Vivid set to light up Sydney

Vivid Sydney
Various locations
May 26-June 17

The most conspicuous light work in this year’s Vivid festival will be a creation by the New Zealand multi-media artist Ash Bolland. He will be covering the sails of the Sydney Opera House with a morphing, mesmeric artwork, “Audio Creatures” set to music by Brazilian electronic producer Amon Tobin.

Ash Bolland is a self-taught cinematographer, editor, 3D artist, compositor, concept designer, graphic designer, colorist and musician. He has been inspired by the beauty of insects, animals, plant life and the vast marine underworld, “Audio Creatures” is a response to the organic forms of the Opera House sails.

The world’s largest festival of light music and ideas, Vivid Sydney looks to be bigger and brighter this year with a new precinct at Barangaroo and an expanded light walk through the Royal Botanic Garden.

Over 23 nights Vivid Light will transform the cityscape into a creative canvas, take over Sydney stages with Vivid Music’s biggest programme to date, and provide a global forum for creative conversations at Vivid Ideas.

For the first time, Vivid Sydney will stream into a new precinct at Barangaroo (on the northwestern edge of the Sydney central business district), with a trail of installations winding through intimate laneways, past waterfront vistas and into a foodie paradise. Visitors will be immersed in A Day in the Light, an outdoor theatre of light and sound that lets them become part of the artwork, and treated to optical illusions at Trapdoor, which tells the stories of Barangaroo’s past.

The festival’s bright lights will return to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney with an expanded trail that will take visitors through the heart of the beautiful harbourside oasis. Here, “Birds of Lumos”, inspired by the rare Rowi species of kiwi, will come to life as they glow and pulse with colour. The nostalgic “Dipping Birds,” giant 2.5 metre illuminated sculptures, will change colour as they dip back and forth into a pond, and there is the quirky installation “You lookin' at me?” with big glaring eyes. A pop-up landmark celebrating the  Harbour City, Sydneyland, will provide an iconic photo backdrop for visitors and locals.

Some of the city’s major buildings will be transformed, including the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia with Organic Vibrations, a collaboration between Australian artist Julia Gorman and the Paris-based creative and artistic collective, Danny Rose. Interactive lighting display Dreamscape will let visitors put their own colourful mark on the city’s skyline from Circular Quay along the Cahill Expressway to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Destination NSW chief executive officer and executive producer of Vivid Sydney, Sandra Chipchase said, “In 2016, a record-breaking 2.31 million visitors came to Vivid Sydney, which is testament to the festival’s impressive line-up, continued innovation and growth over the past nine years."

Popular precincts Chatswood, Taronga Zoo, Martin Place and Darling Harbour will return in 2017 with the buildings, shopping malls, streets and laneways of Chatswood CBD  reinvented as a retro-futuristic smart city called Future City, Smart City, with ingenious installations and light sculptures inspired by the ‘Steampunk’ design aesthetic of 19th century steam-powered machinery.

Lights for the Wild at Taronga Zoo will return featuring giant animal light sculptures that wowed visitors when they made their debut last year. A few new characters and surprises will join the 2016 favourites, including a swarm of buzzing bees, and a giant interactive Port Jackson shark.

Martin Place will be home to Sydney’s most popular food and beverage outlets, alongside grand, interactive light installations. Highlights include a new version of the multi-award winning 3D mapped projection “Urban Tree 2.0” and “Deep Forest,” an urban jungle for feasting featuring an open flame fire-pit with barbeque treats from Porteño and some of New South Wales’ best fire chefs.

Twenty-eight tonnes of water will be thrown into the air every minute as lasers, flame jets, music and fireworks combine in a celebration of the power of creativity and innovation at Darling Harbour. Magicians of the Mist water theatre will be a spectacular display of technology and art defining the digital era.

The Vivid Music programme includes more than 250 events in this year’s line-up. Highlights include an Australian exclusive performance by electronic pop duo Goldfrapp and the return of Curve Ball – a large-scale live music and art event created by Fuzzy Music, both at Carriageworks.

Vivid Live at the Sydney Opera House will deliver an eclectic suite of performances from influential American folk-rock band Fleet Foxes, French electronic superheroes AIR, British singer and songwriter Laura Marling, and producer and bonafide hit-maker, Australia’s Nick Murphy.

City Recital Hall breaks from its classical roots with the programme – Metamorphosis – serving up everything from jazz and dance anthems, to multisensory masterpieces. Sydney-based indie rock band Dappled Cities will launch its new album IIII while Grammy award-winning jazz singer Dianne Reeves will take to the stage in a special one-off performance, and Paul Mac will host a Sound Bubble Sound Party.

Vivid Music has partnered with the City of Sydney to deliver a programme across a multitude of city venues. Showcasing grassroots and emerging local music talent, highlights will include a new roof top festival from Cake Wines, Pie in the Sky, and a showcase of Women in Electronic Music at Oxford Art Factory.

The Vivid Ideas programme will continue to challenge and inspire with more than 200 events exploring the changing face of the creative industries. Iconic American artist Shepard Fairey, who blurs the boundaries of art and design, headlines the Vivid Ideas line-up. 

His body of work includes his Barack Obama HOPE campaign, the OBEY GIANT art project, and this year’s ubiquitous ‘We The People’ initiative.

The Vivid Ideas Exchange at the Museum of Contemporary Art also boasts a diverse line-up of talks presented by creative practitioners covering topics from fashion to placemaking, storytelling, ageism, marketing pitching, health, innovation, big data and mixed reality.

John Daly-Peoples travelled to Sydney with the assistance of Destination New South Wales