A couple of weeks ago, I took some time on a cold winter's evening to visit the Light Fest at our unique Distillery District.
There were some amazing installations, and I was able to capture several of them with my camera. Some are sculptures, but many feature movement, so I was glad to have a video function handy.
It was snowing that evening, and there were two big spotlights on the grounds, and I was captivated by how the flurries moved about in the bright light. First, I got a couple of still pictures, that actually turned out better than I thought they would, capturing the frenetic movement of the windblown snow quite nicely:
And, from Mill St., I took this video, framing it against the apartment building in the background for contrast:
In Tank House Lane, there was this eye-catching sculpture, entitled Digital Origami Tigers, from the Lava group out of Australia:
And, here are some more of the pieces, in no particular order. With one exception, the rest of them will be videos.
One of the more striking pieces was mounted on top of several of the buildings, and is by Angelo Bonello of Italy. It's called Run Beyond:
Towards the east end of the area was this terrific piece by the Venevidimultiplex Studio of The Netherlands, entitled The Uniting Lightstar:
This piece by Studio Toer, again from The Netherlands, has kind of a whimsy about it, and is called Social Sparkles. It reacts to the movements of passersby, and seems to consist of hanging wires with LED lights at their ends, that appear to dance about from charges of electricity:
Moving into Gristmill Lane, you see this sculpture, Bands of Friendship, by Vikas Patil and Santosh Gujar of India. The circles of light change colour continuously:
At the south end of Trinity Street is this installation by the OGE group out of Israel, called Angels of Freedom. Viewers are welcomed to stand under the halo of one these "angels," while they constantly change colour, and get their picture taken:
At the east end of Tank House Lane is another constantly-changing piece, entitled Our House. It's by Tom Dekyvere of Belgium:
Also in Gristmill Lane is this piece by Canada's Ryan Longo, called Reactor, made from steel, and with constantly-changing lights in its interior:
In this area is also this imposing 40-foot-tall sculpture by Michael Christian of the U.S., entitled simply IT.
If, er, it seems familiar, the sculptor was indeed inspired by the terrifying tripod alien vessels of The War of the Worlds:
In the same area is this bright piece by the LightForm studio, again from The Netherlands, called Infinite Support.
Viewers are invited to step in and sit down in the piece, which then reacts with different colours and light patterns, assisted by infinity mirrors:
But for me, the most breathtaking installation was this piece, also in Gristmill Lane, A Dream of Pastures, by Canada's Studio F Minus.
It's also interactive: viewers can sit at the stationary bike, and as they pedal, the piece is activated, producing a kind of shadow-play moving picture on the wall behind. It's very striking.
(I would have shot more of this piece, but my camera literally ran out of memory here!)
I may well come back to this place, just to get a better look at some of these wonderful pieces, particularly that last one.
The exhibition is running for four more weeks (as of this date).
It was quite cold and windy that evening, which limited my willingness to stay outside too long. I was grateful to be able to slip into Balzac's Coffee for a hot beverage and snack, I can tell you.
