White Light oversees lighting for Pink Floyd at the V & A
- Details
Following the company’s work on last year’s Exhibitionism, the Rolling Stone’s exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, White Light was called upon to oversee the lighting installation and supply the lighting equipment on this occasion.
Produced by Concert Productions International, Their Mortal Remains was curated by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, the creative director of Pink Floyd, who worked closely with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason. It is designed by Stufish Entertainment and the lighting designers are Woodroffe Bassett Design.
WL’s special projects director Simon Needle comments: “We were approached by Terry Cook, ssenior dDesigner at Woodroffe Bassett, back in November 2016 about us coming on board. After working with them on the hugely successful Exhibitionism, they asked us if we would be able to fulfil a similar role on this project”.
WL was asked to supply all of the lighting equipment, install the fixtures and provide on-site crew. Simon adds: “This was a huge exhibition taking up three spaces at the V & A Museum. Having the experience of working on similar projects in the past, we knew we had both the staff and technology to deliver this.”
Alongside Woodroffe Bassett’s project manager John Coman, WL made several site visits to the V & A in order to assess the different spaces. Working closely with Terry Cook and Rob Casey, associate lighting designer at Woodroffe Bassett, WL invited them down to its London base to talk through their plans and the practicalities of installing the equipment. Simon states: “There are more than 350 artefacts on display so it was important that what we provided was not only practical for that space but also offered the right amount of coverage for every single feature.”
For Their Mortal Remains, WL invested in a range of lighting fixtures specifically for this exhibition. These included ETC Source Four Minis, ETC Source Four Irideons, ETC ColourSource LEDs, ETC Source Four Fresnels, Chauvet Ovation LED Profiles, Philips Color Kinetics iW Fuse Powercores, KKDC Global TiMi 504s and Selecon Fresnels. The company also supplied a series of track-mounted LED birdies, industrial floodlights along with more than 250m of its own LED tape.
Simon comments: “When we’re approached to work on a project like this, our role is to provide every element of the lighting; something we are in a position to do. Thanks to our close relationship with the leading lighting manufacturers, we were able to call upon them to supply us with the latest equipment for Their Mortal Remains; all of which we knew would be able to deliver WBD’s design.”
With the previous V & A exhibition closing on 8 March, this meant that WL had less than two months to prepare for the opening of Their Mortal Remains, which took place on 8 May. Simon adds: “We were on site solidly for two months, working closely with Media Powerhouse, who supplied the AV, and Set Square, who supplied the set. The schedule was extremely tight with a definite deadline so we had to use our time as resourcefully as possible.”
Following their work on the main exhibition, WL was then asked to provide lighting equipment for The Laserium; an area independent of the main exhibition which recreates the legendary Pink Floyd laser shows.
Terry comments: “We are delighted with WL’s work on this exhibition. They were able to fulfil our brief, supplying both state-of-the-art equipment and the expertise to oversee a very specific installation. WBD are extremely proud of the exhibition and we hope the thousands of people attending feel they have experienced a little bit of the illuminated world of Pink Floyd.”
*There will be a major feature on the technology behind the exhibition in the June issue of LSi.
(Jim Evans)
