The Sydney Opera House becomes a giant canvas

Sydney Opera House Lit Up and Transformed
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27th May, 11pm Australian EST (1am NZ Time)
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A couple of weeks ago Tourism New South Wales released its new campaign for attracting more domestic and international tourism with its “Sydnicity” brand. The campaign is focused on all aspects of the city - food, wine, entertainment, the arts, sport and recreation.

As part of the city’s arts events Vivid Sydney May 27 – June 21) launches tomorrow night. It will be a special ‘Lights On’ event for this festival of light, music and ideas when the Sydney Opera House’s sails are illuminated, transforming the iconic building into a vast harbour-side artwork.

Vivid Sydney is the largest festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere and celebrates Sydney as the creative hub of the Asia Pacific with free family events; large scale light installations and projections; music performances and collaborations; creative ideas, discussion and debate.

The Sydney Opera House will be the focal point of Vivid Sydney with ‘Lighting the Sails’ and “Vivid Live”, a music festival which is co-curated by international rock legend Lou Reed and acclaimed artist and musician Laurie Anderson from 27 May to 11 June. The Sydney Opera House sails will be illuminated throughout Vivid Sydney until the 20 June.

Next week at the Opera Theatre, The Lou Reed Metal Machine Trio will venture into deep noise, with no songs or vocals, partly inspired by Lou Reed's seminal 1975 album, Metal Machine Music. Next month at the Sydney Opera House Laurie Anderson who is known for her enduring interest in storytelling will be talking with other artists.

The big art exhibition in Sydney at the moment is the Sydney Biennale. Based on the curatorial theme “The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age”, recent and new works by Australian artists are showcased alongside international artists at Sydney’s leading cultural institutions, contemporary art spaces and heritage sites.

Among those exhibiting are a number of New Zealand artists including Yvonne Todd, Julia Morison, Fiona Pardington, Reuben Paterson and Rohan Wealleans.

Among the major international artists are Englishmen Steve McQueen and Mark Wallinger as well as US video artist Bill Viola.

Also for the next few days the Australian Ballet will be performing “Bodytorque à la mode” which is a very chic partnership pairing five emerging choreographers from the company with emerging designers.

One of the works entitled “South of Eden” was choreographed by Daniel Gaudiello who said it is was “inspired by a feature I saw on the ABC about female escorts living in a hotel. Men come and go, and the escorts' only hope is to meet a foreigner with the money to take them out of their situation and build them a brick home in the suburbs. In the documentary, that man never comes. When asked if they had ever been in love, one girl replied: "I don't know what love is ..."
www.vividsydney.com