Lumiere lights up London and transforms the city with a spectacular show

Lumiere London saw the city transformed with light sculptures brightening up some of the city’s best loved landmarks.

The festival organised by the arts charity Artichoke and sponsored by the great and good saw an estimated one million people visit to see the show.  Crowds packed out spots in Kings Cross, Grosvenor Square, Oxford Circus, Piccadilly, Leicester Square and Westminster to get a look at some of the works of art which were showing for one long weekend only.

Rushing round London on a chilly Sunday evening is how I chose to visit the show and there was no way I was going to see everything although I did manage to give it a good go. The works ranged from the small and compact to the big and bold with every one different from the other and each a treat to stumble across.

It’s the third time Artichoke have exhibited Lumiere having previously transformed Durham in the North of England and Derry in Northern Ireland as part of it’s year as the City of Culture.  Committed to featuring work outside the traditional art venues, the London gig is of course the biggest one yet.

Kings Cross

The transformed area of Kings Cross and it’s newly pedestrianised areas proved to be an inspired choice for the revealing of some of Lumiere’s biggest exhibitions.  Also being the location of the Central Saint Martins the famous art college, the area around the redeveloped Granary Square was transformed with the star attraction being a projected circus show on the main building.

Grosvenor Square

With the eagle of the American Embassy overlooking the square the place found itself transformed with installations including light benches and an odd looking collage of neon scrawled figures.  The standout here for me though was in a telephone box just outside the square, transformed for the event into an aquarium, and yes it had real fish.  Needless to say there was a maddening throng around the box for the majority of the time.

Oxford Circus

Pedestrianised for the weekend, what a difference it makes having that street closed down.  Spread out above it, a light show made out of what appeared to be lots of little strings.  People were laying in the street gazing above to see the colours change, a big difference indeed.

Regent Street

Walking down Regent Street a number of exhibitions were installed onto the walls.  A few little stick men dancing down the walls of Liberty, a projected elephant roaring on a wall further down.  The main event here though being the giant kites shaped like some form of flying fish.  Controlled by operators in white gowns they were dancing above the busy street, a pretty impressive sight.

Leicester Square

The square turned into a garden of light with installations all over the place.  I think my favourite here were the giant snowdrops.

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery turned into Centre Point for the weekend with the iconic signage from the famous building re-created.  Down in the square one of the fountains was filled with plastic bottles and illuminated.

Westminster

Finishing up in Westminster, the abbey received a unique make-over with another spectacular light show projected onto it.  Pretty impressive stuff really, the abbey frontage is filled with intricate detail yet these have been picked out in colour with remarkable accuracy.

Lumiere London was created by Artichoke and was visited on Sunday 17 January 2016.  For more pictures and an excellent write up of the event check out Jenikya’s Blog