The recent London’s Burning festival caught the imagination in more ways than one. A giant series of events featuring some spectacular public art exhibitions was the city’s way of celebrating 350 years since the Great Fire of 1666 which changed the city forever.
Here on Inspiring City we covered the burning of a giant replica of the old city as it languished in a barge in the middle of the Thames. Thousands thronged along the embankment just to see it burn, re-creating in some way the view from across the river of a devastated city.
But Artichoke, the company behind not only this series of events but also the recent Lumiere show, put on more than just a burning barge. They also decided on a giant game of dominoes snaking through the city just for the pleasure of knocking them down. Needless to say the event got a fair bit of attention at the time and you can see a condensed 1 minute version of the whole thing below.
Working it’s way through the city, this was dominoes on a grand scale, from the Monument itself, from where the fire started in 1666 through the city before splitting into three directions at Bank to three finales at St.Pauls, the Barbican and the Gherkin
As set piece events go it was impressive, 26000 giant dominoes snaked for seven kilometres around the city. The logistics of protecting that amount of dominoes itself must have been a feat with so many playful scamps around who I am sure would have loved to them just a little push.
London is fast becoming one of the best places in the World for large scale set piece art events and the events of the London’s Burning festival just end up confirming that. So check out the video and have a look at the pictures below to see the Dominoes fall.
Londons Burning took place over the 1-4 September 2016 and was a commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. The giant dominoes display was created by Station House Opera and was an Artsadmin project. It took place on 3 September 2016. All pictures in this post are by and courtesy of Matthew Andrews and Oliver Rudskin. You can also read further about the Great Fire of London and where to find some of the buildings which survived it in a related Inspiring City post here.
Dominoes through the city gallery
Thanks for the photos. I’d really wanted to see this but was feeling a bit burnt out working hard, and I remember that the weather was a bit drizzly so I opted to stay in. Seeing how great it looked on Twitter and other images, I regretted missing out.