Are you ready to be dazzled by this year’s Charlotte International Art Festival? From giant inflatable art installations to aerial performers to ‘Luminarium,’ a beautiful, walk-in sculpture meant to evoke a sense of wonder by using light and color to its full advantage.
This year, the featured installation for the art festival will be by Architects of Air, the Nottingham based company that has been creating ‘Luminaria’ since 1992. Since then, they’ve built 21 Luminaria across 600 different exhibitions and toured 43 countries.
Founder, designer and artistic director Alan Parkinson first started experimenting with pneumatic
sculptures in the 1980s and has since developed his own language of form in this plastic medium, with the designs inspired by natural shapes like soap bubbles and plant and cell structures. Like working with a modern form of stained glass, the materials used in the tunnels filter natural light and illuminates the space with color in a variety of vibrant and saturated hues.
Festival goers can walk through the Luminarium, becoming completely engaged with their surroundings–the colors, the shapes, and the soundscapes–that will be a sensory delight for the eyes and ears.
When reading a Q&A with Parkinson, we were interested in the way he described two unique elements of this installation–its maze-like quality and the fact that its designed to be temporary. The lack of permanence adds novelty to it and the fact that its a maze helps to disorient who is experiencing it which allows for a deeper, more immersive experience. It’s something you’ll have to see to fully be able to experience and you can, starting September 16th through October 2nd.
This is a ticketed event, costing $5, which you can purchase on the website. The installation will be open from 9:30am to 6:30pm and is located at Ballantyne’s Backyard, and you can go see it now!
Where: 11611 N. Community House Rd Charlotte 28277