their problems. It might have been interesting if the "nurses" had ordered us. This might have lead to many interesting debates as to why one problem should be considered more important than another, and might have even resulted in a re-ordering.

"Emergency Room Recruiting Centre"

After Hart House, my next stop on the University of Toronto campus was their Art Centre. Here, a piece titled "Emergency Room Recruitment Centre" was being staged. This work was curated by Seamus Kealy and directed by Thierry Geoffory. This piece was dubbed a "participatory installation" and visitors were encouraged to start their part at the door. Once in the room, people found themselves face to face with women at a desk, who I guess were intended to be "nurses". This part was staged as a sort of triage in which participants were told to write what they considered to be the most important global crisis in marker on what appeared to a white cloth bandage. They were then told to put it on their heads and follow the line into the next room. This next room seemed more confusing to me. It was an open space with rose petals on the floor, and a few drawings on the wall that were randomly spaced. People /"patients" were then asked to stand against a white wall to be photographed (I'm guessing artist documentation), and then were told to mingle with others and were strongly encouraged to slow-dance.

"Slow Dance with the Teacher" Continued...

Diane, I hope you didn't mind my taking your picture, it seemed appropriate :) While the performers/artists and the public did a lovely job at dancing and appearing like they were enjoying themselves, I found the images on the screen to be the most interesting part of the performance/installation. The thought of a student slow-dancing with a teacher calls into question the relationship between power and authority. I think it is pretty fair to say that personal relationships between students and teachers are frowned upon in society. We've all heard horror stories in the news of teachers abusing their position of power and taking advantage of students, usually sexually. So any sort of intimate or physical contact between instructor and pupil, even dancing, would seem somewhat taboo and sketchy. This notion of a relationship of power, of authority, of dominant and submissive certainly came to mind while looking at the images projected on the screen. The first thing that I thought when looking at them was that they appeared to have an S&M quality to them. Now I admit to not being an expert on bondage, however I do feel that I might know enough to make a valid connection. The images are in black in white, and erotic photography can often be in black and white. Black is also the colour that I first think of when I think of bondage, as in black leather outfits. There is always a dominant and a submissive in S&M. In a typical power relationship between teacher and student, the teacher would be the dominant and the student, then submissive. However, here it appears that the roles have been reversed and it is the student who is the dominant and the teacher who is the submissive. I write this because it seems as though the viewer is looking down at the teacher's face, giving him/her a sense of power. As can be seen in the first picture, it appears as though Ms. Wells looks up at us. The angle of the camera make her shoulders look quite narrow, as though she can't relax them, and so perhaps her hands are bound behind her back and she is on her knees. Another key point is that her name and discipline are covering her eyes like a blindfold. Blindfolds are often used in S&M and make her more vulnerable, as we have the power of vision while she is deprived of hers. Hopefully, I've made sense and have not come across as pervy. Anyways, I found these images to be the most provocative part of the performance/installation and I found them to be quite effective in raising questions about power and authority.

"Slow Dance with the Teacher"

This picture is from another piece in Hart House, Darren O’Donnell’s “Slow Dance with the Teacher”. This was a performance piece set in a historic looking hall/gathering room inside of Hart House. The lights were dimmed and at one end of the long rectangular room there was a fireplace with people (I assume participants) sitting around it and above, suspended from the ceiling was a projection screen that showed a slide show of black and white images, such as this one, that depicted individuals (who I assumed were teachers) with their names and disciplines superimposed over their eyes. In the center of the room, was a group of people slow-dancing behind a rope. Personally, I did not find this performance/installation piece to be as taboo and provocative as I thought it might be. When I read about the work online prior to attending, I had images of men and women dressed in suits, in a dark room selecting “students” from the crowd of spectators to dance with. However, when I walked in the room, people were slow-dancing with spotlights on them, and pairs of spectators crossed the rope (that divided participants and spectators) and started slow-dancing with friends. It seemed more like a fun gathering than a dangerous encouter.