“A Nuit Blanche is an all night arts festival of installations and performances celebrating the magic and luminance of light. Nuit Blanche events enliven cities all around the globe, but there has never been one in New York.”
The first one took place with wonderful results in Greenpoint last night. Noble, Oak, and West streets, and any spare space in between, played host to the evening’s generous display of light installations and performances. Many of the vicinity artists also opened their studios for the evening, including the sculptor Norman Mooney with his large starburst sculptures at close hand. Greenpoint View created an environment of light sculptures and translucent fabrics. Lights were projected onto building walls and even into one building in progress. From the Source, a massive furniture design store was filled with people, from the front of the shop to the club-like back room. Above the furniture store, The Fowler studio spaces opened to the public. Not usually a place that sees a lot of foot traffic was teeming with people, like it was a small city unto itself.
These photos were taken in the park on Franklin and Oak streets. One of them (scroll to last images) was a gorgeous installation where the artist had installed white paper or cardboard tubes on top of several active TV screens (set to the same station) which caused the tubes to change colors as the images on the screen changed. It was our favorite installation.
Another one, was created with simple structures of lightweight paper in the shape of jelly-fish balloons. They were lit up from within and attached to a wind source which caused them to inflate and deflate giving the impression of glowing jellyfish swimming under the sea. This was also gorgeous.
The other pic is of a guy who wearing a suit covered in blue lights, designed in such a way that he had the generic shape of a man, but no human features, creating the impression of a cartoon character come to life.
Sorry, I didn’t catch who any of the artists were. —Rutha Rosen
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