VIVID Randomness 2015 (5)

Sydney May – June 2015 (15 photos). This is part 5 of 9 of my VIVID Sydney 2015 series.

VIVID is now over for another year. Winter life in Sydney returns to its routine now. In the previous post we looked at and visited the Sydney Opera House. Now we walk towards Customs House, in the general vicinity of the Marriott Hotel which you can see in the background of the photo above.

Splendens by Vossarch captures the moment when two Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) are poised to battle to the death. The large light artwork depicts these tiny but intelligent fish when tension between two combatants is at its greatest. A nice light sculpture, but I just wish they hadn’t put this one in front of the Sydney Opera House. It acted like a large red spotlight in my photos of the Opera House.

Exposed by Mark Gregan, Leo Trimboli, Catalina Chica and Patrick O’Dowd reveals the interior worlds of three giant humanoid figures, each of which is transparent and captured in the moment of taking a step forwards. Dynamic lighting effects reveal their inner workings. The first figure has the internal veins and organs of a human being, the second has the mechanised movements of a city, and the third shows connecting elements in nature.

We now arrive at Customs House, an historic Sydney landmark constructed initially in 1844-1845. The building served as the headquarters of the Customs Service until 1990. Ownership was then transferred from the Commonwealth Government of Australia to the City of Sydney Council in 1994, when it became a venue for exhibitions and private functions. After being refurbished in 2003, it has also become the new home of the City of Sydney Library.

This year, the display on Customs House was entitled, Enchanted Sydney and designed by the Spinifex Group. Enchanted Sydney projects free-flowing images of Sydney’s flora and fauna onto the iconic facade of Customs House to create a continually evolving and blossoming world. The projections were fitted specifically to the architectural form of the building.

The artists’ intent is to remind audiences of the organic nature of the city and the enchantment of natural design.

Each night that I attended VIVID, groups of light-clad roller bladers, skaters, and skateboarders would aggregate at the various light installations which had open spaces and just skate around, before moving to the next location. They seemed to be having fun and added to the festival atmosphere.

You can see them in the foreground.

What would an enchanted Sydney be…

…without an enchanted forest…

…with some enchanting wood elves.

Awww, those elves always know how to make me smile!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed the Enchanted Sydney show. Next stop, the Museum of Contemporary Art.

This week I am the Guest Author on The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge, with the theme – Vivid. I hope you enjoyed the contributions to the Challenge, of which there are currently more than 830 1100 responses. My thanks to everyone who contributed.

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This is part 5 of my 9 part VIVID Sydney 2015 series.

All my photography from this and previous years of VIVID Sydney going back to 2012 can be found here.