The works can be seen from the St Kilda Road foyer and the Velik Foyer at the circle level of Hamer Hall respectively.
Chosen from over 30 applications in a competitive tender process, Robert Owen and Electrolight were selected to create light and sculpture works for this next chapter of the Hamer Hall story.
“The changes to Hamer Hall are enabling us to create one of the world’s great concert halls and a visually spectacular cultural attraction in its own right so I’m delighted that, through our Maxwell and Merle Carroll Bequest, it will house what are visually impressive and eye-catching works of art. Robert and Electrolight’s designs for these two works are imaginative and will beautifully complement both the Truscott interiors that are being retained and the new interiors that are being introduced,” said Judith Isherwood, Chief Executive, Arts Centre Melbourne.
The Commission was facilitated through the generosity of the Maxwell and Merle Carroll Bequest, established in 1988 when the Arts Centre Melbourne received a unique bequest from the Estate of Maxwell and Merle Carroll.
Established in 1972, the Public Art Collection now comprises of close to 1,000 works of art. The Collection builds on the original intention which was to acquire works that explore the creative intersections between the visual and performing arts. The priority is to look at ways in which artists have been and continue to be inspired by circus, dance, music, opera and theatre. Silence and Falling Light now form a permanent part of Arts Centre Melbourne collections and were designed and engineered for a minimum 30 year life.
Both Silence and Falling Light engage with ideas of performance through transformational movement of natural processes, emerging from the structures and properties of silver and geology akin to Roy Grounds and John Truscott’s original vision for the building.
One of a pair of works that speak to each other and the wider Arts Centre Melbourne precinct, Falling Light plays with notions of the natural world, call and response and performance. Silence and Falling Light engage in dialogue where movement triggers an illuminated response as reaction. Falling Light emerges as an X-ray or memory of a subterranean image of silver crystal. Light filters through the perforated surface image in shafts, changing and shifting in rhythmic responses evocative of seams of underground minerals or stars.
Different lighting states play over both works according to the content programming of Hamer Hall. The evening performance states are triggered by the cue server that runs the Theatres Building spire lighting.
Designed and developed over fourteen months Falling Light was installed towards the end of the Hamer Hall redevelopment over two week period.
Falling Light
- is a commissioned artwork comprising perforated aluminum, steel, wool and LED star cloth
- incorporates 1050 white LEDs coloured to four star constellation colours with LEE filters
- LEDs circuited into 20 control groups across 10 star cloth strips allowing for a kinetic twinkling effect
- 5 custom built spot housings mounted above the aluminum panels incorporating 2.5 degree LEDs. These shine through selected voids in the aluminum panels catching visitors and foyer floor.
- Two layers of steel unistrut support custom designed droppers that allow for the even suspension of the aluminum panels
- Painted screws matching aluminum panel finish secure the panels to the droppers in a manner of a suspended ceiling but allow for the panels to be removed for access and maintenance
- The drivers for the LEDs are located in a ceiling hatch outside of the artwork for ease of access and LEDs were selected for their long life
- Remotely located Cue server storing data and receiving signal from the Spire’s cue server
