Lance and Mike were so impressed with the light show presented at Cardiff’s Bute Park last year, a return visit was almost guaranteed this year.
This year, the curators appear to have upped their game with the installations on display, including such wonders as an area illuminated with ethereal green twinkles emitting from tree-based lasers (Laser Garden) and a geometrically-strung walkway created by luminous cords brought to life by UV light (and no Mike isn’t wearing a vivid pink anorak, his least favourite colour, its yellow). What makes the creativity stronger this year is how the light interacts with nature, often giving completely new perspectives. It is less about LED light extravagance, in that commercial graphic fashion that is getting so ubiquitous, and more about juxtapositions with the park and evoking new wondrous perspectives. This is where design becomes art. The park was shown in a new glory not just a place to have a winter light display and an opportunity to scoff toasted marshmallows or get started on the alcohol, although of course there was provision for that for the punters too.
However, among the visual and sonic wonders, one installation in particular caught our attention and one which resonated heavily with Earthwaves; a piece entitled ‘Mycelium’.
The work consisted of hundred of strings of gently changing colour lights trailing outward from the bases of a collection of trees in the park, accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack, commissioned for the piece. At certain points the strings even converged into peaks to create representations of the fruiting bodies of the fungus. The vivid illustration of the mycorrhizal network, the underground fungal web which connects individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals, was incredibly beautiful to watch and reminded us of the inspiration we got from the wonderful Merlin Sheldrake book “Entangled Life”. So lots of discussions were had about future projects, inspired by the piece, in the new year.
