Philips Lighting

The top three winners of Philips Lighting’s Art in the Dark 2012 competition have been announced. Art in the Dark is Auckland’s premiere free, community light art event which will be held in Ponsonby’s Western Park on the evenings of Friday 9 and Saturday 10 November.

The competition, sponsored by Philips Lighting with support from AUT, gives all tertiary students in New Zealand the opportunity to design a light installation using Philips Lighting’s LED products, including energy-efficient LED light bulbs and luminaires. The three winners receive Philips lighting products up to the value of $2500 each to create an installation based on their winning designs for display at Art in the Dark.

“Philips Lighting is pleased to support Art in the Dark as a way of encouraging creativity in lighting design. LED lighting opens up so many new possibilities for creative thinking and design, so this is an opportunity for the designers of the future to experiment and see what light can do,” says David Procter of Philips Lighting.

Entries are judged on imagination and/or artistic concept, environmental friendliness, innovative use of Philips energy-efficient light bulbs and production feasibility.

All of the winners are AUT students or alumni. Angus Muir and Alexandra Heaney have recently completed their Masters of Architechture, while James Pendergrast, Nicholas O’Rourke, Sophy Leang and Jae Hyeon Seong are currently completing a Spatial Design Degree.

During the display of the winners’ designs at Art in the Dark 2012 the public will be able to vote on their favourite installation, with the overall winner receiving a Philips prize pack valued at $1000.

“Art in the Dark has become a platform for bright Kiwi minds to show-off their talents, and a chance for the community to get involved in the art world from the comfort of their city’s own backyard. The end results are always spectacular,” says Celia Harrison, Creative Director, Art in the Dark.

Surrounded by a reflecting pool dotted with floating lanterns, the six-story “Golden Moon” is the creation of Belgian architect Kristof Crolla and his firm L.E.A.D., which won a design contest to build the work. Constructed from bamboo and steel, it incorporates golden yellow and flame red fabric as well as 10,000 LED lights that illuminate it from within. The structure took 11 days to complete.

Visitors enter through a narrow pathway to be immersed in a bubble of suspended lanterns and dancing lights, synchronized to music. Mr. Crolla said he was inspired by the traditional Chinese love story of Houyi and Chang’e, the moon goddess. “We wanted to create a place that directly links to a very traditional element, the legend of Chang’e,” Mr. Crolla said. “The goal is to make the visitor feel as if they stumbled into a different world.”

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the lantern festival or moon festival, is celebrated among Chinese and Vietnamese people to signal the end of the fall harvest. Some say it’s based on the legend of Chang’e, the moon goddess of immortality, and her husband Houyi, who lives on the sun.

Standing 18 meters high and 21 meters wide, “Golden Moon” is supported by a light-weight steel dome. On top of it is a layer of bamboo built using Hong Kong’s traditional bamboo scaffolding techniques.