“Get inside! It’s about to start.”
“What is?”
“The best fucking thing ever!”
These were the words yelled into a crowded sidewalk by Cube Gallery owner, Don Monet, last Thursday evening to kick-off their annual dark-sky festival, Nuit Noire. The festival, which runs until July 29th, is characterized by a wide range of activities with the night sky as their theme. These activities include lectures by physicists and astronomers, telescope facilitated stargazing. At Nuit Noir’s core is a month-long art exhibition.
At the vernissage last Thursday, throngs of art enthusiasts sought shelter from the sweltering humidity and descended on Cube Gallery to view the exhibition and meet many of the artists responsible. While the doors opened at 7pm, the evening didn’t truly get started until almost 8pm, when an actor took the floor and energetically announced, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” This quote by Oscar Wilde was the first of many star and space themed quotes dramatically delivered to the audience. After each quote, a violinist played snippets of classical music that rang from wall-to-wall.
Once the theatrical opening concluded, gallery goers mingled and continued viewing the works adorning the wall. Sanjeev Sivarulrasa captures the night sky in his digitally photographed aluminum prints. Using long exposures he illuminates the night sky, revealing a view that is rarely seen in the city.
MaryAnn Camps explores the night sky from a different perspective (quite literally). Rather than look up at the night sky, her work stares down from within it. In Ottawa at Night II she beautifully renders a birds-eye view of the city at night in oranges, reds and whites making it come alive. Katherine McNenly also demonstrates life under the night sky with her portrait entitled Night Swimmer. This work juxtaposes nicely with the quiet emptiness of Glen Foster’s photography. His black and white series, Black is Night’s Cope, plays with photographic composition to communicate a sense of solitude at night.
These are just a few of the works on display, but there are many more to be viewed during Nuit Noire. The next event in the festival is a free lecture by Dr. Peter Watson, a former professor at Carleton University specializing in theoretical physics. The lecture begins at 7:30pm.
For a schedule of Nuit Noire events, visit: http://cubegallery.ca/
