Joining the Dots

Irish born but now living in Paris, Anne Cleary and Dennis Connolly use innovative new technologies to produce their work.  They like to use the term ‘observer participation’ when describing their work as they are interested in developing the active role everyone can play in art. In 2009, they were awarded the AIB prize, which identifies emerging Irish visual artists, and in the same year they were the first, and so far only, Irish artists to have a solo exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

1.8 London

Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Echelman’s work defies categorization, as it intersects Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design, Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, and Computer Science. Echelman’s art transforms with wind and light, and shifts from being “an object you look at, into an experience you can get lost in.”

Using unlikely materials from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel, Echelman combines ancient craft with computational design software to create artworks that have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London.  Permanent works in Porto, Vancouver, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Eugene, Greensboro, Philadelphia, and Seattle transform daily with colored light.   

Curiosity defines Janet Echelman’s nonlinear educational path. After graduating from Harvard College, she lived in a Balinese village for 5 years, then completed separate graduate programs in Painting and in Psychology. A recipient of an honorary Doctorate from Tufts University, Echelman has taught at MIT, Harvard and Princeton Universities.

Her TED talk “Taking Imagination Seriously” has been translated into 35 languages with more than two million views. Recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Sr. Lectureship, Echelman received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts, honoring “the greatest innovators in America today.” In popular culture, Oprah ranked Echelman’s work #1 on her List of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow!, and Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces.”

Light Graffiti

Floating Pictures are a Stockholm-based art production company creating site-specific works in public spaces using interactive design, projection technology, light installations, film and video art. The company aims to use new media to create visually and artistically innovative experiences for audiences.

Light Graffiti was created in collaboration with Digital Art Center (Stockholm University) and Pew Square.

Elephantastic

Catherine Garret is Creative Director of the design agency, Top’là Design, who work on the conception and realisation of cultural projects events, scenography and art installations.

Spectra-3 Lux

UK

London-Based graphic studio, FIELD.io create expressive and dynamic artworks for digital platforms: audio-visual installations, experiences for web and mobile, and shareable digital artefacts. They explore colour, life, and infinity through new technology and a research-led approach – hi-tech experiences with a human touch. They have created work for galleries, festivals, and public installations in Europe, the US and Asia. The studio, led by co-founders Marcus Wendt and Vera-Maria Glahn delivers branded art for a global audience, and generative systems for intelligent design solutions.

Another installation by FIELD.io, Spectra-3 Lux, was part of Lumiere London 2016.

field.io

Keyframes

Based in France, Groupe LAPS is a collective of artists who are interested in using light in urban environments to tell stories. Comprising video makers, artists, musicians and lighting experts, the group create technical pieces that enchant audiences. Groupe LAPS work swings between reality and fiction, and their fleeting installations always have long-lasting impacts.

Brothers and Sisters

Ron Haselden is a British artist who creates light sculptures and architectural installations using neon, LEDs, film and video, drawing and painting. His work has travelled across Europe and appeared in a variety of locations including small mountain towns, public parks and even a disused shop in France.

Diver

Ron Haselden is a British artist who creates light sculptures and architectural installations using neon, LEDs, film and video, drawing and painting. His work has travelled across Europe and appeared in a variety of locations including small mountain towns, public parks and even a disused shop in France.

binaryWaves

Brussels-based art-studio LAb[au] (laboratory for architecture and urbanism) was founded in 1997 by Manuel Abendroth, Els Vermang and Jerome Decock. LAb[au]’s work is part of public and private art collections worldwide and has been exhibited across the world. The technological developments of the past 40 years have given rise to a major shift from the industrial to the post-industrial information society. This technological progress inspires LAb[au] to examine the transformation of architecture, art and design.

Dresses

Strasbourg-based, French-Korean artist Tae gon KIM creates large-scale artworks based on items of clothing. He uses fibre-optics and LED lights to create sculptures that appear big enough to be worn by one or more people. His work has been exhibited in numerous cities across the world.

Plastic Islands

Luzinterruptus are an anonymous artistic group, implementing urban interventions in public spaces. Light is an integral part of their work, and is used to draw attention to social, environmental and political issues within cities and other environments. Although much of Luzinterruptus’ work has an element of activism, they also focus on highlighting forgotten and unused corners of urban spaces.

Neon Dogs

Originally from Nottingham, Deepa Mann-Kler now lives and works in Killyleagh, County Down. She has exhibited internationally including solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, America, Germany and China. In 2013 she was a Lumiere Derry-Londonderry 2013 BRILLIANT commissioning competition winner and was awarded the Individual Artist Award by the Culture Company as part of the Derry UK City of Culture celebrations.

195 Piccadilly

NOVAK are an award-winning creative studio based in Newcastle upon Tyne, specialising in motion design and immersive experiences. Their spectacular large-scale projection mapping works are rooted in the historical narratives of the sites they transform. They also create stunning 2D and 3D motion design for television, web broadcast and celebrated musicians. NOVAK have created works including 195 Piccadilly (2016), a projection using famous faces from the BAFTA archives for Lumiere London and Avenue (2018), a 65m projection for Northern Lights, Hull.

Circus of Light

Ocubo is an international creative studio producing artistic events and installations to tell captivating stories through light and technology. They have animated historic sites with large-scale projections in more than 20 cities worldwide. Their projects often invite the local community to be co-creators of their works through participation.

Shaida Walking

Julian Opie lives and works in London. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally with major museum exhibitions including shows at Kunstverein in Cologne, Hayward Gallery and ICA in London, MAK in Vienna, Art Tower Mito in Japan, MOCAK in Krakow, Taidehalli in Helsinki as well as the Delhi Triennial, Venice Biennale and Documenta. He has also presented many public projects in cities internationally, including the Dentsu Building in Tokyo 2002, City Hall Park in New York 2004, Mori Building, Omotesando Hill in Japan 2006, River Vltava in Prague 2007, Phoenix Art Museum USA 2007, Dublin City Gallery in Ireland 2008, Seoul Square in South Korea 2009, Regent’s Place in London 2011, Calgary, Canada, The Lindo Wing, St Mary’s Hospital, London and more recently permanent installations at SMETS in Belgium and PKZ in Zurich. His work can be found in many public art collections, including Tate Modern, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, ICA in Boston, and Takamatsu City Museum of Art.

Les Luminéoles

Porté par le vent take inspiration from light and the elements for their beautiful creations, transforming everyday locations into atmospheric dreamlands. 

Platonic Spin

Rackowe’s work is heavily influenced by cities. The British sculptor is based in London, and his interest in neon reflects the light sources of such urban landscapes. Often creating large-scale structures, he uses recognisable man-made materials (like scaffolding and shed doors) mixing this with kinetic elements and employing a raw aesthetic that leaves wiring clearly visible.

A graduate of Sheffield Hallam University and Slade School of Fine Art, in 2015 Rackowe presented solo shows at Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai and Jérôme Pauchant in Paris. Art fairs include solo booths at Art Basel/Miami and Art Cologne. Rackowe has been commissioned by Calvin Klein Collection in New York and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen.

IFO (Identified Flying Object)

Jacques Rival is a French artist and architect that uses different design tools to create surprising urban installations. The purpose of his work is to encourage the public to explore unknown areas and enrich everyday life by adding a hint of the unexpected.

I Haven’t Changed my Mind in a Thousand Years

Beth originally studied in Durham before returning to live there for 12 years and completing a degree in Fine Art at Newcastle College. She now lives and works in Vienna with her family. She has exhibited widely across the UK and in Austria.

Litre of Light

How do you create a sustainable light bulb? By filling a plastic bottle with water, adding a drop of bleach and pushing it through a hole in the roof, you can refract as much sunlight through it as a 55-watt bulb. Developed by Alfred Moser and students at MIT, MyShelter Foundation have since brought this simple idea to communities in developing countries and post-disaster areas worldwide. Further developments using solar cells now allow the same technology to bring light to whole communities for the first time.

In a collaboration between artist Mick Stephenson and Central St Martin’s students, issues relating to poverty, sustainability and climate change informed the design of this pavilion. Filled with bottles designed during workshops with local school children, Litre of Light asked us to acknowledge the growing need for alternative technologies to support our everyday lives.

Mick Stephenson has a track record of turning rubbish into beautiful illuminated art. His Litre of Light installation for Lumiere Durham 2015 attracted thousands of visitors to Durham Cathedral Cloisters. He also created installations for Lumiere Durham in 2011 and 2013.

Lightbench

Bernd Spiecker produced his first bench in 1982 using acrylic material. He has since developed the idea of the Lightbench as a symbol of community. He plans to build 100 across the world in the hope that they will bring people from all backgrounds together.

Garden of Light

TILT is a French collective that reclaim public space for their art. They create luminous, dreamlike structures using recycled materials processed to high technical production quality.

Founders François Fouilhé and Jean-Baptiste Laude started the collective to give prominence to light art and to encourage audiences to view it from a new perspective.

The Light of the Spirit

Renowned across the world for his Chromolithe Polychromatic Illumination System, Warrener has created more than 60 chromolithe installations over the last fifteen years, lighting up buildings in close to a dozen different nations.