Julianna Yau’s blog

Our last stop was the House of Leaves, which was a recreation of Katherine L. Lannin’s home in an alleyway at Ryerson. She had wallpapered her home with pages from books, and was evicted for the fire hazard it posed. On the way to see it, we passed by a chess board painted on the street, and I was disappointed that there weren’t enough of us to play a game. In retrospect, I could have called out to other Nuit Blanchers to try to start a game, but I was too tired to have thought of that option at the time.

House of Leaves was a great last exhibit to see, because it was a quiet, reflective installation. Its tone and presence was entirely different from the duck pond. And although the pages were more accessible to visitors, and there were many pages “for the taking”, the very nature of the display did not invite the same type of interaction as the duck pond. People were more interested in seeing and reading (and, in my case, smelling…from a distance) the pages than in taking pages off to bring home.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken many more pictures than I had (for example, I don’t have one of the coin-operated “robot”). But I think I had a much better time being a part of Nuit Blanche than merely documenting it.

As we were leaving to see House of Leaves, we were approaching a coin-operated “robot”, and I  couldn’t resist dropping all of my change into the bucket for a little performance.  I felt invigorated and like a child again, being given the chance to be playful and spontaneous in a way that we rarely allow ourselves (at least I, myself) to be. En route to to Queen Station, I saw one of my favourite unintentionally public art displays—an art-induced traffic jam. I do feel badly about the people trying to get through the intersection, but it was elating to see such an obvious impact to the way people move an interact because they were out to see art (and…also…I can’t believe there are some people crazy enough to drive through downtown Toronto during Nuit Blanche).

So, after passing more performance artists, we took the subway to Dundas Square. 15 Minutes was on intermission, so we headed for the House of Leaves. En route, we stopped to ask where people were getting rubber ducks, and were told that there was a duck pond at Gould Street. Teresa and Adriana almost ran for the pond, and I was delighted to see so many people crowded around the display and wading into the pond to play with the ducks, despite the ice-cold water. Justin was brave enough to wade into the pond, but his trip was cut short by an onlooker who was chastising everyone for “destroying the artist’s work”, claiming that the artist was just here and had been telling everyone to stop taking ducks. She refused to believe that the program said that people were encouraged to go into the pond, and continued to yell at people until her friends started to try to push her into the pond.

Honestly, even if the artist had not intended for people to take ducks home with them, I don’t have a problem with this type of activity. It was all in good fun (versus vandalism), where the public was simply wanting to interact with the display and take a piece of the work home with them. Is it still theft? Yes. And although good intentions doesn’t invalidate the act of theft, the coordinators of Light Up the Night did invite people to hunt the proverbial sitting ducks. After Steroscope, the duck pond was the most interactive and playful display we encountered last night.

Our first stop was someone, a printing press tucked away in Cabbagetown. My friend Adriana was in heaven, pouring over the little lead letters and learning about how the illustrations were prepared for printing. They also allowed visitors to take one of the sets of prints they were creating, with the option to leave our information to return for the print after the event.

We wandered through a bit more of Cabbagetown, stopping to listen to a reading of Cabbagetown by Hugh Garner. We also caught the end of a very cute short film featuring dancing notes juxtaposed with the soundtrack, and also watched as the giant outdoor screen came falling down. Luckily, no one was hurt because the closest row cleared the screen by a few feet and was vacant. Adriana and I rushed to help them right the screen, and hold it while they re-secured the frame to a tall, industrial tripod and brought in more sandbags to weigh it down. By the time we left, the hand for Red Door was already well along its way.

Amazingly, this year was my first time at Nuit Blanche. I hadn’t originally planned on going, because everyone I know who went the first and second years said that the first year was fantastic and the second year pretty much bit. But Gordon Hatt, the curator of Zone A and the new executive director of CAFKA, is now working in the same building as my studio and showed me all the stuff he was bringing in for the event. I was pretty much sold as soon as I found out Project Blinkenlights was coming, but was curious to see some of the other things too.

Nuit Blanche is also a particularly important event for the arts community this year, because its success brings art & culture to the forefront of peoples’ minds as election day approaches. And from the hordes of people who attended the event last night, I dare Harper to continue to claim that art doesn’t matter to “ordinary” Canadians (or, perhaps, that “ordinary” Canadians are in the majority, or that it’s desirable to be “ordinary”). Although probably not all Canadians, the estimated 1 million attendees clearly disagree with Harper.

The night started with my friend Teresa taping a glow-in-the-dark ART sign on the back of her vest in preparation for the 4:33 minutes sign of protest scheduled for midnight. With her dog in tow, we made a quick tour of Church street, seeing the beginnings of the ethereal forest and some performances happening on the closed street.

We returned Teresa’s dog to her apartment and, almost immediately after returning to the streets, were approached by a family who was attending Nuit Blanche for the first time. They had seen the ART sign on Teresa’s back, and decided to ask us for directions on how to get to some exhibitions. We directed them to the downtown core, near the Eaton Centre, where many of the events were centralized, and they seemed very enthusiastic about the event (and had even driven downtown and parked somewhere nearby).

The Friends of Great Salt Lake and others have reported that the application for drilling near the Spiral Jetty has been returned!

• Permit for Oil Drilling Near Spiral Jetty Denied
• Oil company not drilling yet near Spiral Jetty
• More drilling requests expected near Spiral Jetty
• Utah turns back request to drill near Spiral Jetty

Donn Zaretsky points to an article by Nancy Wolff which outlines some of the idiosyncrasies of the application of copyright law to photographers. On the other hand, Georgia Harper writes about how natural it is for people to take pictures of public art.

The Art Law Blog is questioning whether a sticker on the back of a driver’s license is sufficient to donate to the public domain. What I find amusing (sorry, Zaretsky), is the question is probably exactly what the artists behind the Public Domain Donor stickers wanted.

Like the recent Obay campaign, I think we’re starting to see that people and companies are so seriously over-the-top that it’s difficult for us to determine when something is to be taken seriously.

After quite a bit of work, I managed to get almost everything for my websites back to normal. The main thing which took longer than expected (and continues to be unresolved) is being able to use the Metaweblog API to get my Ma.gnolia bookmarks posted to this blog. I have since discovered that ModSecurity 2 does not play nice with Metaweblog API. This means, although I love Ma.gnolia’s blog posting feature, I will probably not be using it until there is a way for the Metaweblog API to work with ModSecurity active for everything except my xmlpc file.

My bookmarks continue to be available here, and individual feeds are available for the tags.

Here are the links I’ve wanted to post since my server upgrades:

• John Degen on the CMEC proposal
• Lawrence at Northworthy challenges the concept of “fair” copyright
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner discusses potential privacy issues with the new enhanced driver’s licences (EDLs) available to eligible B.C. residents.
• William Patry argues that a photograph of an object is the depiction of the object rather than a derivative work.
• An article on the “art bug”. This seemed very familiar to me, and I had to check the date several times to ensure it was current. Why was it so familiar? This was something which was discussed at the Visual Arts Summit! Sadly, the article is now behind the pay wall…but is still free to read at your local library.
• More studies on art & culture. This one is from Kelly Hill, a presenter from the Visual Arts Summit
• Art News Blog: Urban Art Auction. The second half of the story covers an exciting collaboration between Banksy and DJ Danger Mouse.
• Counterfeit Chic: But New York Doesn’t ♥ Gucci
• The Art Law Blog notices a recent ruling in the Kurtz case (the one with the bio materials used in art).
• And Maurice Agis is charged with manslaughter because of a malfunction with his inflatable sculpture.

There are merely two days left to send letters and emails of concern regarding the proposed drilling near The Spiral Jetty. If you don’t have time to draft a letter or email, you can use the standard letter from The Spiral Jetty website (PDF warning).

Here’s the email I sent:

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Honourable members of government,

RE: Application #8853

I am writing in opposition to the exploratory drilling in Utah’s Great Salt Lake which is being proposed by Pearl Montana Exploration & Production.

This proposed drilling is not merely an environmental concern, but one of preserving a work of land art. A drilling operation in such close vicinity to Robert Smithson’s The Spiral Jetty threatens it physical and artistic integrity. I thoroughly support the concerns of the Dia Art Foundation on this matter (http://www.diaart.org/dia/press/spiraljetty_drilling.html).

The Spiral Jetty has found its home in the Great Salt Lake, but is a work of art to be enjoyed by all. I urge the state to give serious consideration to the detrimental effects that drilling will have on Smithson’s work and on the environment, and to deny this and any future filings in the North Arm of Great Salt Lake that similarly constitute a threat to the artwork and the surrounding environment. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Julianna Yau

Amidst all of the political drama surrounding copyright recently, I haven’t been making it a priority to think or write about the other issues in art (yes, there really are other issues than merely copyright!). Many of these other issues were highlighted at the Visual Arts Summit (see my summaries here) and copyright had, amazingly, a low profile at the summit. And I’m using the phrase “low profile” because I don’t actually remember copyright being mentioned, but find it incredible that it wouldn’t have come up at some point…

What was mentioned is the need to preserve our art. This was particularly poignant during the tour of the Gatineau Preservation Centre.

Josh Kanter, Chariman of the International Sculpture Centre‘s Board of Directors, asked about “the relationship of the artist, artwork, and owner in the sphere of public art projects” in the Dec 2007 issue of Sculpture. Public Art was the topic of last year’s ISC Conference, and will be again this year.

Recently, we have seen some noticeable examples of public art being in ill repair…or worse:

• Daniel Buren threatening to destroy is own work because it has been ill maintained (and an interesting discussion of the threat on the Sculpture forum)
• The Wall, by Forrest Myers, being targeted for removal in favour of advertising space
• Banksy’s graffiti art being removed by maintenance staff throughout London
• And, of course, the recent threat to The Spiral Jetty due to a thirst for oil

What makes these cases different from someone accidentally putting their elbow through a privately-owned and privately-displayed painting by Picasso?

Firstly, a privately-owned work of art is most likely loved or held as an investment (and sometimes both!). This drastically increases its chances of being well-maintained and not subjected to a hostile environment or outright destruction (although there are instances where site-specific work has been sold to private estates, and conflicts arise when the home-owner wants to remove the work). A work owned by a collective (be it a company, governmental body, or other group displaying the work publicly) is more susceptible to becoming a low priority, particularly if the original purchaser is not there to defend it.

Public art, by the very nature of it being public, also amplifies the need to maintain the public’s access to the work. Throw in the fact that much public art is site-specific and the concept that the owner owns the physical manifestation of the artwork but the artist owns the integrity of the work, and you have yourself quite a conundrum.

Does the owner of public art have a responsibility to preserve the art? Or should artists who create public art understand that it will not be permanent? What happens when that public art increases in cultural value, like a historic building or monument?