Students and alumni from York University will be showcasing their artistic talents at this year’s Nuit Blanche. Taking place from 7 p.m. on Oct. 5 to 7 a.m. on Oct. 6, Nuit Blanche is a free, all-night celebration of contemporary art that transforms Toronto’s public spaces into extraordinary landscapes. This year’s theme, Bridging Distances, invites audiences to explore the ways they experience and perceive distance.
One standout piece at this year festival comes from Shannon Garden-Smith, a current student in the Visual Arts PhD program in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD). Her captivating new installation, Snail Work (for the lake), is made of unfixed, vibrantly dyed sand, recreating historical marbling patterns at an immersive scale. Audiences are invited to move through the work as a snail might, gently interacting with the pattern – disrupting, unmaking and remaking it in the process.
Through her installation, she weaves together personal, environmental and colonial narratives dedicated to Lake Ontario and its surrounding ecosystem.
Garden-Smith credits AMPD with providing her the essential resources and facilities to bring Snail Work (for the lake) to life. “There’s a really great community of PhD students here at AMPD – it’s important to have those people there to challenge you in the right kinds of ways,” she says. She also acknowledges Professor Brandon Vickerd, Chair of the Visual Art & Art History Department, whose support allowed her to work in the school's facilities.
Also featured at this year’s Nuit Blanche exhibitions are the following York U-affiliated creatives, whose diverse projects span curatorial roles and artistic installations, showcasing the depth of talent emerging from the University:
- Gary Barwin (BFA ’86) – Bird Fiction
- Nathan Bruce (BFA ’21) – Love Across Distance
- Meghan Cheng (MA ’17) – Lumen:Air at Humber Polytechnic
- Elham Fatapour (MFA ’21) – Bodies of water, Bodies of rocks at Humber Polytechnic; Echoes of a Garden: Blossom and Bridges at Humber Polytechnic
- Winta Hagos (BA ’21) – TIZITA – Coded Whisper, It’s Ok* Studios
- Roxanne Ignatius (BFA ’05) – The Bright Web
- Niloo Inalouei (MFA ’21) – Traversing Orbits at Humber Polytechnic
- Alexandra Iorgu (BEd ’10) – Finding Roots Together
- Trevor Janega (BEd ’14) – home is what I call the other place when I'm not there
- Anique Jordan (BA ’11, MES ’15) – I've come to find this place
- Vladimir Kanic (second-year MFA student) – Living Algae Cyborg
- Mishann Lau (BFA ’96) – What are you Saying?, Harbour Square Park lookout
- Germaine Lui (MA ’11) – Sing Sing (Starfield)
- Charmaine Lurch (MES ’15) – One:Many & Nursing Wounds, Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism
- Andrea Nann (BFA ’88) – MOVING IN!, MABELLEarts
- Bee Pallomina (MFA ’13) – MOVING IN!, MABELLEarts
- Michelle Peraza (MFA ’22) – Traversing Orbits at Humber Polytechnic
- Vivek Shraya (MA ’16) – Nuit des mauvais jours, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
- Syrus Marcus Ware (PhD ’21) – Nuit Blanche artistic team co-curator of the And the Spaces Between Us Smiled exhibition
Learn more about Nuit Blanche on the City of Toronto website.
With files from School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design staff