Of Environmentalists, Voyeurs and Manhole Covers

Zone B #10: WHAT WILL YOU DO?

This was an interactive installation that asked people the simple question as to what they themselves would do to save the earth from global warming and a climate shift. The creators of the installation invited the audience to respond by texting their answers to a number projected on the screen. Their answers would then appear on the screen in (almost) real-time. The project seemed to explore the realms of participatory art, but I was left with one question as I saw the many text messages appear on and disappear off the screen: How many of these people would actually do what they were saying they would do (e.g become Raw Vegan?!?); was it all just a spontaneous reaction, an urgent need to react to the questions posed by that moment which makes one go: “Oh what have I done to the earth?”

Zone B #22: ART AT BEAVER HALL (Group Exhibition)

From what I read in the Nuit Blanche guide, this was supposed to be a group exhibition by all the resident artists at Beaver Hall. But I caught a glimpse of one particularly interesting installation which was set up outside, via an LCD (?) projector. This projector, mounted on the façade of the building, just over the sidewalk, was projecting images and videos (!) of manhole covers and people emerging from manholes from different locations (presumably) all over the world. But what made the presentation effective and realistic was that these images and videos were projected directly onto the sidewalk outside. It seemed to blend in perfectly with the atmosphere – the sidewalk, the road, the garbage bin off to the side, the passers-by, etc. If it wasn’t for the square frame of light that came from the projector, people might have not noticed it as an installation at all. And that is what generally happens. Do we really notice manhole covers on the sidewalk when we are walking? Well there might be that odd instance, but do we really?? Perhaps that was what the installation was aiming for - to turn the audience’s attention to one of the many everyday things that we literally walk over yet fail to notice.

Zone B #2: WATCHER (6, 35, 39, 91 D’Arcy Street)

As it said on the guide, this was a multi-building video installation. There were 4 houses out of which I could see only 2, and on the windows of these houses silhouettes of people engaging in different kinds of activities inside the house were projected. (The whole point of using silhouettes is of course that if you are trying to peek at your neighbor through those thin curtains, all you will see are silhouettes.) The entire idea of the installation has a very overt voyeuristic feel to it. First off, the very fact that these houses were being opened up to the public ‘gaze’ if I can call it so, added to this sense of voyeurism, and an uncannily open sense of voyeurism at that. The installation itself lures you in, but it teases you because it only gives you an idea of what is going on inside the house. One is tempted to go right up to the windows, draw the curtains aside and peek through. But at the heart of this installation is the artist’s desire (which is in fact echoed by most of us) to glance into other people’s lives – the little girl holding her teddy bear and jumping on her bed, the group of people running across the room, the couple having a quiet dinner. It is this ‘compulsion’ to watch that drives us into becoming voyeurs, knowingly and unknowingly.