Lumessence

The program has seen a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, created shady streets and improved the visual amenity and quality of the suburban social housing environment.

BEAMS Art Festival is an annual, one-night only celebration of movement, form, sound and colour in the back lanes and streets of Chippendale, Sydney. The festival showcases a spectrum of the arts by Sydney’s best creative talents, set to inspire minds and stimulate conversation.

Our studio was invited to create a site-specific art installation within the grounds of Central Park, following the theme of ‘Utopia’. In collaboration with the talents of Electrolight, our team created ‘Lumessence’; a mysterious yet playful, bioluminescent urban threshold that inhabited the water at Chippendale Green. The artwork involves a series of weighted anchors holding individual, end and side emitting fibres in their desired locations while foam floats secured each fibre just below the surface of the water.

The lights follow the motion of the water and transformed the water’s horizon with flickering blue lights.

Symbolically, ‘Lumessence’ represents the threshold that exists between old and new Chippendale; the phenomenon of lighting a gateway to a contemporary urban ‘Utopia’. ‘Lumessence’ focuses on bringing water to life as a transformational act. By remembering Sydney’s old viaduct system beneath the site and combining water and light, the artwork recognises the invisible and connects with the subterranean of urban walkways, bringing another world up from the deep.