Asia’s leading sustainable light festival is back with i Light Singapore 2023, with new immersive light art installations from 1 to 25 June in not just one but three locations! The festival will take place at two new locations — South Beach and Millenia Walk.
Of course, Marina Bay, where it all started, also returns as a location, with the festival offering visitors new experiences and bright light shows to marvel at when they visit these three places. Admission is free, while charges apply for specific programmes.
Artworks showcased this year features a diverse group of artists, from talented local creatives, and acclaimed international names to promising student designers whose works are curated to this year’s theme of A New Wave.
Each edition of the Festival is anchored on colours from the visible light spectrum, which comprises different wavelengths that symbolise ways of seeing and understanding the world. This year’s theme is linked to the colour blue — a wavelength on the visible light spectrum omnipresent in nature’s blue spaces, such as oceans and rivers, and often associated with emotions such as calmness and serenity.
Here are some artworks inspired by the colour blue and leveraged innovative technology to develop captivating pieces that evoke immersive, multi-sensory experiences that will light up the places!
The first is Glacier Dreams, a large-scale projection by renowned Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol that will be featured at the Façade of ArtScience Museum. Visual materials and glacier images personally collected by the artist in Iceland, are processed through machine learning algorithms and transformed into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based multi-sensory narratives, making you feel as if you were in a dream.
Meanwhile, you can enter a whole new world with the Trumpet Flowers art piece. The installation by Amigo & Amigo is located at Clifford Square at Marina Bay and will have you feeling as if you were in Alice in Wonderland. Through the opportunity of creating a unique symphony using interactive keys that control the giant musical garden, its jumbo flowers bloom to life with a melodious musical score by Otis Studio, accompanied by some of Sydney’s finest jazz musicians.
Get ready to party and let loose with Block Party, by Plug & Play. During this interactive installation, gardens bloom spontaneously over the facades of Singapore’s well-known public housing blocks in response to movement so you can dance to your heart’s content. Through the free and light movement of our limbs, this piece reminds us of how we have the power to care for and protect the environment.
You might remember the previous Lightwave installation at i Light Singapore last year. It featured a five-zone exhibition, each uniquely enchanting the senses in its own way. This year’s version is set to be very different, but still remarkable to experience.
Venture to a future where humans have been submerged in an underwater world caused by rising sea levels through the immersive light experience – Lightwave; Turning the Tide, presented by Alibaba Cloud at The Promontory. The immersive experience urges visitors to reflect on the repercussions of humans on the environment and what we can do to protect it, allowing visitors to appreciate the artwork but also the environment.
Over at Millenia Walk is an artwork by Jun Ong, a Malaysian artist. Prism transforms natural daylight into a glowy artificial light at night. The glowy and ever-changing colours aim to evoke an experience of calmness for visitors. Be sure to check this piece out if you’re feeling overwhelmed!
Also at i Light Singapore 2023 are some student pieces, showcasing the ingenuity of what the youth can conjure.
Head over to South Beach to check out Bleached, a beautifully curated artwork by students of Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media. It is a simulated ocean floor accompanied by “seaweed” and “corals” upcycled from single-use plastics and made from seaweed bioplastics made by the artists. The reefs turn white when motion is sensed to imply the unfortunate fate of marine ecosystems threatened by degradation.
One other student artwork is Show III, by students of James Cook University and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Again, audio-visual effects were used to simulate a shower experience and a space for self-contemplation. Definitely not your typical type of shower.
If you’ve been waiting on the newest edition of i Light Singapore, now is the time to save the date(s) as we get to experience a month full of visual spectacle with the incoming light installations and artworks.
i Light Singapore 2023
Date: 1 to 25 June 2023
Opening Hours: Daily between 7.30pm to 11pm, with extended hours to Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Price: Free (A S$5 charge applies for Lightwave: Turning the Tide)
You can check i Light Singapore’s website for more information and keep a look out for more updates on their social media platforms on Facebook and Instagram.
Visuals courtesy of i Light Singapore.
