Workington Winter Lightworks Festival 2007
The Workington Winter Lightworks Festival returned for a second
year at the beginning of 2007 to showcase a diverse range of
work by thirteen of the hottest and most innovative young designers
and artists from near and far. There were
participating artists from Sweden, Iran, Turkey, Korea and
Taiwan as well as Penrith, Brampton and Cleator Moor. The festival
commissions new light-
based artworks,
and borrows existing artworks, for display in shop windows in
Workington town centre. The aim is to brighten up the town
during the dark winter months.
The festival trail was open to the public every day until the
end of March 2007. Each artwork was accompanied by a text panel
with more details about the artist and artwork.
About the artists and artworks in
2007
Artist: Debby Akam
Artwork: Solway Sunset
Location: Park Fisheries, Oxford Street
Penrith-based artist Debby Akam's work is an abstract seascape made
using layers of coloured transparent perspex and electroluminescent
wires.
www.debbygary.co.uk
Artist: Katherine Buzsaki
Artwork: Threads of Light
Location: Vixen, Washington Street (NOT CURRENTLY ON DISPLAY DUE TO
TECHNICAL PROBLEMS)
Textile designer and weaver Katherine Buzsaki's Threads of
Light installation was made using hand-dyed fibre optic
tubing, monofilament and metallic wires.
www.buzsaki.com
Artist: Danielle Chappell
Artwork: Seaside Exposure
Location: Workington Regeneration, Ramsay Brow
Embroidery graduate Danielle Chappell's artwork was originally
commissioned for Blackpool's Festival of Light display, and has
been exchanged in return for the loan of one of
Workington's 2005/06 commissions, Sparkle Boxes by Jeremy
Lord. To learn more about Blackpool Festival of Light visit
www.festivaloflight.co.uk
Artist: Jane Dudman
Artwork: untitled
Location: Jay's Coffee Shop
Brampton-based visual artist Jane Dudman has collaborated with
Southfield Technology College to produce this light- and
sound-based work which uses recordings of the human voice in
conversation.
Artist: Steve Hines
Artwork: Chrome Blue
Location: Treats cafe, Finkle Street
Steve Hines' artwork renders a kettle into a useless artwork by
substituting the heating element with a cool blue neon light.
www.axisweb.org/artist/stevehines
Artist: Anna Magdalena Johannson
Artwork: Tree Room Divider
Location: Chamber's Homecentre, Murray Road
Swedish textile artist and recent graduate Anna Magdalena
Johannson's elegant Tree Room Divider is an illuminated
image of a tree made by piercing holes in paper on a wooden
frame.
www.annamagdalena.com
Artist: David Kirshner
Artwork: The Eyes Have It
Location: Specsavers, Murray Road
This commissioned artwork consists of a series of light boxes
embellished with Morse Code notation spelling the artwork's
title.
www.davidkirshner.org.uk
Artist: Ali McCaw
Artwork: Time Shadows
Location: Cre8 Building, Oxford Street
A light-based installation created by artists Ali McCaw and Celia
Burbush in collaboration with pupils from Victoria Nursery and
Infant School, to be installed in February.
Artist: Soner Ozenc & John Wischhusen
Artwork: Glowings
Location: Barclays Bank, Finkle Street
Up and coming London-based Turkish designer Soner Ozenc's blue
Glowings are luminescent butterfly lights that give off a
soft diffused glow from their wings. They were made as part of a
joint project with product and lighting designer John Wischhusen,
whose work explores the process of mechanical movement.
www.sonerozenc.com
www.withshoeson.com
Artist: Gary Powers
Artwork: Monument
Location: June's Childrenswear, Wilson Street
Gary Powers' Monument is a maquette for a large-scale
public sculpture made of discarded objects and children's toys,
built in a spiral around a tree.
www.debbygary.co.uk
Artist: Ali Siahvoshi
Artwork: Hungry
Location: Tognarelli's Coffee Shop, Pow Street
Iranian artist Ali Siahvoshi's witty and experimental piece
transforms cutlery to create an elegant chandelier appropriate for
a cafe window. The chandelier gives an everyday object a new
function.
Artist: Studio Make Light
Artwork: Night Maker
Location: Boots the Chemist, Murray Road
Studio Make Light are a small team of designers, Minsang Cho
and Sam Liu. The artwork on display is an elegant chandelier of
blue translucent resin light bulbs previously exhibited at
London Design Week.
www.studiomakelight.com
Artist: Studio Make Light
Artwork: Light_light
Location: Cre8 Building, Oxford Street
Three of Studio Make Light's designs are on display, each a kinetic
lighting sculpture which appears to be a mechanical pair of flying
wings.
www.studiomakelight.com
Artist: Richard Wood
Artwork: Bike Bank
Location: Bike Bank, Marketplace
Cleator Moor-based artist Richard Wood was commissioned to create a
display for the Bike Bank's impressive windows. The installation is
a curve of circular fluorescent lights tinted with contrasting
colours and supported by bike parts.
About the artists in 2005/06
Seven artists were commissioned to provide installations for the
2005/06 display, and many were inspired to create new work
especially for the Workington festival. Participating shops in
2005/06 included Civvy Street Menswear, Coffeeworks, Cumberland
Building Society, Derwent Bookshop, June’s Childrenswear, Quayside
Kitchens, Tognarelli’s coffee shop, Vixen and Adam’s Kids. Several
of the shops hosted an existing artwork on loan for the festival;
others worked with an artist to commission a bespoke artwork
especially for their shop.
Cleator Moor-based artist Richard Wood created two very different
works for the festival, which included one for the Cumberland
Building Society next to the cash machine. This work was inspired
by PIN numbers and counting in Cumbrian 
dialect. Richard’s other piece for the festival was
inspired by Quayside Kitchens’ existing window display. The artist
used neon in vibrant colours to create an eye-catching fiery
exhibit inside an oven.
Flora Gare’s dramatic work ‘Half Moon’ uses lights shone on
delicate threads strung between two boards. It was inspired by a
map of the stars, and draws on themes of solidity and
emptiness.
Cat Hase is a recent graduate from the West Midlands who created
etched ‘Bottle Lights’ which cast shadows and create shapes around
them.
Wendy Daws, an artist from Kent, loaned her piece ‘Memory
Blanket’ to the Winter Lights Festival. The work is made from very
small, transparent acrylic pieces cut into silhouettes of miniature
human shapes and then sewn together. The images were
taken from photographs in her
family album.
Lesley Goudge is a designer based in Workington with a
background in industrial design. She created a simple mobile
inspired by sea creatures to hang above the stock in a
childrenswear shop.
Jeremy Lord’s work, ‘Sparkle Boxes’, are five separate
components which can be stacked in any way, and contain different
coloured LEDs and shapes which quiver inside and cast shadows.
Jeremy has designed lights for Habitat.
David Kirshner from Sussex created a work for the shop window at
Derwent Bookshop in a specially constructed white room. Using
fluorescent lighting, ‘Workington Byeuk Posh’ is rooted in Cumbrian
pronunciation and an anagram of the shop’s name.
For more information about some of the participating artists in
2005/06,
please visit their websites:
www.wendydaws.co.uk
www.colourlight.com
www.davidkirshner.org.uk
Allerdale Borough Council
