Marcus Lyall heads up latest Bristol Light Festival installations

Expanded for 2023, Bristol Light Festival has made its latest programme announcement, adding another seven installations to the four confirmed previously.

Mixing up some returning favourites with brand-new commissions and several pieces never before seen in Bristol, the ten-day festival promises to offer a fun winter pick-me-up, as well as attracting large visitor numbers from across, and outside the city.

“Bristol Light Festival has become an integral part of our city’s event calendar,” says Steve Bluff, head of Redcliffe & Temple BID.

“Being part of the event year or year attracts people to Redliffe and Temple to enjoy the area a well as enhancing the space for the many people that live and work in our growing community.”

To enhance the experience for visitors, organisers have been working with Guide.AI to create a free audio guide, available in 12 languages, and featuring interactive map of the installations.

Scream the House Down by Marcus Lyall

Perhaps best known for his award-winning stage visuals for the Chemical Brothers, Marcus Lyall’s experimental film and interactive moving image projects have won him acclaim around the world.

Scream the House Down will be situated at St Nick’s Market on Corn Street, responding directly and differently to the voices and screams of every visitor that interacts with the installation.

This large-scale work was made during lockdown, ironically in a time characterised by its silence and empty spaces. Two years on, the more sound created, the bigger the response – such that the entire building may be lit up by the interaction between the two.

Scream the House Down (installation to be part of Bristol Light Festival) – photo: Marcus Lyall

Trumpet Flowers by Amigo and Amigo

Made in Sydney with the help of composer Otis Studio and a group of jazz musicians, this vintage gramophone-inspired installation is set to transform Quakers Friars into an immersive musical garden.

Interactive keys turn the giant flower forest into a playable jungle of light, colour and sound.

Ranging from two to six metres tall, the trumpet flowers will periodically play their own specially commissioned floral jazz score.

Trumpet Flowers – photo: Amigo and Amigo

Sirens – Davy & Kristin McGuire

Already confirmed to be producing Ophelia in St Mary Redcliffe Church, the multi-award-winning Studio McGuire are back with a second holographic installation: Sirens.

Swimming in the waters of Bristol’s floating harbour, ethereal projections of mermaids and supernatural sea creatures were conceived as a way to highlight the impacts of the climate emergency – a situation that could affect even fairy-tale creatures.

As long-term residents of Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed, Davy and Kristin will be showing this commission a stone’s throw from the place where they created it.

Sirens – photo: Studio McGuire

Continuum by Illumaphonium

Already contributing Halo to light up the streets of Broadmead, south-west-based sound and light sculptural duo Illumaphonium will be bringing the interactive piece Continuum to Temple Church.

Visitors can walk around the maze of reflection and light created by 25 “responsive and resonating” mirrored monoliths.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjtFQxjNBHi/?hl=en

Beam by Pytch

The Bristol-based major creative agency – responsible for design and production of winter light shows at Westonbirt Arboretum – now turn their attention to Castle Bridge for Bristol Light Festival.

Criss-crossing lasers, haze and a background of ambient music combine to create a fluctuating light sculpture that can be experienced both on the bridge itself, or from further up the Floating Harbour.

Overheard in Bristol

The series celebrating famous Bristol phrases in neon has become a hallmark of Bristol Light Festival, and is set to continue in 2023.

Previous commission Alright my Luvver will also be back – this time in Queen Square, and Cheers Drive can be viewed at Bristol Bus and Coach Station, where it is permanently installed as a tribute to the city’s frontline workers during the pandemic.

Bristol Light Festival 2023 runs from February 3-12, at 5-10pm daily. For more information, a map of the installations and locations, and updates about the event, visit www.bristollightfestival.org or follow @bristol_light_fest on Instagram.

Main photo: Bristol Light Festival

Read more: Bristol Light Festival announces confirmed installations

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