Seeing the city in a new light

We had heard on the news that there’s a light festival in London and Mummy thought we should go to see them.  They only come on in the evening when it is dark enough to show off the light installations.

They are spread out in four different parts of London. Last night we went to the installations around Piccadilly, Regent Street and St. James’s.

The first one we saw was at Oxford Circus from afar –As we got closer to this light installation, it was simply breathtakingly beautiful!  It sways with the wind and changes colours.This is 1.8 London by Janet Echelman of Studio Echelon.

We tried to take a selfie but every time Georgie was in the photo, the light installation in the sky looked washed out because it needed so much exposure to take his photo! LOL!Whereas if it was just me, the photos turned out beautifully!We walked on in search for the next installation – and found this was at a Liberty’s window.
The dress changes colour all the timeThis is part of three Dresses by Tae gon Kim – the other two are at King’s Cross.

We turned off into Carnaby Street and saw these light bulbs that changes colour – but we couldn’t find it on our map and not sure if they’re a part of Lumiere London. But we found the walking girl called –Shaida Walking. 2015 by Julian Opie on Broadwick Street.

We made our way back to Regent Street to follow the trail – and saw this wall of stick figures on the building facade.Part animation and part moving sculpture, Keyframes by Groupe LAPS was a light show to music.

Further along on Regent Street we saw two flying fishes “swimming” in the airYes, Georgie – look at those fishes swimming towards you! And thankfully he has a colourful shirt on or he would have blended right into the night sky. And as Regent Street curved, there was Elephantastic! We were looking for him and there he was enormous and stomping from a cloud of dust through the archway, trumpeting at us from above sounds of the jungle in London.He is so big that the back of him was on the other side of the building. And still trumpeting!Elephantastic is by Top’là Design.

Now this is not one of the Lumiere London installations but at Piccadilly Circus and these lights are on every night, every day of every year.As we turned into Piccadilly we saw lanterns in the skyand more flying fishesAnd then we saw this lady and realised she was flying the fishes!  Not all of them but just one of them.
These dancing fishes and lanterns are called Les Lumineoles.

Further along at 195 Piccadilly, huge murals were projected on the building.These animation by NOVAK that were projected refers to the origins of the building – the home of the Royal Society of Watercolour Painters.

As we walked towards St. James’s, we started to find illuminated figures sitting on top of buildings This series of human forms illuminated against the night sky, called Le Voyageurs can be found sitting on rooftops or frozen mid-air in flight. And this one we like – was so cool! An illuminated man flying in mid-air with nature’s own light installation – the moon in the sky.May’s comment:  Rather magical  especially on a cold January night when all the Christmas lights have been dimmed – this is a really nice way to break the monotony of winter. We missed a couple of them in the area. Let’s see if we have the tenacity to find more this weekend.

“Lumiere London is a major new light festival that over four evenings, transforms many of the capital’s most iconic streets and buildings in the West End and King’s Cross. It brings together some of the world’s most exciting artists working with light. Expect large-scale video-mapped projections, interactive pieces and jaw-dropping installations.”Produced by Artichoke, Lumiere London is on every evening from 6:30-10:30pm till this Sunday, 17 January.