AMPD Championed Creativity at Nuit Blanche 2023
AMPD Championed Creativity at Nuit Blanche
York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) champions creativity and positive change at Nuit Blanche Toronto this Saturday, September 23 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. With the theme of ‘Breaking ground’, Nuit Blanche Toronto invites local, national, and international artists to explore ideas centered around the natural world, change, and innovation.
AMPD faculty, students, and alumni will unveil installations, exhibitions, and performances from a wide range of artistic disciplines, including cinema and media arts, digital media, theatre, and visual art.
Cinema & Media Arts
As part of the Public Visualization Lab/Studio, Patricio Dávila (Associate Professor, Cinema & Media Arts) and Hector Centeno Garcia (Assistant Professor, Cinema & Media Arts) will present an installation in the neighbourhood of Fort York. The installation, entitled ‘Atmospheres’, will be part of The Bentway’s exhibition of public artwork that explores the urban natural world framed by the Gardiner’s iconic concrete columns.
Computational Arts
Joel Ong (Associate Professor, Computational Arts and the Helen Carswell Chair in Community Engaged Research in the Arts) is hosting an exhibition in Etobicoke entitled ‘In Silence’. Created with community advocates from the Jane-Finch neighbourhood, the meditative exhibit visualizes the voices and lived experiences of marginalized communities.
Grace Grothaus (PhD student, Digital Media) will create a light installation in the neighbourhood of Don Mills, entitled ‘Sun Eaters’, to show people how trees flow with hidden energy.
Marcus Gordon (PhD candidate, Digital Media) will mount an interactive installation in downtown Toronto called ‘Urban Arboretum’. The installation uses the voices and sounds of participants to grow computer-generated plants.
Virtual Art & Art History
Marissa Largo (Assistant Professor, Visual Art & Art History) has curated the works of Ephraim Velasco (BFA student, Visual Arts – Studio) at A Space Gallery @ 401 Richmond. A series of digital collages, entitled ‘The Kakaiba Collection’, playfully explores Velasco’s diasporic identity through Philippine visual vocabularies and pop culture.
Archer Pechawis (Assistant Professor, Visual Art & Art History and Theatre) will perform a piece, entitled ‘Daylight’, in Downtown Toronto. The musical performance examines the phenomenon of Toronto’s buried rivers and streams.
For Nuit Blanche Danforth, Andria Keen (MFA student, Visual Arts) is presenting an installation entitled ‘Reflective Foresight for a Dystopian Utopia’. The installation speculates what life might be like in 200 years considering factors like population growth, climate change, and the evolution of technology.
Elham Fatapour (MFA ‘21) will produce video installation in the neighbourhood of Etobicoke. The performance video art, entitled ‘Solitary Stitches’, explores an artist’s solitary relationship with the land, using the seemingly domestic art of sewing.
AMPD invites community members who want to be celebrated as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto to reach out to through the Faculty’s social media channel on X, formerly known as Twitter: @YorkUAMPD.
