Stratford’s annual winter lights festival announced two global installations that will illuminate the start of the Light Trail in Market Square for the upcoming season.
Stratford’s annual winter lights festival announced two global installations that will illuminate the start of the Light Trail in Market Square for the upcoming season.
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The first is EMERGENCE by This is Loop, an award-winning collaborative artistic partnership of United Kingdom-based artists Harriet Lumby and Alan Hayes.
“This represents not only the Canadian debut for EMERGENCE but also the first time we have exhibited any of our artworks in Canada,” said Hayes, lead artist of This is Loop.
The inside of the individual mirrored nodes of the installation offers surprising and awe-inspiring visual illusions that also culminate in an overall combined effect when viewed from a short distance, Destination Stratford officials said.
Each section is carefully constructed to create an optical illusion inside the unit, creating a complete sphere of light when viewed from close by that morphs into a giant grid of light when viewed from a short distance. This enables distinct experiences for the viewer ranging from collective to intimate, depending on location.
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With reflective surfaces completely covering all its facets, EMERGENCE takes on the surrounding environment providing new ways of perceiving a previously familiar space. The structure consists of 75 large mirror units covered on all surfaces with a mirror finish arranged into a cylindrical pavilion style structure with three entrances, which are all wheelchair accessible.
Four lines of individually addressable LEDs run around the outer end of each unit to create a square making a total of approximately 14,000 pixels on the entire structure. These LEDs are visible from inside and outside, and display a constantly evolving and mesmerizing program of highly complex light patterns choreographed to the accompanying audio track.
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This is Loop collaborated with NYX: Electronic Drone Choir to create the choral tribal-feeling soundscape for EMERGENCE to which the lighting is programmed.
The second light art installation for Market Square is STARGATE. It features a 3.6-meter square encompassing a circular ring designed to usher viewers on an awe-inspiring journey through the cosmos.
This sculptural marvel employs projection mapping to wrap the entire structure with mesmerizing visuals that can be appreciated from any vantage point. Viewers are encouraged to climb into the central ring, serving as both a meditative space and a source of breathtaking photo opportunities, creating interaction and shared experiences among spectators.
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Hypnotic visuals create an otherworldly portal where the audience is transported to the realm of the stars while standing firmly on Earth’s soil.
“It will be the Canadian premiere for STARGATE, and we can’t wait to share this amazing projection sculpture at one of our favorite festivals,” said Jay Tettamanti, a Canadian artist and the award-winning innovative force behind Chalk River Labs, a Melbourne, Australia-based creative studio.
Now entering its fifth year, the multi award-winning Lights On Stratford annual winter festival, managed by Destination Stratford, will once again transform Stratford’s heritage downtown core and park system with luminous art and interactive light installations.
The 2024-25 theme is REIMAGINE – to have a new idea about the way something should be.
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“It is such a joy to sit in the summer sun and look forward to sharing in the glow of these beautiful pieces,” Lights On Stratford general manager Kaileigh Krysztofiak said. “Our winter will be filled with the warmth of collective play and wonder that these works will inspire.”
Zac Gribble, Destination Stratford executive director and the Lights On Stratford director, called the winter lights festival “a global village with incredible local and international artists coming together to make Stratford shine bright with joy each winter.”
It’s the second piece of good news in as many days for the festival, which on Monday announced $200,000 in government funding for the event that welcomed around 76,000 visitors last year.
More announcements will be made soon, Gribble added.
The interactive displays will light up nightly Thursday through Sunday from 5 pm to 10 pm Dec. 13, 2024, to Jan. 19, 2025. Visit lightsonstratford.ca for more details.
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