Experimental Animation students shine in Light Up the Dark

OCAD University student and alum art will dazzle audiences at the Aga Khan Museum this December.

For the third consecutive year, the Museum is hosting Light Up the Dark, a collection of animated and stop-motion projections created by students and graduates of the Experimental Animation program.

“We’re delighted to once again collaborate with the Aga Khan on Light Up the Dark as the museum celebrates its 10th anniversary,” says Philippe Blanchard, OCAD U associate professor and chair of the Experimental Animation program. “It’s an opportunity for students in the Experimental Animation program to explore the relationship between light, perception and emotion against the backdrop of an innovative piece of architecture.”

Light Up the Dark 2024 features work by 11 OCAD U community artists and will illuminate the front of the museum from Dec. 27 to 29, between 6 and 9 p.m.

Guests can enjoy warm beverages, a delectable selection of light bites, free TD pop-Up performances and reduced $10 admission to Light: Visionary Perspectives.

This year’s projections are inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, Light: Visionary Perspectives, which examines the omnipresence and impact of light through installations by prominent international and Canadian artists, including OCAD U Lecturer Tannis Nielsen and alum Sanaz Mazinani.

Through the striking visual dance of electromagnetic energies and a compelling narration of an Anishinaabe creation story, Nielsen’s looped video installation, mazinibii’igan / a creation, allows for many beginnings and endings to exist simultaneously. This cyclical format binds parallel dimensions together in an abstract layering of time and story.

Sanaz’s Threshold creates irregular splashes of light that change with your placement in the room by using mirror mosaics in her installation.

Light: Visionary Perspectives is co-curated by the museum’s Associate Curator Bita Pourvash and OCAD U alum Marianne Fenton who is the special projects curator at Aga Khan. The exhibition is on display until March 17, 2025.

Photography by OCAD U professor on display

Muqarnas: Form and Light, an exhibition showcasing photography by award-winning artist and OCAD U Assistant Professor Glenn McArthur, is also on view at the Aga Khan Park until Sept. 7, 2025. McArthur invites visitors to uncover the elegance of muqarnas – intricate, three-dimensional surfaces found inside domes and above portals throughout Europe and Central Asia.

About OCAD University’s Experimental Animation program

The Experimental Animation program allows students to develop a personal artistic vision and push the boundaries of animation as a contemporary art form. Students combine traditional and digital media using 2D, 3D, stop-motion, digital compositing and augmented/virtual reality. Learn more.

Images courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum and Glenn McArthur.

Photograph caption: Çoban Mustafa Paşa Complex, Gebze, Türkiye © Glenn McArthur