This year’s Light Up Poole, Dorset’s annual festival of light art, will feature four world premieres, a European premiere and a raft of newly commissioned works.
The premiere of Harbour Glow, an ambitious site-specific work, will see Poole’s dockside and cranes illuminated by moving light, to create a uniquely immersive experience.
Bournemouth University graduate Ashley Wilkie will return to Light Up Poole with his playful piece Juxtapose. Alongside this will be the first showing of his new work Ebbs and Flows, an architectural projection mapping of Poole’s iconic Guildhall, using the sweeping double stairway as a backdrop to a journey across the world’s oceans.
Award winning light and sound artists Ross Ashton and Karen Monid of the Projection Studio will be premiering their experimental projection piece Zenith, inside St James’ Church; whilst simultaneously projecting another new work, Horizon, on the outside of the church. The work has been produced in collaboration with NASA scientists and the Ordered Universe team. It will be seen for the first time in Europe at the Poole festival.
To support these ground breaking works, Professors Giles Gasper (History) and Brian Tanner (Physics) from Durham University will host Where Medieval Meets Modern, a community talk at the Lighthouse on 23rd February. The talk will introduce the medieval scientist and thinker Robert Grosseteste, whose ideas and research inform Horizon and Zenith.
The other world premiere hosted by Light Up Poole is Sonic Tides, Karen Monid’s multi-channel audio installation in the grounds of Scaplen’s Court. A unique translation of local research into sound, it immerses listeners in soundscapes informed by the history of Poole.
The festival has also commissioned new work from teenage light artist Seren Birtles. A nest of plastic, stretched from floor to ceiling, with projected light and inspired by the ocean, Eyrie invites the audience to consider how mankind places itself above other species in the name of consumption and possession. Birtles is one of the local artists selected for GLEAM, a talent development programme for regional light artists. The company has also produced community event Tidal Remedies for this year’s festival, where visitors will be invited to share soup and have a chat in a pop-up street café on the High Street.
When: 21st – 23rd February 2019, 6pm – 9pm daily
Where: Poole Quay & Old Town, Poole, Dorset
£: Free
More info: lightuppoole.co.uk