Shine a little light
O’Connell Street
Over four big nights of fun on O’Connell Street, creative company The Art Engineers launched their eye-catching Wear the Light project — and boy did it turn heads!
Producers of unique and exceptional design, art and performance events, The Art Engineers are experts at creating interactive experiences and bringing an element of wonder to festivals, events, cultural spaces and on the streets of Adelaide and Sydney. It’s fun, creative and playful and it brings together a collaboration of artists and designers who can then engage with audiences in a really unique way. Their Wear the Light initiative is no exception, as Producer and Artist Julianne Pierce explains.
“We’ve had such an incredible time with this new creative project, which is all about taking recycled clothing, textiles, accessories or jewellery and combining it with illumination. In August this year, the Van Gogh Alive exhibition created the perfect backdrop for us to showcase our art through a roving show along O’Connell Street— and it was a hit!
“We had four incredible performers playing unique personalities wearing a range of outfits, interacting with people along O’Connell Street and visitors to Van Gogh Alive. It was fantastic — they were brilliant at making people laugh and the sheer unexpected nature of seeing someone walking along in a lit-up outfit created a sense of excitement. It really added an extra layer of interest for diners and pedestrians who were out and about, and it gave that sense of wonder and surprise that we seek to bring to audiences of all ages,” Julianne says.
“The team, including Lighting Designer/Artist Margie Medlin, Costume Designer/Maker Sacha Roberts, Electronic Engineer Colin Gould and myself are currently based in North Adelaide Village where we developed our first stage creations and prototypes and we’ve been thrilled to also have the support of City of Adelaide, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet through Arts South Australia,” Julianne says.
“As a follow up to the roving performance we staged a pop-up Wear the Light launch event in October in an empty shop in North Adelaide Village. The event was open to the public to register to attend and we transformed the space with lighting effects and held a fashion parade where our performers modelled different garments and accessories. It really helped created a bit of a buzz about Wear the Light!”
It's inspiring and testament to our community’s love and appreciation for the arts to have such innovative projects happening in North Adelaide. We look forward to sharing more of this with you in the future.