Colonise is my work created specifically for White Night festival 2015 in Melbourne. This is Melbourne’s biggest projection and light festival that occurs for one night only each year. This piece was hung in Melbourne’s beautiful Scot’s Church. This piece used the venue in its entirety and thus no other pieces were in or around this venue. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work in such a beautiful space (and hope I can project onto the organ next time!). The hanging Colonise artwork stretched approx 10m long and 4m high, tied to all four sides by autopoles.
Alinta Krauth setting up Colonise
Alinta Krauth Colonise
The original bio and White Night website showed Colonise to be a 360 degree projection plus a live light painting performance by me, commissioned by White Night, however with a change in production management, White Night decided the late addition of the commissioned light painting performance might take away from the original structure of Colonise, and thus Colonise went forward as an experiment in 360 degree projection onto large scale hung origami sculptures, only. I was happy with this change/simplification, though I would certainly like the opportunity to do a live light painting performance in a venue like this at some stage in the future. As I am primarily a digital artist, I was also challenged to create (and transport) a very large sculpture to be bumped in by myself on a tight schedule. As this piece was not pre-made, it allowed the festival managers to somewhat control the size and position of this artwork, making it bespoke for this festival. I’d also like to thank CVP Events for the hire and bump in/bump out of the projectors, autopoles, plinths, and to Scots’ Church themselves for graciously allowing me to use their venue and their own sound system for my sound.
Alinta Krauth Colonise
Alinta Krauth Colonise
The White Night bio reads:
“Colonise is an experiment in three new styles of projection art – 360° projection mapping onto hand-made sculpture, live light painting, and projection as performance, all seen through the lens of human vs. natural disruption. Step into Scots Church to find it undergoing a live transformation, as artist Alinta Krauth spends the evening painting sections of the church with light from the inside out. You are invited to come and contribute your ideas, and raise with the artist environmental issues that are important to you – this interaction will influence the outcome of the projection. While this is happening, audiences will also be treated to 360° projections of glitch film and animation onto origami-inspired geometric shapes, representing local nocturnal animals. These sustainably-made sculptures hang down into the centre isle like pendulums of light.
Melbourne has a shifting relationship with its native nocturnal animals. Many of these are misunderstood creatures that sit on the borderline between scary and beautiful, such as the flying fox. The flying fox, which has moved further into Melbourne due to climate change, is a key symbol of sustainability, and a keystone pollinator. This artwork calls upon the viewer to rethink their notions of the wildlife/human relationship, and conceptually turns these nocturnal species from creatures of darkness to creatures of light.
By using light painting to outline and colour particular surfaces of Scots, Colonise doesn’t just blanket a building in a pre-made and pre-mapped projection, instead it is dependent on the connection between artist and building in that specific moment. It draws attention to the specific beauty and language of both native animals, and this human-made and highly spiritual space.
Come along and learn to reconsider yourself as part of the nocturnal structure…”
However, the light painting portion of the event was cut, as WNM were worried it would make the room too busy (those familiar with my work know that I quite like ‘busy’), so the emphasis was placed entirely on the projection mapping pieces, and the Artist Statement poster available on the night read differently.
See more about Colonise on my Publicity page.
Alinta Krauth Colonise. Image by Engage Arts
Alinta Krauth Colonise. Image by Salon Baby Magazine
Alinta Krauth Colonise