Photos by Paul Eekhoff - http://www.pauleekhoffpicturelab.com/
It's been exactly one week since Toronto pulled an all-nighter for the fifth annual Nuit Blanche event sponsored by Scotiabank. Every year at the beginning of October, art-goers and party-goers crash the metropolitan area from sunset to sunrise (7pm - 7am) in search of inspiring installations and frankly, a good time. This year's installment drew approximately 1.2 million people out of their homes.
I had the pleasure this year of assisting my partner Sabrina Richard and her friend Sara Atrvash on their public sculpture Playground (seen above) located in Trinity Bellwoods. The sculpture, designed to invoke childhood memories and provide a reprieve from the grind of day to day adult life, was incredibly successful. Children were clamoring to climb it, while adults lined up to test themselves on the fifty foot long obstacle course. Made from powder coated aluminum cylinders joined together by Euroklemp fittings, the Playground is reminiscent of construction scaffolding slung around homes and skyscrapers - only its gold. Its precious sheen and scaffold-like structure function poetically as a metaphor for growth, maturation, and aging, each of which progress at a fluctuating pace, up and down, with unforeseen hurdles to be met with along the way.
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of installing - or in my case, helping to install someone's work - at Nuit Blanche, is that you invariably miss out on many of the other artworks/installations happening that evening. Nevertheless, though tiring, installing Playground was a wonderful experience and my personal congratulations go out to both Sabrina and Sara for their beautiful work!
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