Melbourne : Looming 13 meters tall in the center of Federation Square, a mass of steel and lights has emerged as the visual centerpiece of the square’s annual Light in Winter program.
Designed by renowned light artist Bruce Ramus, the Tree of Light, or Helix Tree, weighs 11 tonnes, is 17 meters wide, and is comprised of 21 curved steel beams fitted with LED lights which illuminate in response to the volume and pitch of the human voice.
Ramus, who was commissioned by curator Robyn Archer to create a piece that would act as a beacon drawing visitors to the square, says he was attracted to the connotations of the form. “Helixes don’t impose on each other, they are always in harmony. That really appealed to me,” he says. The brief also asked that a connection be made between light and power, which inspired Ramus to craft the helix into a tree. “Trees symbolize power without resistance. They bend, they sway, in harmony with their environment.”
At dusk every night over the month of June, various Melbourne choirs will perform “Singing Up the Tree”, their voices activating colourful lights that will emit from the branches of the structure. Visitors, too, will be able to create their own light shows, but song, rather than speech, is recommended for best results. “We need to make it quite sensitive to cut out the ambient noise from pedestrians and the like, so you do have to sing out,” says Ramus. “ I don’t imagine it’s for the shy.”
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Other attractions on the Light of Winter program include the Solstice Celebration on June 22nd, a feast of music, performance and food from more than twenty of Melbourne’s ethnic communities, and Sound to Light: Crossing Borders, an exhibition at No Vacancy Project Space that pairs Melbourne and Hobart-based sound and light artists and will be simultaneously streamed at Hobart’s Dark Mofo.
The Light in Winter is at Federation Square until June 30. All events free.
Source : TheAge
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