by Christine Donnelly

The last time I got drunk and went to an art show on Queen West, I bought a picture of two Chewbaccas shaking hands because (is there anything worse than quoting your drunk self?) “Those Chewbaccas were wearing jeans!”

$200.

It never occurred to me that on a night when I’m invited to drink until 4am and take a winding stroll through a forest full of weird art, I would end up with awesome free stuff.

Nuit Blanche started at 10:00 in my kitchen with Dalwhinnie getting funneled into a water bottle – presumably for later, but in reality for 10:15. We were supposed to leave before 11. But drinking sometimes leads to lateness; which occasionally leads to jumping fences. And (apparently) it’s just the bit of encouragement needed to walk along train tracks to get to Liberty Village.

We couldn’t have known how fitting our hobo escapades were before stumbling on to Tom Dean’s Fire and Sausage: Small Mercies project at Liberty St. and Hanna. Meant to create the atmosphere of a Depression-era soup line, we gathered around a small fire and scooped up free essentials: a warm blanket stamped with the word ‘MERCY’, a tin cup of hot chocolate and a tiny, delicious sausage on a whittled stick.
Free blankets? Free hot chocolate? Free sausage? Hobo Utopia!

Forced to wait while our food cooked over the open flame, my friends and I chatted up strangers on shared benches arranged around the fire. Together we laughed at the emo teen who, after having eaten twice, watched sausage number three fall on the ground. Maybe not the beautiful pause this social sculpture was meant to create, but from under its free blankets built for two, Small Mercies generously furnished a playful spirit and communal vibe.

If you can forgive it the endless small sausage jokes (not easy), Small Mercies was certainly one of the best projects of the night.