‘Winter Light’ Open Air Exhibition Features 20 Stunning Digital Artworks
‘Winter Light’ Open Air Exhibition Features 20 Stunning Digital Artworks
Joanne Shuvell, Forbes
February 4, 2021
The brilliant Winter Light digital art exhibition on until 28 March 2021, around London’s riverfront Southbank Centre, provides a much needed lift to the spirits. This open-air exhibition around the Southbank’s iconic buildings and the Riverside Walk is filled with luminous, playful and thought-provoking artworks. Everything can be viewed from outdoor locations and some of the artworks can be seen daily from 10am. To fully enjoy the exhibition though, go after dusk when all the pieces are illuminated until 11:30 pm.
river bank in neon lights
Installation View of Southbank Centre's Winter Light exhibition until 28 February 2021.
Morley von Sternberg
Featuring a range of leading international artists, Winter Light includes 20 artworks, new commissions and a series of poems that make ingenious use of light, color and animation. At a time when we view so much of the world through digital screens, the artists in this exhibition celebrate how the medium of light can transform our physical spaces.
neon face
Shezad Dawood’s ‘Mahakala’ part of Winter Light, Southbank Center
Paul Allen/Andfotography
Their artworks also explore ideas about nature, politics and society, gender, aesthetics and the act of looking. Participating artists in the outdoor exhibition are: Simeon Barclay, David Batchelor, James Clar, Shezad Dawood, Kota Ezawa, Navine G. Khan-Dossos, Suzie Larke, Teemu Määttänen, Tala Madani, Tatsuo Miyajima, Louiza Ntourou, David Ogle, Katie Paterson, Jini Reddy, Martin Richman, Tavares Strachan, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Emma Talbot and Toby Ziegler.
neon trees
David Ogle, Loomin, part of Winter Light, Southbank Centre, London
Paul Allen/Andfotography
David Ogle works with light as a sculptural material and was commissioned to work with the forms and natural shapes of the London plane trees on the Riverside Walk by the River Thames. The row of trees is illuminated with glowing neon flex creating a multicolored canopy over the heads of pedestrians. Martin Richman has also been commissioned to create a new lightwork for the 5th floor balcony of the iconic Royal Festival Hall. Reflect suggests the rippling of the nearby River Thames and uses light, color and movement to create a shimmering, multi-layered space visible from afar.
Teemu Määttänen has created a new version of his work, NOSTE, 2008, which loosely translates as “lift, upthrust and buoyancy” and uses projection-mapping to animate a minimalist set of rectangular columns with pulsing gradient colours. Working at an impressive scale on the south side of the Royal Festival Hall, NOSTE creates illusory effects that unfold over time.
neon lights on top of building
David Batchelor's installation changes colors, Winter Light, Southbank Centre
Morley von Sternberg
David Batchelor’s ‘60 Minute Spectrum,’ illuminates the Hayward Gallery’s pyramid roof lights and the Queen Elizabeth Hall facade with color that subtly changes as it moves through the entire visual spectrum appearing orange, yellow, green, blue purple and pink. The work is part of Batchelor’s ongoing exploration of the intense, synthetic color that characterises modern cities.
videos and neon
Installation view, Winter Light
Paul Allen/Andfotography
Through the window of the Hayward Gallery foyer, Katie Paterson’s ‘Totality’ is a mesmerizing mirror ball that documents every solar eclipse recorded by humankind. Using nearly 10,000 tiny images, Paterson’s artwork reveals the beauty in the natural phenomena of our greatest source of illumination, the sun.
The exhibition also includes a number of large-scale videos projected onto the buildings around the Southbank Centre. Emma Talbot’s animation ‘Birds, Freedom’, projected on the Royal Festival Hall, presents a female figure navigating a landscape made up of abstract patterns and colors. Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s animation ‘To: the Moon’ uses the idea of a lunar voyage to explore cosmology, mythology, history and science. And nearby, the wonderful ‘supercalifragilistic’ by Kota Ezawa, is an animated video that provides a light-hearted take on the flying abilities of Mary Poppins. Artist and filmmaker Louiza Ntourou’s ‘Once upon a time, a time that never was and always is.’ is a mesmerising video of a single leaf falling against a glowing sky and nostalgic soundtrack.
neon portraits
Installation View of Navine G. Khan-Dossos, No Such Organisation, 2018–2020 part of Southbank Centre's Winter Light exhibition until 28 February 2021.
Morley von Sternberg
Outside the Hayward Gallery, Navine G. Kahn-Dossos’ series ‘No Such Organisation’ is a colorful series of geometric images in lightboxes, drawing on the artist’s interest in technology, surveillance and freedom of speech. Along Mandela Walk, Suzie Larke presents large digital photographs from her ongoing project Unseen, 2018 - 2020.
neon sign
Winter Light, Southbank Centre
Paul Allen/Andfotography.com
Neon works are plentiful too with Shezad Dawood’s ‘Mahakala’ a luminous work that portrays a deity common to Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, while Tavares Strachan’s piece WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER, relays a hopeful, much-appreciated message. Simeon Barclay’s playful neon portrait is of cartoon character Andy Capp, a working class figure who never worked and who can be seen as a symbol of many outdated ideas.
The river level of the Royal Festival Hall features Tatsuo Miyajima’s Counter Void S-I, a LCD lightbox that cycles through a numerical countdown, exploring our relationship to space and time.
Winter Light also features a series of newly commissioned writings by author Jini Reddy, inspired by seasonal variations in light. Each beautiful poem is presented in large format text on walls around the buildings and is an excellent addition to this welcome exhibition.
Winter Light, Until 28 March 2021 at several locations around the Southbank Centre Site, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Selected artworks from 10am. Full exhibition from dusk until 11.30pm
