Light in Winter 2013: When does the light turn on? is a 30min public video installation on Federation Square. The large scale public art projection was hosted for 4 weeks on FedSquare’s large screen. The project, along with the short documentary and a series of web-based interventions, was commissioned by Robyn Archer AO, Light in Winter 2013 Artistic Director.
Change Media explored a concept to disrupt social beliefs about the movement of people and racism, titled, 'The Perfect Refugee', Shakespeare in a Time of Crisis'. We worked in collaboration with artists from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. In 2012 we ran an intensive, creative lab with artists from a refugee background and the Bell Shakespeare Company.
We worked with a team of artists from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to create a video installation, a behind the scenes documentary and a series of online video provocations for the Light in Winter 2013.
What is your experience of racism? Watch artistic responses to the question 'When did the light turn on for you?' from our collaborating community members:
Excerpts featured at the Democracy Forum in 2013, hosted by Light in Winter Artistic Director Robyn Archer.
The short co-creative documentary features some of the community art process and its different stages of rehearsals, teaser event and final Solstice performance, narrated by The Light in Winter artistic director Robyn Archer and FedSquare’s community arts producer Nadja Kostich, with contributions from our other interviewees.
The ASRC requested to use the video to showcase its arts and media outreach programs to its members and supporters.
Fed Square is using the documentary to promote the Square of Light and to raise further funds for its community arts programs as part of the Light in Winter 2014 and beyond.
In a series of workshops between Feb-June, our team is collaborating with over 75 contributors / Melbourne artists from migrant, refugee, Anglo-Australian, Indigenous and Pacific Islander backgrounds, to reflect on Light in Winter’s theme of ‘race, voice and power’. The resulting half hour experimental art work, ‘when does the light turn on?’, is screening throughout June on the Big Screen at Federation Square and online.
‘When does the light turn on?’ is part dance, part documentary, part moving image poetry: Australian citizens of the world share their insights, movements and stories about enlightenment, racism and change, and offer ‘gifts of light’ that come to life on screen as animations of light.
The ASRC members and artists from refugee background who participated in the production, gained another valuable credit and exposure. Two of our participants are now in the process of setting up their own digital media and film making enterprise.
Change Media team:
Artistic Director – Jennifer Lyons-Reid
Creative Producer – Carl Kuddell
Director of Photography – Johanis Lyons-Reid
Editors – Jesse Miles and Jennifer Lyons-Reid
Special Effects – Felix Weber
Colour Grade – Johanis Lyons-Reid
Music – Jesse Miles
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre team:
Camera B – Gokhan Zorlu
Camera C – Adem Mohamedali Etel
Slow motion camera – Mirhat Turan and Adem Mohamedali Etel
Production Manager – Kate Murray
ASRC Supporters – Raj Yadev, Courtney Green and Bonnie Dunstone
Fed Square team:
Artistic Director Light in Winter – Robyn Archer
Program Manager – Matt Jones
Creative Projects Manager – Renee Dudfield
Creative Producer Community Participation – Nadja Kostich
On-screen Contributors:
Larry Walsh
Rob Bundle
Sista Zai
Cece Ojany
Shabbir Wahid
Catherine Simmonds
Ubah Badi
Essan Dileri
Robyn Archer
Yomal Krishan Rajasinghe
Paul Janes
John Gray
Lib Diop
Emeretta Cross
Esmeralda Araiza
Tony Yap
Square of Light contributors:
Carolyn Briggs
Lou Bennett and the Light in Winter choir ensemble
Tony Yap Company
Catherine Simmonds and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre performers
…and all the other artists, performers and contributors that made Light in Winter what it is…
Also a special thanks to the Australian Nursing Federation Victoria, for the use of their fabulous venue!
When Does The Light Turn On? was supported by
Australia Council for the Arts - 3-year CACD funding 2011-2013
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
VCA Centre for Cultural Partnerships
VicHealth
FedSquare Pty Ltd
