Illuminating Oxford: Hopes and Fears 2016
Fusion Arts and Luxmuralis are teaming up to bring a light and sound spectacular to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, a son et lumière of Hopes and Fears.
Sculptor Peter Walker and local composer David Harper will create a new artwork through exploring the OUMNH and the Pitt Rivers Museum hidden collections and archive alongside staff, curators, and researchers. Social anthropologist Kathryn Walker will work with museum engagement teams and members of the public to discover their “hopes and fears” identifying artefacts of significance to them and their communities to help form the artwork.
Illuminating the Museum 2016 is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. On the evening of the 18th November audiences will have opportunity to experience a son et lumière, witnessing projections of the artwork and unseen objects across the whole front facade of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on a magnificent scale. Bringing excellent art and art experiences on to the streets. A temporary public art piece for Oxford and it’s diverse communities to experience for free from the lawn outside the Museum. Opening up the museum collections bringing the inside outside.
Hopes and Fears forms part of the national Being Human Festival, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History will be lit up at night for visitors to explore the theme of Hopes and Fears: Life, Death, Extinction & Invasion. Pitt Rivers Museum will be looking at how different cultures manage the hopes and fears surrounding life and death through ritual, social culture and community. The University Museum of Natural History will explore hopes and fears through the concept of invasion and extinction in the animal world.
Illuminating the Museum will adorn the facade of the OUMNH to accompany the evening event to be experienced by attendees and passers-by alike.
Hopes & Fears was an inspiring four storey canvas of human endeavour and discovery. Watch the installations here and here.
Overview:
Starting in 2015, each year as part of Oxford’s Light Festival, Fusion Arts works with artist collective Luxmuralis alongside an ever-increasing consortium of institutional partners (now Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Pitt Rivers Museum, the Bodleian Libraries / Radcliffe Camera, University Church of St Mary the Virgin and the Museum, the History of Science Museum) and numerous community groups (including Multaka-Oxford, Oxford’s Windrush communities and LGBTQ+ groups) to produce a series of inspiring son et lumière displays; light and sound spectacles that illuminate the outside of some of Oxford's most iconic buildings and bring community stories and the partner institutions' collections to life. These shows are free and accessible to all.
The project seeks to literally illuminate the museums’ collections and archives for the public to admire, bringing hidden collections into the public domain in the form of colourful light designs projected onto the museum's facades. In preparation for the events, Luxmuralis has worked closely with Multaka-Oxford to identify what parts of the hidden collections to choose and determine which were of greatest significance to them. The objects chosen were brought to life through the light show, prompting the viewers to consider the modern and historical research concerns they raise.
Other works by Luxmuralis include: Poppy Field which toured Cathedrals around the UK; Lichtfestival in Limburg Germany; Earth What a Wonderful World, Lichfield Cathedral; The Maker of Middle Earth, Bodleian Libraries. Their portfolio, which includes a plethora of other light and sound events across the UK and abroad can be found here.
