Unusual solutions for 10th Lumiere festival
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Over the 10 years since the first Lumiere, Unusual Rigging has been a key supplier in the delivery of specialist rigging and engineering for the festival in Durham. Engineers, riggers and technicians work with Artichoke’s production teams to design solutions to the most challenging projects, from working in delicate heritage environments such as Durham Cathedral to rigging artworks over the river Wear or across the historic medieval streets.
Kate Harvey, senior producer for Artichoke comments: “This year, Unusual has been working with us on a special edition of the festival to celebrate our tenth anniversary. The programme included a number of returning artworks from across previous editions of the festival, together with new commissions from artists specialising in the field of light related work.
“Led by Jim Dugan, the team designed and installed rigging systems for the French fire artists Carabosse in the interior of Durham Cathedral. They provided a rigging system to span the Cathedral nave on three levels and oversaw all work in the upper levels of the medieval building. Compagnie, Carabosse’s captivating fire gardens and flame filled installations have been seen around the world and the company last visited Durham in 2011.”
Harvey continues: “Unusual also designed a catenary rigging system to hang Deepa Man-Kler’s Shoefiti across the historic South Bailey. In the development of a new piece such as Shoefit, Unusual has the invaluable experience of having worked with thousands of large and complex structures and they are able to use this experience to work with artists to explain what is and is not possible within the laws of physics.”
Other pieces that Unusual rigged include a giant piece of glowing knitting created by local textile artist Victoria Macleod and Celestial Brainstorm, the work of a young emerging artist, Amelia Kosminsky. Celestial Brainstorm is a large scale interactive illuminated sculptural object floating in space. Unusual worked over several months to provide design and engineering skill to enable the development of the project.
Harvey concludes: “The longstanding relationship between the work of Artichoke and Unusual means that we work closely as a team to identify challenges in presenting the artists’ work and find solutions which meet the needs of the artists and the various stakeholders and authorities who grant access to the spaces in which the work is to be installed. Artists always seek to achieve the impossible and more often than not the impossible is realised through Unusual’s ingenious solutions.”
(Jim Evans)
