Ashton and Monid were commissioned to produce this latest work following their successful Accendo for the 2008 Illuminating York event, which lit the facades of the Yorkshire Museum and Abbey Ruins in York's Museum Gardens.
Rose was a 40m high artwork that transformed the Minster's famous medieval Rose window and surrounding architecture into an amalgam of images, ideas, colour and sounds. It was a four-part study encompassing the symbolism of the rose and its relevance to the city's ancient and contemporary history.
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu commented, "It was a fantastic piece of art that really made the Minster come alive."
Ashton's projection system comprised four Pigi 7Kw projectors with double rotating scrollers, each of which was loaded with about 14m of film. These were housed in a specially constructed tower in front of the south transept of the Minster. The projectors were all fitted with 15.5cm wide-angle lenses to maximise the short throw distance of the long but shallow viewing area. The extreme angles made the line up a real challenge, with some serious keystone correction required to get the artwork appearing in perspective on the building.
Ashton and Monid had an open brief and no shortage of ideas once they decided to concentrate on the rose and its myriad of real and imaginative possibilities. They spent about a month intensively developing the show, which is divided into four sections.
All the artwork was produced by Ashton and The Projection Studio, comprising of Paul Chatfield and Steve Larkins. The equipment was installed by Ashton, Monid and Michael Barry, who worked with Illuminating York's production manager Ben Pugh. The show was programmed on and run by Monid using an OnlyCue system, a process completed in four overnighters on site.
Central to the philosophy of the piece was back-lighting of the rose window from inside the Cathedral, achieved with a Robert Juliat 2.5K follow spot supplied by White Light, which juxtaposed the central feature exquisitely against the projections.
The sound was run off an ADAT machine, with 10 audio inputs in to the mixer, output to d&b speakers and subs in four positions around the viewing area.
(Jim Evans)
