Nuit Blanche
Toronto 2022
Curatorial Theme
People are the heart of their communities. This curatorial theme focuses on the connections to urban, polar and Pacific landscapes, revealing the space between us as a potential site for sharing knowledge.
People have always commingled with different communities and nations – to build new spaces and families that shift their relationships and connections to each other and to place. People disrupt and transform space, making meaningful connections with communities and places. The global crisis of displaced people brings communities together to stand up for humanity and support each other. Now, more than ever, it reminds us of our willingness to connect when our future is linked to the collaboration between cultures, knowledge, nations and practices.
This curatorial theme invites artists to build bridges between cultures and connect with communities and the environment, transforming the city by telling stories about their connections to place.
ETOBICOKE
Soft Walls Collective, A Point & a Line, Makes a Curve, Then a Circle
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DEBUGREBOOT
TORONTO, ONTARIOHow can we enjoy interaction in digital spaces? This interactive piece explores how technology allows for our 3D representations to expand in closeness to each other, creating a digital tapestry of our community.
[Unintended]_Collisions invites audiences to question their existence in digital spaces and how we can enjoy our proximity as a community in these virtually assisted areas. As people get closer and watch the tapestry of rotating 3D faces on the screen, they may find their 3D bodies included in the display, constantly changing in form.
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MERCEDES PSENICNIK
TORONTO, ONTARIO
What does a fallen tree mean to you? Is it the end or beginning of something? Neon Roots explores this question through its nature-inspired installation. Neon Roots is inspired by the forests surrounding Humber College. In forests, fungi create an extensive root network in the soil. This network allows the fungi to communicate with one another and exchange resources. Neon Roots uses fungi to symbolize a person’s inner strength and the strength created through community.
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INDIGENOUS TRANSMEDIA FELLOWSHIP 2020
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This 7-minute art film presents the struggles Indigenous youth face in this modern world, where they are confronted by offensive stereotypes, blood quantum laws, and family expectations.Five Indigenous students from various disciplines across Humber College produced a short art film over three months. The film reminds viewers that although racial stereotypes continue to shape how Indigenous people are perceived today, younger generations are here to tell their own stories and take back the narrative.
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INDIGENOUS TRANSMEDIA FELLOWSHIP 2021
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This short film addresses 2-Spirit and gender identity discrimination, while also celebrating Indigeneity in the face of adversity.How can Indigenous communities shed the colonial constraints of imposed gender roles? Three Indigenous students from various disciplines across Humber College produced a short documentary film in the summer of 2021 that addresses 2-Spirit and gender identity within Indigenous communities.
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TANVEER ALAM AND NITHYA GARG
TORONTO, ONTARIO
A projection meets mirror installation, this visual art piece of the dancing body is interrogating a multiplicity of images in relation to audience/gaze. The artists examine how the space between image and audience/ gaze impact the dancing body in their work In Multiplicity, and how they contend with the subtle codes that require the body to be both authentic and reproducible. -
SONJA CARMICHAEL, ELISA JANE CARMICHAEL, FREJA CARMICHAEL
STRADBROKE ISLAND, AUSTRALIA
You are invited to walk under an ocean-like cyanotype canopy. Covered with forms that have been carefully handwoven out of discarded marine netting and materials that have washed up on the shores of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), the canopy was created by a family of Quandamooka women artists, who are descended of the Ngugi people of Minjerribah. The use of cyanotype is a richly metaphoric medium for an intergenerational craft tradition, itself intended to help clean and care for the seas in the region. -
I/O MOVEMENT
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Stories is an architecturally stacked performance occupying a common liminal space- the staircase. A performance piece to be viewed from ground level, the evening will unfold as performers weave the space between them forming a tall collective body. We encourage visitors to come and go throughout the evening and welcome autonomy in viewing the work from close or far. -
CLOTH CARE COLLECTIVE
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Mending Clinic is an artist-hosted space dedicated to repair. Patients receive individual care and guidance to mend their garment in a quiet and empowering environment. Participants can book an appointment for mending-related garment care. Appointments begin with a consultation, discussing how the wound formed on the cloth. Artists prescribe a repair approach based on the patient’s skill level and the needs of the garment. The artist begins the mend, teaching the technique as they work. Participants will take their garment with them at appointment end. -
2022 NUIT BLANCHE FELLOWSHIP
TORONTO, ONTARIO
What does resilience mean to you? This immersive and interactive experience conveys our collective ability to withstand adversity, cultivating a sense of empathy amongst strangers and ourselves. Eight students selected from across Humber College produced an artistic project in only 14 weeks. This 15-minute immersive and interactive digital art experience invites audiences to witness personal stories about migration, inclusion, distance, and acceptance, all while accompanied by celestial visuals and dynamic audio. It demonstrates how resilience enables us to work through emotional pain, cultivating a sense of empathic community amongst strangers and ourselves. -
2021 NUIT BLANCHE FELLOWSHIP
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Immerse yourself within this video game experience and reflect on relationships that are sometimes taken for granted. Seven likeminded students from different Humber College programs produced an artistic project in only 14 short weeks. They hardly knew each other and yet their project became an emotive digital experience that, in the form of a video game, challenges audiences to consider what human connection really means in the wake of unexpected isolation.
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SOFT WALLS COLLECTIVE
TORONTO, CANADA
Experience a 12-hour-long collaborative weaving performance, where weavers and their looms, all amplified with contact microphones, move and work in relation to each other, in a gradually inter-connected, overlapping choreography that itself weaves in and out — with the performers connecting to each other or pulling away.
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VLADIMIR KANIC
TORONTO, ONTARIOCould you change the world just by breathing? This sculpture uses your breath as food and converts it into oxygen while curbing the effects of global climate change. The artist utilizes biological processes of living algae to capture carbon dioxide, create oxygen, and purify the air from toxins. Made from organic biopolymers, the sculpture housing the living algae brings attention to global environmental problems while providing hope and a solution for the possible end of the world.
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ELHAM FATAPOUR
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This interactive installation incorporates 12 satellite dishes cloaked in colorful scarves, reflecting the parallels between self-censorship and self-isolation. By recycling locally sourced satellite dishes, the artist gives them a second life, painting them with the same colors and patterns of the scarves that shroud them. Although these familiar devices are typically seen on rooftops or affixed to walls, here they invite interaction in new and unusual ways, like humanoids conversing in a social gathering. -
AMNNA ATTIA
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Immerse yourself in the artistic and cultural traditions of “Tatreez”, the Arabic word for Palestinian embroidery.
Amnna’s artistic practice and exhibition intend to pass on a 3,000-year-old tradition to future generations. Tonight, join Amnna and members of the Palestinian arts community to learn the history and significance of Tatreez through storytelling circles and a showcase of collaboratively-produced embroidery pieces.This immersive exhibition also includes a workshop focusing on cross-stitch embroidery.
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RODA MEDHAT
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Through the traditional form of a minaret, this large carpeted sculpture poses questions of how communication has changed over time.
Farsh is a carpeted sculpture used as a communication point between us and others. Utilizing the traditional form of a minaret this piece allows us to connect and reflect on “the spaces between us”, as well as our personal connection to the people with whom we communicate. -
JOHN NOTTEN
TORONTO, ONTARIO
In Tug, four boats with mechanized oars will row feverishly away from each other in an exploration of the relentless commodification of nature. Oars endlessly rise and fall as each boat pulls earnestly on a large solid tree at the centre of this tug of war. A study in frustration, Tug presents an exploration on the ways in which the landscape continues to be commodified and sapped of its physical properties through excessive extraction. -
NICO WILLIAMS, ᐅᑌᒥᐣ
MONTREAL, CANADA
Explore this forested area of Humber, seemingly transformed into a bush habitat, replete with camping chairs and tarp roofs. What on the surface seems like a quintessential patriotic scene of the “Canadian” outdoors, with chairs covered in Fleur-de-lis and Maple Leaves, on closer inspection has been subverted and reverted through Anishinaabe Bead Work patterns that celebrate resistance and reclamation of land defenders who work to assert land and water stewardship to Indigenous peoples. -
YUNG YEMI
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Explore this region of Humber Campus where the artist has intervened into the built environment with large and small-scale wheatpasted messages. Those Who Watch Over Us is a response to the hyper surveillance of Black bodies and the increased police presence in Black communities. It flips messages of surveillance, replacing them with Afrofuturist icons that harness ancestral gifts of Black bodies, for their future prosperity. -
INDIGENOUS TRANSMEDIA FELLOWSHIP 2022
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This short fiction suspense thriller is inspired by the real-life horrors of the Sixties Scoop, the intergenerational impacts of which are still felt today. A young Indigenous mother wakes up one morning to discover her son is missing from their family home. Everyone she turns to for help either disbelieves her story or suspects her of wrongdoing. Stolen is a short fiction suspense thriller inspired by the real-life horrors of the Sixties Scoop, of which intergenerational impacts are still felt today.
NORTH YORK
Carola Grahn, Namahisvárri
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TCDSB
TORONTO, ONTARIOTCDSB’s Zero-Footprint Sculpture Garden with Friendship Benches tackles the concepts of care for the environment and for one another. Each student was invited to submit a piece of sculpture that is made completely from recycled or re-purposed materials and expresses the theme, “The Space Between Us”. The pedestals, created from recycled materials, reinforce the theme of environmental responsibility. A selection of Friendship Benches will also be included.
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TIMEA WHARTON-SURI
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Come in and enjoy dance, music, poetry, and multimedia performances that remind you we are all in this together. The Meridian Arts Centre’s Studio Theatre is transformed into a nightclub that features works by some of Toronto’s finest artists. Digital design, dance, poetry, and music led by Shannon Litzenberger; movement, music, and digital design led by Naishi Wang; interdisciplinary and participatory magic by Jaz Fairy-J; and photography, spoken word, and film by JAYU’s youth artists. There is something for everyone at The Nexus Cabaret!
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ART ALL NIGHT @
MERIDIAN ARTS CENTREYou’re invited into Meridian Arts Centre, where you can experience three amazing art installations! Timea Wharton-Suri’s The Nexus Cabaret is an immersive, live, contemporary cross-cultural cabaret featuring Naishi Wang, Jaz ‘Fairy J’ Simone, Shannon Litzenberger, and JAYU’s youth artists, with MC Nicole Inica Hamilton weaving together the evening’s performances. Also on view will be Victoria Mata’s beautiful Machete | An excerpt installation from Cacao | A Venezuelan Lament, and Santee Smith’s powerful film Kakwitè:ne nikahá:wi: A Call & Response to Spring. Plus, artist Que Rock will be DJing live all night long.
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RAH ELEH
TORONTO, ONTARIOAn operatic video installation, presented in the round, that will cast audience members in a cool blue light and ask them to contemplate and better understand the historically elevated rates of self-immolations involving young women. With sensitivity and compassion, the artist sheds light on women’s stories and their testimonies. Special thanks to the courageous women from the Hope Centre who wish to remain anonymous but whose contribution is invaluable to this work.
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SCOTT BENESIINAABANDAN
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
Vinyl-wrapped ping pong tables serve as the site where two stories meet and co-exist in the common skies above. Using AR, explore the site above these tables to experience both Anishinaabe “Benesii” (the Thunderbird) and UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). Exploring the in-between spaces of two worlds — known and unknown, human and non-human, real and “fantastic” - “adisokan” (old Anishinaabe stories) meets the X Files in this special project.
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NARGIZA USMANOVA
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This monumental eye-shaped light installation allows you to walk through a colourful labyrinth which “sheds light” on the challenges of immigration. Global Vision is an artistic light installation which embodies the theme of immigration from Europe and Asia to North America. Immigration changes the way we see the world, culture, and society. Immigrants are inevitably changed by their new environment and the people they meet.
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CAROLA GRAHN
MALMÖ/ SWEDEN
Namahisvárri is a mountain too sacred to be named. This inflatable mountain rises, at its highest peak to 10 metres above sea level, and topples into the pond, only to rise again. Inspired by the sacred role of mountains as holy spaces in Saepmie (the Sami people’s historical areas in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Kola Peninsula), this project contemplates a spirited nature as well as the use of natural resources in Saepmie and beyond.
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CHUN HUA CATHERINE DONG
MONTRÉAL, CANADA
A series of vinyl images covering the walls and windows of the Library that can be activated via Augmented Reality (AR). These images explore complex, culturally specific ideas of shame — particularly as it relates to the lives and actions of women. Taking its starting point from the Chinese term for shame — saving face — each of these images are an ID photograph where the faces concealed in Chinese traditional silk fabrics, which also make up the background. A poignant metaphor for the act of saving face.
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DEATH BY COMMITTEE
TORONTO, ONTARIOIn this installation viewers will interact with the water of Lake Ontario as a source to drink and to sustain more than only human lives. On, Around, and With Water is an installation that presents viewers with two experiences of Lake Ontario. One where the microbial life always present in the mud has been encouraged to grow to the point it can be seen. The second, where water has been completely purified of microbial life.
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CINEMATOSCAPE
TORONTO, CANADA
A multimedia experience composed of expansive projections and sonic environments that explore the emotional, cultural and physical distances within and between us, in an elemental world. Immersing us, virtually, in three basic elements — earth, water and air/sky — the project illustrates “the spaces between” them and invites reflections on our own place in the world. A special thank you to North York Arts and the community of North York.
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NAVA MESSAS WAXMAN
TORONTO, ONTARIO
This site-specific immersive installation explores notions of diaspora, liminality, and gestures through interactive sound, video performance, dance archive, and moving-image projection. The installation is a constellation of video performances, moving-image, and documentation archives which are projected simultaneously onto various surfaces throughout space. This installation takes the form of an event that offers generative and transformative experiences in which the audience participates in a ritual of becoming, thereby adding new layers and meanings to the work.
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BROOK ANDREW
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
murrungamirra is the Wiradjuri word for object. A family of inflatable sculptures with black and patterns inspired by my Wiradjuri inheritance and the cultural practices of carving trees and shields. The breathing action of the sculptures emphasises the importance of continuing cultural practices and mark making. -
TEHO ROPEYARN
INJINOO, AUSTRALIA
Experience new large-scale vinyl prints across North York Centre TTC Station.
Each of these contemporary artworks explore stories that reveal unseen ancestral relationships between people, the land and the ancestors.
They depict the Indigenous relationship with this land, and explain how the land becomes the human, the human becomes the animal, the animal becomes the land, the land becomes the spirit and the spirit becomes a device linking these elements.
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YUNG YEMI
TORONTO, CANADA
You are invited to explore this region of North York where the artist has intervened into the built environment with large and small-scale wheatpasted messages. Those Who Watch Over Us is a response to the hyper surveillance of Black bodies and the increased police presence in Black communities. It flips messages of surveillance, replacing them with Afrofuturist icons that harness ancestral gifts of Black bodies, for their future prosperity.
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SCARBOROUGH
Whyishnave Suthagar, கோலம் (Kolam): A Parallel Coexistence
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WAVEARTCOLLECTIVE
TORONTO, ONTARIOJuxtaposing the stories of Scarborough’s roots against Rouge Park’s changing seasons, Where the Trees Speak is a participatory audiovisual installation that represents the community’s migratory origins. Rouge National Urban Park, a cyclically-changing natural landscape, bears many parallels to Scarborough’s dynamic and vibrant demographic history. Where the Trees Speak connects Rouge Park’s history and location as a metaphor for the migratory waves of Scarborough. Viewers will experience and actively participate in the interplay between our natural environment and diasporic movement. Produced with the support of the Toronto Arts Council.
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AARON JONES
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Timecode Butterfly showcases collages by Aaron Jones overlaid with videos from the Toronto Public Library’s Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection. Aaron Jones’ work affirms our spiritual-symbiotic relationship to nature. This projection based installation uses Aaron Jones’ signature analog collage style with video elements to entice viewers. Layered cuts of paper, intentional but free, shape dreamy and amorphous figures. Jones evokes the unreal and beautifully strange. Produced with the support of the Toronto Arts Council.
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YUNG YEMI
TORONTO, CANADA
You are invited to explore this region of North York where the artist has intervened into the built environment with large and small-scale wheatpasted messages. Those Who Watch Over Us is a response to the hyper surveillance of Black bodies and the increased police presence in Black communities. It flips messages of surveillance, replacing them with Afrofuturist icons that harness ancestral gifts of Black bodies, for their future prosperity.
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MORRIS WAZNEY
TORONTO, ONTARIOAll work and no play? This colourful installation turns the daily grind on its head, transforming an everyday environment into a nostalgic play space. The performers in the ball pit shake up the conventional workplace structure allowing a carefree space to question the rigidity of everyday life. By taking a building that blends into the cityscape and turning it into a colourful statement, the council chamber as play space brings into question of if workplace meetings are answering the questions that matter.
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TSĒMĀ
VANCOUVER, CANADA
Tailings Pool explores the crucial importance of water, how it is impacted by industrial activity and how it connects us all. Here, the artist has built a shimmering, turquoise kidney-shaped pool in the engineering specs of a mining tailings pond. Intended as a pointedly ironic object (is it a crudely built swimming pool or a delicately built tailings pond?), we are invited to think about human overindulgence and its environmental impacts.
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CULTURANS
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
A special virtual project. Using AR and VR, follow a line of light through the forest and experience a transforming and warming connection between people across time and cultures. Set up in the shape of a flower, the path of light is composed of five altars, which will each present special experiences.
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CURATED BY THE SPOKEN SOUL COLLECTIVE (SSC) ARTISTS: MARK STODDART, JENNIFER ALICIA, GLAMMA, MO THUNDER AND ANTHONY GUGLIOTTA
A multi-faceted exhibition that reflects the rich diversity and history of Scarborough, highlighting that while this part of Toronto is often overlooked and negatively reported on, it has significantly contributed to the Toronto arts scene, producing many of Toronto’s iconic arts and culture makers.
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LUDOVIC BONEY
QUEBEC, CANADAA visceral and immersive installation that explores urgent questions of our environmental crises.
Over 100 scaffolding planks, seeded with thousands of tall metal rods crowned with recycled plastic bags, this project invites you to travel through a human-created plastic field and contemplate its scale.
The project is also viewable from the outside, where audience members can watch people move through and effect the field of plastic.
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COUZYN VAN HEUVELEN
IQALUIT, CANADA
Pods of seals floating between the levels of Scarborough Town Centre?
Meant to mimic the flow and migration of seals in the Arctic, these objects are in the shape of an “Avataq” — a traditional Inuit float used by hunters to track marine animals — made from the skin of a seal, inflated with air, plugged and tied off.
Here, the Avataqs are made of a material similar to foil balloons. With mirrored surfaces and associated with celebrations, they draw the viewer’s attention and celebrate Inuit culturaltraditions.
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WHYISHNAVE SUTHAGAR
A large-scale, woven, glowing Mandala fills this immersive space.Composed of intricate light and thread, this installation reflects on the cyclical and ephemeral nature of life.
It’s inspired by the artist’s life in Canada as a second-generation diasporic Tamil community member, and their experiences with both change and reconciliation.
Mandala shapes were first encountered by the artist in the form of “Kolams” — an ancient form of drawing in the Hindu religion — that are washed away once made.
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ESMOND LEE
TORONTO, CANADA
A floating photographic installation that, swaying over us, explores different psychic, social and architectural thresholds, and the connections between them.What are the interconnections between urban, suburban and rural, exterior and interior, public and private?
Set in Scarborough, the project explores Toronto’s complex history of amalgamation and the transitory nature of its suburbs.
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DOWNTOWN
Couzyn Van Heuvelen, Avataq
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VARIOUS ARTISTS, NORTHERN CIRCUMPOLAR REGIONS CURATED BY MELISSA SHAGINOFF, JENNIFER BOWEN, ALICE MARIE JEKTEVIK, AND JESSICA WINTERS
A unique exhibition of contemporary circumpolar photography that challenges our conception of the Arctic as “unoccupied, vast and empty,” by sharing images of Indigenous and other Northerner connections to land, knowledge, practices, relationships and kinships, firmly establishing that we have always been here. Special thanks to the Inuit Art Foundation, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and Inuit Futures.
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SUSAN BENISTON
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Experience drawing your own breath in artful ways and measure its length, to create a sculpture in the round with others. We invite everyone to play their part in this performance of measuring breaths. We want everyone to experience the rhythm of their breath and see different rhythms in others in a calm, connected way. What can this look like? Everybody will be asked to provide personal thoughts so we can build upon a bigger idea over this 12-hour time period.
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BUILT FOR ART
VARIOUS ARTISTS
For 12 hours, 401 Richmond will be teeming with dynamic and interactive exhibitions, installations and performances created by homegrown talent and by artists from as far away as the Canadian Arctic. Two floors of creative exploration await Nuit Blanche Toronto revellers for a unique experience that both highlights a diversity of cultural practice and showcases the iconic address that continues to transform Toronto’s cultural landscape.
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MOONHORSE DANCE THEATRE
TORONTO, ONTARIOThis moving meditation celebrates creativity and diversity embodied through the passion, play and artistry of senior dancers in kinship with each other and the earth. ApHeart is a celebration of diversity within our community through dance and the lived history of each senior dancer, musician and community mover who performs the work. Individual voices are illuminated through the ApHeart experience and together the ensemble offers a sense of hope and unity. ApHeart speaks through the body to celebrate our humanity and the earth we inhabit.
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LINDA ZHANG AND MAXIM GERTLER-JAFFE
TORONTO, ONTARIO
A 3D animated experience that reimagines the future of Toronto’s Chinatowns, creating new Chinatown worlds based on the hopes and fears of five community authors. This installation seeks to transform Chinatown by telling stories. In contrast to the news stories being told about Chinatown and Asian Canadians in the early months of 2020, community participants—mostly young Asian-Canadians—took part in workshops where they wrote speculative fiction stories imaginingwhat Toronto’s Chinatowns might look like 30 years post-pandemic.
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JENNA BUCHWITZ
TORONTO, ONTARIO
What do we choose to remember? What is keeping these memories alive? How are memories constructed out of fragments of history? The installation responds to the lack of archival records we have of the first Chinese-owned business in Toronto, Sam Ching & Co. Chinese laundry. The installation offers a new associative memory from fragments collected from archival documents and 3D scans. As an immersive art installation, viewers are encouraged to enter, touch, and experience the space.
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THE PARALLAX PATH
Explore the experiences of artists from under-served communities, through a collection of shoes that are significant to each of their journeys.This exhibition explores a wide range of unique stories, which have immense resilience in the face of barriers and challenges in common.
Visitors will experience this through pre-recorded performances of spoken word, storytelling, singing and rapping.
This project is a presentation by VIBE Arts.
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PROUD JOY
JORDAN BENNETT (KTAQAMKUK/NEWFOUNDLAND) AND NATALIE KING (TKARONTO/TORONTO)
Gather in OCADU’s Butterfield Park to experience Jordan Bennett and Natalie King’s artwork, which challenges colonial stereotypes and is filled with Indigenous pride and joy.With vibrant colours, symbology and connections to the land, water and sky, these joyous works reflect Jordan’s and Natalie’s respective Mi’kmaq and Anishinaabe histories, present and futures.
Also, please visit Jordan Bennett’s solo exhibition at Onsite Gallery (199 Richmond St. W.).
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HANEEN DALLA-ALI
TORONTO, ONTARIO
An animation and augmented reality installation that brings a remote, Southern Ontario landscape to downtown Toronto, showcasing it through the eyes of the immigrant. Artist Haneen Dalla-Ali maps out her experience of navigating the narrow limestone fissures at the Limehouse Conservation Area; a natural site near her current home in Ontario.
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VARIOUS ARTISTS, NORTHERN CIRCUMPOLAR REGIONS CURATED BY MELISSA SHAGINOFF, JENNIFER BOWEN, ALICE MARIE JEKTEVIK, AND JESSICA WINTERS
A unique exhibition of contemporary circumpolar photography that challenges our conception of the Arctic as “unoccupied, vast and empty,” by sharing images of Indigenous and other Northerner connections to land, knowledge, practices, relationships and kinships, firmly establishing that we have always been here.
Special thanks to the Inuit Art Foundation, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and Inuit Futures.
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YAW TONY
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Judgement of the Eye invites audiences to experience new work from The Colour Odyssey series, a rich visual art experience.Eyes that look are common but eyes that see are rare - The Judgement of the Eye takes us on a long journey of intertwining narratives. In connection to the theme, “The Space Between Us”, this work looks at how we can collectively tell new stories that amplify the contributions of all peoples, inviting our diverse beings into open space, reclaiming and understanding the importance of self-discovery as the solution to global nodus (Gordian Knot).
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LAN FLORENCE YEE AND JOY WONG
The familiar and lively sounds of mahjong haunt the empty garden in this multi-channel installation about the changing Chinatown landscape.As the sounds are audible from the street, passers-by may expect a lively game in the gardens, but are confronted by an unexpected absence. 熱鬧 (yeet nao) brings a sound that used to be and still could be commonplace in the neighbourhood, but has been quieted due to the rapidly changing landscape of Chinatown(s).
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SOUVENIR JORDAN BENNETT STEPHENVILLE CROSSING, KTAQAMKUK/NEWFOUNDLAND
This exhibition, curated by Ryan Rice, explores the artist’s engagements with the innovative heritage of Mi’kmaq material culture and design.Interdisciplinary and intuitive, these artworks bring new vitality to overlooked cultural expressions, featuring Mi’kmaq cosmologies, geometric motifs, precious porcupine quillwork and basketry.
Natalie King’s outdoor artworks at Butterfield Park (100 McCaul St.)
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BLACKPOWERBARBIE - THROUGH BLESSED HANDS: BEAUTY TRAVELS CAROLINE MONNET – MOONIYANG KEREAMA TAEPA - SHARED HISTORIES NEW ZEALAND; CANADA
View the iconic CN Tower as never seen before.Transformed through video animations by three unique artists, tonight CN Tower is a beacon.
Explore the video artwork by artists: BlackPowerBarbie who reflects on the healing grooming practices of Afro textured hair, Caroline Monnet creations of traditional Anishinaabe geometric patterns that illuminate long suppressed Indigenous knowledge and Kereama, Taepa and interpretation of stories of cultural innovation and discovery visible within Indigenous landscapes and histories to stand together in telling them.
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AS PART OF NUIT BLANCHE VARIOUS ARTISTS
Four fascinating exhibitions from Nordic and Canadian artists explore human nature’s relationship, connection and disassociation with the natural world around them.Three are part of Nordic Bridges, Harbourfront Centre’s year-long cultural initiative celebrating Nordic art, culture and ideas in Canada.
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Elle Márjá Eira, Marja Helander, Ann Holmgren Aurebekk, Hans Pieski, Silja Somby, Liselotte Wajstedt
The world premiere of ÁRRAN 360° is presented as an official part of the extended program of ´The Sámi Pavilion´ at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale de Venezia, in conjunction with ARCTIC XR. -
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Nyla Innuksuk, Mark Igloliorte, Tanya Tagaq, Melaw Nakehko, Casey Koyczan
Having debuted at the Arctic Arts Summit, ARCTIC XR will be shown at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale de Venezia in conjunction with ÁRRAN 360 before returning to Canada for Nuit Blanche Toronto. Led by Dr. Julie Nagam and Dr. Heather Igloliorte, this initiative could not come at a more pivotal time, as it will catalyze vital exploration and dialogue about Indigenous perspectives on Extending Reality (XR) and the future of digital storytelling. -
ARCTIC/AMAZON: NETWORKS OF GLOBAL INDIGENEITY VARIOUS ARTISTS
Explore the ways by which Indigenous contemporary artists take on issues of climate change, globalized Indigeneity and political contact zones. Focused on both the Arctic and the Amazon, each during a time of crisis, this exhibition sheds light on current geopolitical and environmental sustainability issues informing the work of artists in these two different yet interconnected regions. -
MOVEMENT OF PLACE, THE COLLECTION DIVIDES US, WE SEE MONSTERS AMRITA HEPI, INUUTEQ STORCH BRACKEN HANUSE CORLETT AND DEAN HUNT MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA; VANCOUVER, CANADA; NUUK, GREENLAND
Considering the body as a point of archive, artist Amrita Hepi took to reperforming stories around Kaurna Country Adelaide in order to rediscover the body’s relation to the place and context.The Collection that Divided Us addresses the Inuit relationship with food and the impact of living in a colonial world that has resulted in a distancing within communities. This video work demonstrates Inuit life and the impacts of modernization, addressing the multitudes of shifts and divides rooted within colonialism. Access to country food, hunting practices and land- based knowledge is rife with contradictions from mainstream
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EUGENE PAUNIL
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Considering the body as a point of archive, artist Amrita Hepi took to reperforming stories around Kaurna Country Adelaide in order to rediscover the body’s relation to the place and context.Inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic and BLM protests, Paunil presents an installation representing a world divided. Paunil plays with the idea that God is amongst us hiding in plain sight. He asks, “If we knew that a Divine being was present, would we still allow our differences to fill the space between us?”
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ASLI ALIN
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Illuminated Inflorescence is an installation by Asli Alin, in which audiences interact and explore light and sound created by their motion. The audience will observe a crystal form with an interactive lighting system. The lights change colour and direction, controlled by the motion of the viewer. Mirrored faces reflecting the viewers incorporate them into the overall composition. -
KINETIC MEANS
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Without/Within is a meditation on counterparts. Using shadow projection and improvised scoring, we paint simultaneous portraits of urban/rural and human/more-than-human.Within/Without is an improvised shadow and dance installation with original, live improvised scoring. We use the layering capacity of shadow projection to create intricate moving portraits of ecological and human-based binaries that simultaneously challenge and support one another. We are exploring the counterparts of urban/rural, human/animal/plant, capitalist/ socialist, and also focus on third spaces, overlaps, and mutations.
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MARC DE PAPE
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Feeling distracted? Wondering if the conversation at the next table is more interesting than the friend right in front of you? Find out.Six connected lamps (microphone, speaker, and LEDs) are spread across tables, allowing guests to broadcast inanity into the network, or listen in to other conversations. Those listening will have their lamp illuminated, signalling that they are lurking. And those publishing will have their lamps dimmed, offering a comforting sense of anonymity.
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GABRIELLE LASPORTE
TORONTO, ONTARIOFluid Connectivité reflects on life and the knowledge that our individual stories mesh into a wider expanse of flow and connectivity. Visitors will be invited to stand on interwoven fabrics representing a flow of energy – similar to the flow of energy that moves through public spaces on a daily basis. Step into the flow, journey to the center, and become one with your senses – through light, sound and visual art.
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DESTINIE ADELAKUN
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Daughters of the diaspora (DOD) is a photographic essay. This body of work is concerned with the iconographic significance of women from the African diaspora. Since they sailed on the ships thousands of years ago, some left the memories of their spiritual practices, folklore, and rituals back in the motherland. In 2016 Adelakun started research on West African ancestral practices. She discovered a path that took her into her past and toward a new understanding of the diaspora. These experiences shaped her as a daughter of the diaspora. During this journey she started illustrating stories of West African mythological figures known as Orishas in the form of set design and hand-made accessories, such as crowns, statues, props etc. She created a modern conceptualized take on the Orishas so that the new-age diaspora can also connect to the visuals and visualize a piece of themselves/ancestors through these photographs. This work is her call to join the quest of liberating people of the Black diaspora (which include but aren’t limited to women of colour, the LGBTQIA+ community, visible minorities, and the immigrant population).
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COUZYN VAN HEUVELEN
IQALUIT, CANADA
Meant to mimic the flow and migration of seals in the Arctic, these objects are in the shape of an “Avataq” — a traditional Inuit float used by hunters to track marine animals — made from the skin of a seal, inflated with air, plugged and tied off. Here, the Avataqs are made of a material similar to foil balloons. With mirrored surfaces and associated with celebrations, they draw the viewer’s attention and celebrate Inuit culturaltraditions.
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SHELLEY NIRO BRANTFORD/
SIX NATIONS OF GRAND RIVER
Point Blankets have a long history in Canada.They have represented both colonial wealth and shelter from the elements. As objects given to Native people in exchange for animal furs, they also symbolized the uneven transactions between Indigenous people and settlers.
Here, 13 stretched point blankets, imprinted with images of both past Indigenous life, impacted by settler transactions, as well contemporary Indigenous experience, ask the viewer to reflect on the histories embedded in these objects.
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VARIOUS ARTISTS
CANADA, GREENLAND, PACIFIC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALANDOn a screen made out of the mist from the water of Lake Ontario, films from Māori, Pasifika, Canadian and Greenlandic artists will play throughout the night. This viewing experience like no other is called Mana Moana. ‘Moana’ means ocean and lake in 35 Polynesian languages. These films reflect on indigenous narratives and relationships, both across and with our oceans and lakes, as we consider our future actions with regard to our climate, our environment, and our communities.
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SALOME ASEGA
NEW YORK, USA
“RATs” is an acronym for “Risk Assessment Tools” — algorithmic decision-making tools used more frequently and widely that have societal impact and create dangerous new inequities. These tools influence everything from bail and sentencing, probation, parole release and supervision, to welfare eligibility, medical benefits and housing service.It influences everything from bail and sentencing, probation, parole release and supervision, to welfare eligibility, medical benefits and housing service.
Here RATs is embodied by a large monster truck in the shape of a rat, inviting us to contemplate the hidden monstrosities created by these new widespread technologies.
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SAGE PAUL & INDIGENOUS FASHION ARTS
TORONTO, CANADA
Experience Indigenous-made fashion by seven Indigenous designers, through several fashion vignettes.Ho’reh Tih Yeh Kuh means “to see the horizon at dawn” and this show was conceived from contrasting two stories, The Woman on the Land from Denesuliné territory in Treaty 10 and The Cave by Plato.
The vignettes serve to provide various vantage points for the audience to explore closed and wide perspectives of Indigenous fashion practices.
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I AM LAND THAT SPEAKS
CURATED BY MAYA WILSON-SANCHEZ ARTISTS: ERIC GALLARDO, CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER, ALVIN LUONG, MADEYOULOOK, CHRIS MENDOZA, LISA MYERS, WAARD WARD AND TANIA WILLARDFor the night of Nuit Blanche, experience the third and final chapter of “I am Land” — a special exhibition presented for ArtworxTO. Each of these projects explore how artists take on the role of chroniclers. Here we pay attention to stories that come directly from the land, and in the process highlight history-making as a site-specific exercise.
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MAUREEN GRUBEN
TUKTOYAKTUK, CANADANine giant silver fox skin stretchers span the width of Yonge Street to create a mirrored, immersive world. Made in the same shape as traditional fox stretchers used by Inuvialuit hunters and named for the artist’s father — one of the region’s most successful hunters and trappers — Kagisaaluq asks viewers to contend with how trapping is central to this
land’s history and how Canada has been shaped by diverse cultures and traditions.
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ANUPA KHEMADASA
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Toronto’s cityscape swings to a chorus of community voices that reflect on the land we share. This immersive audio-visual installation is a conversation about how city-dwellers relate to their city while living between its monuments. It offers stories from across Toronto: reflections on the land we share. In a time of global crisis of mass displacement and other socio-political anxieties, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot calls for a renewed response to collective living.
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CAROLINE MONNET
MONTRÉAL, CANADAA multimedia installation, made up of large-scale colourful plexiglass and mirrors and inspired by how tree roots communicate underground. You are invited to navigate this immersive experience and reflect on trees as the Earth’s nervous system — resilient, connected to each other and communicating across vast divides. This system challenges the colonial organization of land, bodies and time, and speaks to our interconnectedness and the diversity of views that shape our place within the world.
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NIKE ONILE
TORONTO, CANADA
With a backdrop of the last few difficult years of turmoil, sacrifice and isolation, The Dinner Table is a celebration of our need to rebuild connections and renew our social identities. This long all-white dinner table set in the middle of the street uses the universally sacred occasion of a communal meal to reflect on the past and imagine a future. Audiences are invited to shower the table with the provided coloured dust as a dynamic, celebratory ritual.
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SUN K. KWAK
NEW YORK, USA
A site-specific ephemeral installation, Untying Space_Yonge 40 Adelaide is an exploration of the urgency of co-existence in the Toronto cityscape. A digitally cut-out drawing rendered by flaring cascades of white and iridescent colourful vinyl and graphic film, the work wraps the glass corners of this building, transforming it into a visual epicentre for empowerment and reconciliation. -
COUZYN VAN HEUVELEN
IQALUIT, CANADAAn Avataq is a traditional Inuit float, used by hunters to track marine animals that is made from the skin of one seal, inflated with air, plugged and tied off. Here, a 30-foot inflatable skin hovers over a street, drawing material similarity with foil balloons. The mirrored surface and contemporary association with balloons transform this Avataq into a celebration of Inuit culture and traditions.
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TANYA TANAQ
CAMBRIDGE BAY, NUNAVUT, CANADAFollow the haunting sounds of a siren calling you down Yonge Street. Drawing you into the subtle nuances from the land, the echos of guttural deep breathing, and the call and response of throat signing. Each reverberation will lead you down the artery of Toronto’s dividing line of east and west.
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Amrita Hepi
Melbourne/Townsville of Bundjalung/Ngapuhi territories, Australia
An Occupation is part sculpture, part performance using a 6-metre-wide inflatable structure and heart monitors to inflate and deflate, the labour of the body and the dance is made visible. For this edition of An Occupation, we will be inviting participants to soundtrack the work with Karaoke songs about labour, work and occupation (think Rhianna’s work or Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5) set against the backdrop of Toronto’s financial district. -
Chuck Anderson @NoPattern,
Chicago
The installation is an exploration of pace. Colours travel around the screens at a slow and purposeful speed. There is a beautiful restraint in the movement that encourages viewers to come together and take a second to appreciate this moment of clarity. If you pace yourself throughout the night, you’re able to have the clarity to enjoy each moment and enjoy the beautiful morning. Be responsible, take control of your night, and create memories that you won’t soon forget. This installation brought to you by fine artist NoPattern in collaboration with Johnnie Walker demonstrates pace as an important part of responsible drinking. -
CHERYL L’HIRONDELLE
EDMONTON, CANADA
A mîkiwahp (tipi) made out of light, suspended in air.Each of the 15 poles that makes up the tipi represent life-affirming values for the nêhiyawak (Cree people) and its shape symbolizes an old woman covered with a shawl — a grandmother — who embodies all these values. Scaled to accommodate the female giants — women who lead and care for their communities — this tipi will serve as a site for performances and augmented reality experiences throughout the night.
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KATHY MOSCOU
TORONTO, ONTARIO
Hidden Spaces aims to reclaim Toronto’s Black history. Visitors will be invited to reconstruct forgotten stories and co- construct a monument to the Ward’s hidden history.The story of St. John’s Ward is connected to the Underground Railroad, yet the history of this hidden space is largely unknown.
A partially demolished faux brick building will be erected at the exhibition site. Visitors will be able to observe a visual history of the Ward while invited to contribute to the piece by “co-constructing” the building with informative faux bricks.
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CULTURE INDUSTRY [DOT] CLUB
TORONTO, ONTARIO
All Vows, an immersive multimedia experience in the space of one of Toronto’s first immigrant havens, asks visitors to consider the paradoxical nature of diaspora—isolating and community-building.The name references the Kol Nidrei prayer, one written for the Jewish Diaspora, where the preservation of heritage may supersede religious obligations. All Vows asks visitors to come to The Ward and take a moment of pause to consider what it means to fight for the preservation of one’s culture.
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ELSEWHERE COLLECTIVE
TORONTO, ONTARIO
loom is a multimedia installation that responds to fragmentation, dislocation, impermanence and connection as intrinsic conditions of lived experience.Weaving past with present, loom at Trinity draws upon the site’s rich history of ritual, resistance and conflict. Recorded in 1987 in this very hall, echoed distortions of Mining for Gold interlace with projections, capturing impressions grounded in the ceaseless debate over “forever free and unappropriated” access to the public realm, urban, virtual and otherwise - the shared space between us.
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ANNA BINTA DIALLO
WINNIPEG, CANADA
A series of sculptural works, drawn from diverse sets of archival, folkloric stories about shape-shifters — mythical figures that can assume different forms.Interspersed along a path in downtown Toronto, these large-scale, immersive sculptures are inspired both by the historical myths about shapeshifters and by the continuous capacity of people to transform themselves in their daily lives.
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JOHNSON WITEHIRA
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND
The river is a supernatural living being for Witehira’s tribes (Tamahaki, Ngati Hinekura). It has its mauri (life-force), and its well-being is linked directly to the well-being of the people. These digital works explore Witehira’s relationship to his awa tupuna (ancestral river), Te Wainui-ā-Rua. The dream-like landscape, filled with abstracted Tiki figures and objects with connections to the river, is a window into the artist’s consciousness. Pieces of memories, both real and imagined, drift past the viewer. Using animation, the artist stretches time, using the digital medium to show connections between the past, present and future. Playing with time, the visual narrative explores Māori perceptions of the world, in which the past is in front of us not behind. -
MARK IGLOLIORTE
NUNATSIAVUT, CANADA
Experience Yonge-Dundas Square as an Indigenous space for skateboarders.Inspired by Inuit stone arrangements around artic fish spawning sites — Saputiit - Fish Weir Skate Plaza channels the flow of skaters and creates a skateboarding-welcome space where BIPOC bodies are accepted.
Audiences are invited to interact with the site though augmented reality — engaging with virtual artic char — who tonight, are virtual contemporaries of urban skaters.
Use #ARchar and #NBT022 to post and view Saputiit clips!
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WRITING ON THE WALL
TORONTO, ONTARIOPerformances of spoken word artists are projected onto the exterior of Mackenzie House.
Mackenzie House is a historical site that was home to William Lyon Mackenzie, an outspoken writer, publisher, politician, and rebel. These poets’ words spark change within audiences. With raised voices they bring awareness, solace, and petals of understanding.
This work explores how words can begin to close the space between us. Produced with the support of the Toronto Arts Council.
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MAKE SPACE
VARIOUS ARTISTSExperience the intersection of art and technology with this series of immersive artworks and installations.
Explore Launchpad’s cutting-edge studios to see innovative approaches to art-making, featuring sound experiences, augmented reality creations, moving image, photography and textile work — all created by emerging Canadian artists.
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ARTIFACTS STUDIO
TORONTO, ONTARIOJoin this augmented reality social experience to map your path and to take part in the mystical encounters on the streets of Toronto. In order to participate, users will need an active internet/data connection on an iPhone device to download the app through the iOS AppStore. Once users launch the app, and allow their location to be shared, they can start creating virtual trails using a simple button.
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Cheryl L'Hirondelle, iskocēs: okihcitāw-iskwēw-kamik ohci