السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!!
Alhamdulillah, we had the opportunity to go to the spots for Lumiere on Sunday, 17th Jan which was the last day of the festival.
We first went to Mayfair area because we missed it on the first day. There were quite a few not-to be-missed installations here.
From Bond Street Station, we went straight to Grosvenor Square Garden. My friend have forgotten the map that we get the day before, so we were just following others that were holding the map.
As we arrived, there were already a very long queue going into the garden. The first one that we saw was this, called spinning night in living colour by Elaine Buckholtz. This is actually sampled from Van Gogh's painting called All Night Café.
Next is one of the installation that I looked most forward to, called Lightbenches by Bernd Spiecker. Because this display was on the ground (not suspended or on a large display), a lot of people cramped up to see it. Even when we want to take pictures with it, some of them were o rude not to wait and sat down as well. So the pictures turned out really bad because you can't see the lights from the bench which was supposed to be the attraction. Even when I want to take a picture of the bench itself, there was always someone sitting on it, hence the butts pics.
It was still a gorgeous display though.
This display is called Brothers and Sisters by Ron Haselden. It looked like a child's drawing of their family, being put into lights. That's because it was drawings of school children from the Isle of Dogs, London. Cool!
Just around the corner of the garden, is the installation of Aquarium by Benedetto Bufalino & Benoit Deseille. This was by far the hardest installation to see!!! There's only one, that's one thing. It's located at a curb of a road, that's another issue. Then, all the crowds that gather up, and the people up front that just refused to move on after taking pictures. The guards had to finally take charge and only let 10 seconds of picture taking, only then the crowd started moving and we finally get to see it. It was soooooo beautiful. These are real fishes in the tank made up of the famous London red telephone booth. How creative is that?!?!! After our 10 seconds turn, we walked to another installation as we walked back to the station.
On the way, we saw this bowl of fresh flowers and onions? being displayed outside a bridal shop. hahaha...talk about random.
The next installation was located here. This is actually a garden, called the Brown Hart Garden. There's actually a pretty interesting story how this garden came about.
The gardens began life as the Duke Street Gardens where a communal garden was laid for what were then working class dwellings in Brown Street and Hart Street.
In 1902, the building of the Duke Street Electricity Substation led to the removal of the street level gardens. The substation was completed in 1905 to the design of C. Stanley Peach in a Baroque style from Portland stone featuring a pavilion and steps at either end, a balustrade and Diocletian windows along the sides to light the galleries of the engine rooms, and deep basements. In order to compensate local residents for the loss of the old communal garden, the Duke of Westminster insisted that a paved Italian garden featuring trees in tubs be placed on top of the substation. It was completed in 1906. The deck of the property was open to the public as an ornamental garden until the 1980s when it was closed by the then lessees, the London Electricity Board.
The dwellings surrounding Brown Hart Gardens were built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company (founded in 1863) to replace the poor housing that existed previously. In 1888 Moore suggested that tenants of old houses should move into Clarendon Buildings and that inmates of Clarendon Buildings should go into the new blocks, so that 'those who had not been used to a model lodging house would be gradually improved before moving into new buildings'. This was approved, but it cannot have been generally done. Though no figures are available, the rents for those displaced and rehoused were fixed below market value and indeed below what they had paid before, while for newcomers the terms were higher. This was only possible because of the low grounds rents charged by the Duke on all the buildings on both sides of Duke Street, amounting to £502 per annum as against £2,193 for old leases of the same sites. Altogether 332 families were accommodated in the developments of 1886–92.
Together with Clarendon Buildings, this meant that the Duke and the I.I.D.C. had between them settled nearly 2,000 people on the Grosvenor estate in Mayfair.
Since 1973 the blocks have been taken over by the Peabody Trust, and their names changed from 'Buildings' to 'Flats'.
In 2007 plans were announced to revamp the site, and the site was reopened to the public after 20 years of closure in October 2007. In 2012 the gardens were closed for further refurbishment, under supervision of BDP, the architectural consultancy. The new development includes a glass building at the Western end, housing The Garden Café, run by Benugo. The gardens were reopened to the public in June 2013. -Source: Wikipedia
Moving on..the display was called Sanctuary by Sarah Blood where there were displays of birdhouses with background sounds of birds and crickets.
The sound of birds chirping. But it's not very clear.
At the same place is the display of Dissect also by Sarah Blood located at the entrance of the garden.
After Mayfair, we went to King's Cross St. Pancras Station to see the rest of the installations.
As you exit the station towards Pancras Square, you can immediately see one of the displays, along with the information of the location of each displays.
This display is called IFO (Identified flying object) by Jacques Rival. This is because the installation is shaped like a birdcage, and there's a functional swing where people can actually use and have fun with, thus, flying-like action.
This unusual object is a permanent piece in the King’s Cross area. The IFO Birdcage was originally designed to be positioned in the sky thanks to the crane in the giant building site, and become a monumental luminary above King's Cross. Designed to be a scenographic installation for an urban playing field but also a true light installation expressing an urban message, it finally found its place at the crossroads of the two stations.
Just beside the cage, there's this interesting thing called Poetrics where people say a word to these red circles and that word will be arranged as shown in the picture below and become a unique and individual poetry.
A friend of mine tried, but then her word didn't came up. huhu...Maybe it didn't work as well as we thought.
The second installation is just at the building near the birdcage called Joining the Dots by Cleary Connolly. The display looked like dotted stick figures doing some kind of exercise. haha...
Further up, we saw the display of dresses by Tae Gon Kim at of the window display.
Pick your poison girls.
There's an installation along the road after the dresses called graffiti. But because it was displayed on the road, a lot of people just walked by or actually stepped on the installation. However, I did managed to get a good picture on our way back.
Because people took a selfie with the installation on their faces, we wanted one too. But it wasn't really clear. haha...oh well...
Further up across the canal, there's a display of the circus by Ocubo on the building.
Near the canal, another display called Binary Waves by LAB [au].
When we first arrived, it just showed this display with minimal movements of the red lines. After we went somewhere else, it showed this
Just love how they display information of the festival. It looked like a book.
Beside the canal, there's this old boat called Word on the Water. It's actually a used book shop!!
Look at this cute little lady with her beautiful dog just sitting by the fire. So quaint.
You can even go inside. There's more books inside!!
This is a miniature displayed on one of the shelves inside.
My mum used to have this. This is a typewriter for all the young readers out there. I've used this to help her with her work before. Where is it now anyway??
Awww...Jemima Puddle Duck! I used to have this book!! I wanted to buy this book for my niece/nephew, but I didn't brought cash with me. Will have to come back then. haha...Notice the small chair? =D
The old style furnace, old style displays
They even have this books printed form the 1800's. Dickens in the old bindings. Come on! Where else can you find something like this at a place like this??!?!
I'm getting a wee bit excited with all these classic books and old school stuff.
Moving on to Lumiere...This installation is called litre of light by Mick Stephenson.
You can actually participate in putting one of the bottles that you've coloured/painted into this display. It was quite crowded to go through this 'tunnel' of lights, but at least we were moving.
There were different shapes being displayed as well.
This display is actually for a cause in helping to get lights in places that has no electricity. In helping poverty, sustanability and climate change issues.
Just outside from the litre of light installation is this solar-dish-look-a-like.
This is most boring I think. It was called Spectra-3 by FIELD.io
It just turns, and sometimes increase the light intensity, with a loud sound on the background like a UFO or something.
Just outside the building, a bit further up is the last installation (the furthest) at King's Cross.
This installation is called the diver.
See this guy dive. =P
As we walked to go back to the station, there were a lot of food trucks where you can buy some food. Beside all the food trucks were this dome called KERB. I think it's a disco. I saw a trans lady that were dancing and making others in the dome to join her. hahahaha..
On the way back, we saw another installation of the dress at a display window of a pub/disco.
They were having a private costume party I think. I saw a clown, popeye and even elmo!
Actually, the last installation that we went to is the King's Cross Tunnel where it's located at the passage from King's Cross to St.Pancras station underground. We missed it when we were walking by earlier, but it was a good thing because then we can directly go to the station to catch the tube.
This last installation is called pippette. I was actually looked most forward to this because in the picture, it looked most interesting. But when we came there, it was such a disappointment.
You can barely see the colours as the light might be a little too bright. The worst is when I want to take pictures, my phone acted up and made this lines (this is not the display). It made the display a little bit more interesting though. hahaha...
After a very very very very cold night, we turned in and went back to hibernate.
Until next time...
