This year, everyone put on their warmest winter jackets and joined us for Glow Winter Arts Festival at Central Park, Malvern East for its fifth year.
The 2018 art installations included:
Anthropic Augmentation by Caroline Packham, a roaming projection performance work that explored an imagined future memoir of the Yarra River/Birrarung. It is the year 2030 and the Yarra has been granted human rights to enhance her protection. Who is s/he and what has been her journey? If elements of the environment are granted human rights, how might this impact environmental health and climate action? How might we reconsider human classifications, rights and existence? What is the Yarra’s story and how might we care for her? The public was invited to participate in this interactive work.
Between The Trees by Melinda Hetzel & Co. was part interactive tree-installation, part collaborative musical instrument. This playful, immersive experience gently reminded us of our connectedness to the natural world and each other. Incorporating touch technology, plant material and a live performer, ‘Between the Trees’ invited participants to ‘play’ the installation by interacting with suspended, miniature ecospheres, creating original compositions together in real time.
Laser Garden by Mandylights was an immersive installation made up of thousands of rotating green laser beams perfectly suited to the gardens of Central Park, Malvern East. Numerous rays caught the air in clouds of dense fog; with a lick of wind, the garden changed in shape and size as guests roamed freely through the beams. Using up to sixty custom made lasers in weatherproof enclosures, the Laser Garden used low-energy, safe lasers and several continuously running fog machines to create the experience.
Neon Glow + Night Garden by Carla O’Brien took the festival logo and put an oversized neon spin on it to create extra-large, multi-coloured neon GLOW letters. There was also the vibrant and bright Night Garden, featuring a collection of interactive installations that one might find in a garden – Neon Umbrellas, a Flamingo, the Neon Tree and Neon Kite.
In Revive the Reef by S1T2, festival goers stepped into a magical underwater landscape and worked with friends and strangers to unwind the pressures threatening the Reef. Together, we transformed a bleached white Reef into a kaleidoscope of colour and real Reef sounds. The Great Barrier Reef is a natural treasure unlike any other place on earth. Beautiful, irreplaceable… under threat. When we see the pictures of bleached coral, it’s easy to feel like the problem is too big, and not see ourselves in the solution. Everyone’s actions though big and small are vital to the Reef’s future.
