Monday, January 31, 2011

Power Plant

Last night marked the end of the 2011 Sydney Festival, a one month summer arts festival (sorry to all those on the other side of the planet suffering through this crazy winter) featuring theater, music, dance, visual arts, and film events. With the very appropriate tagline, "this is our city in summer" the festival used the city as a backdrop for the largest and most attended annual cultural event in Australia. While I had the opportunity to attend a couple of events around town, which was a great introduction to the Sydney arts scene, last night we attended Power Plant at Darling Harbour, capping the festival off with the perfect twist.
Power Plant, originally curated for the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens, was a site-specific light and sound installation at the Sydney Chinese Garden of Friendship. Featuring five British artists, their collaboration of around 30 installations both illuminated the landscape and provided a soundtrack as patrons wandered through the Garden's dark meandering paths (the installation only opened once it is completely dark). It was a bit surreal as the darkness of the garden was gently illuminated by the lights of the city's Central Business District (aka CBD) looming behind, and of course the art installations themselves.
From left: Nokia Puja by Jony Easterby, Dream Vortex by Mark Anderson, From Memory by Kirsten Reynolds
Some of the more interesting pieces included Wabi-Sabi by Ulf Pedersen, strips of layered translucent fabric hung and projected on with changing imagery that morphed with the movement of the wind; Kinetic Flowers by Mark Anderson, a series of  kinetic pinwheels that rotated at different speeds producing changing light and sound; and my personal favorite (or should I be writing favourite), Sighs From the Depth by Kirsten Reynolds, a simple (in this case less was more) yet extremely dramatic installation where a hanging and rotating disco ball illuminated its glittering reflections on the various forms of landscape- the tree trunks, the hanging leaves and flowers, the textured rock, the reflective water, it was very cool.
From left: Soundwave and Wabi-Sabi by Ulf Pedersen, Kinetic Flowers by Mark Anderson
All in all it was a great experience and a nice way to end the 2011 Sydney Festival, besides the mosquito's (aka mozzies) that I could hear buzzing in my ear (a bit concerning). Hopefully it will come to a botanical garden near you...
Sighs From the Depth by Kirsten Reynolds

No comments:

Post a Comment