A ‘Brilliant’ festival of light

Deepa Mann-Kler with one of her neon dogs.

The festival of light will take place over four nights, at the end of November and December 1, which will turn the entire city into a giant outdoor art gallery. It was Lumiere commissioned from creative company Artichoke by Culture Company 2013 as a key final celebration for the UK’s first City of Culture, and is supported by Northern Ireland Electricity.

Lumiere will transform familiar city landmarks, buildings, hidden spaces, parks and waterways into a magical nocturnal landscape of artworks made from light that sets out to amaze, delight, and stop people in their tracks.

Many local artists will be working on projects including ‘HarperMagee’, a collaboration between two artists, Dennis Magee and Patricia Harper. Dennis was born and raised in Londonderry and emigrated to Australia in 1984, but has returned frequently working as a professional artist on several projects. Their project will be a series of text-based neons that playfully challenge associations that certain colours have in Northern Ireland.

City native Monica and Russell Smallwood, or ‘RMS Design’ have won a place in the festival with ‘Grove of Oaks’ which will use local woven willow and filaments of light that will twine overhead reacting to the presence of people as they walk beneath.

Two Londonderry organisations, the Holywell Trust and the Nerve Centre, have come together to produce a joint project as part of ‘Brilliant’ while Londonderry-born Lesley Bond and Hilary Sleiman’s winning proposal will celebrate the history of the city as a centre of linen and shirt manufacture.

Deepa Mann-Kler was born in Nottingham and has lived and worked in Killyleagh, County Down since 1996. Her artwork is a joyful collection of several bright neon ‘balloon’ dogs, while French artists Compagnie Carabosse are famed for their artistry with the most elemental form of light – fire. Using flamepots, candles, ghostly lanterns and burning charcoal, they will conjure St Columb’s Park into a fantastical fire garden, complete with a red valley and glorious moving sculptures laced with fire.

Details of the BRILLIANT winners and other artists announced so far can be found on the Lumiere 2013 website, which has been launched with the release of a short promotional film featuring Annie Lennox singing Shining Light.