paper orbs. nuit blanche toronto 2013. collaborative immersive paper installation with marcin kedzior

Curatorial Statement for Parade by Patrick Macaulay:

The format of a parade is archetypal; one that is well understood and consistent across the globe. A parade route is set. The audience stands on either side of the procession and observes the succession of spectacles.

The intent of PARADE is to create, at first glance, an unconventional parade. The floats do not move forward and the people, who would normally be stationary, become the procession by actively participating in the parade. In essence all parades require pageant + people. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche perhaps most patently encapsulates the power of this equation. This art parade is in fact putting the focus forward onto the spectator since, in truth; all parades are at their core a vehicle to create civic ceremony.

PARADE shifts the denotation of mere procession to be a large-scale art installation convoy. Artists and architects create the "floats" but unlike a gallery setting these works are placed in the street. How one views and understands these artworks is dependent on the stream of people moving down the street and interconnecting with the streetview itself. ThePARADE is place and populace. The PARADE is art and occurrence.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Paper Orbs begins the night as a massive origami sculpture, which dissolves into thousands of paper helmets worn by visitors as they parade down University Ave. As both a lantern and a center of gravity, the paper float pulls visitors in and encourages them to return throughout the night to experience the dissolution of the paper sculpture. The accumulated paper helmets disperse into scattered constellations that float along the street. The helmets also resonate with notions of patterned order and militaristic armour.

Folded thinking devices are mounted on top of sleepless bodies, which restlessly comb the street—little astronauts emerge, dragging their feet, laughing, staring into space, full of chatter, exclamations, silent meditations, unexpected gestures, with paper orbs bobbing up and down, surveying the scene.

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