Christmas lights are one of the few remaining things with an almost-universal approval rating. They are beloved in a way that only puppies and The Office Is Closed Today Because Of The Snow texts are beloved.
It’s because no matter how tacky or brilliant or weirdly-specific they are, they transform the very feel of a public space overnight.
Couples linger longer on their walk home from work. Leaving the pub, with the right song in your headphones, you can’t help but feel for a moment that you’re the star of your own movie as you cross the pools of light in High Town in your own little world. There is something warm and dramatic and friendly about lighting up a city that seems to take the best of the festive qualities of love and community and goodwill to all men, and paint the night sky with them. You find yourself, a Herefordian, nodding hello to total strangers.
Don’t worry, there’s a but coming.
But if installing these jerkily-waving-robin decorations can have this profound an effect on a neighbourhood, what would happen if professional light- and sound- artists involved too?
There’s a nomadic light art festival called Lumiere - nothing to do with a certain charismatic candelabra - that rolls in to towns with a team of artists and techies and transforms walls and bridges and clocktowers in to one big nocturnal creative playground. It’s a great example, maybe the example, of how a place can use projections and art installations to get all kinds of folk interacting with their surroundings, reimagining great old buildings they walk past every day, and spotlighting parts of the neighbourhood they forgot they were proud of. Yeh, and it looks insanely cool.
Rebecca Farkas was involved in a large-scale light art project at Yarpole’s Croft Castle commissioned by Ludlow-based Meadow Arts in 2015.
She's also projected trees onto hallways at Hereford College of Arts, and stained glass windows onto stained glass windows. She is, in short, the perfect person to ask how Hereford could add creative showpieces to its current Christmas decs, and maybe change how Herefordians see their city.
Rebecca said: “There are some brilliant sites around the city where having some light art would be really interesting for visitors and locals too - lighting up our dark winter months and presenting city sights in new ways.”
Here are five ideas to light up the city:
1. Hereford Cathedral
"We’re really lucky to have such a beautiful building in the heart of our city. With its huge facades, it could be a place for some big lighting effects. I'd propose using a special light that projects images on a large scale on the outside of the building.
"I always think that stained glass windows are very beautiful on the inside of churches and cathedrals, when the light shines through them, but you don’t get to see them on the outside, so we could project photographic images of the Cathedral’s own stained glass onto the outside of the building. This could also happen at satellite sites in the county, like churches, making a countywide art installation. I have projected images within Kingsland Church in the past, so it would be really interesting to do this on the outside."
2. The Old Market
"The shopping centre hosts a selection of restaurants and the Odeon cinema, so it sees a lot of people coming through the area in the evenings. I’d love to see an interactive installation here, so that passers-by make the art happen.
"I imagine a flock of birds in lights, which swoop and fly along the upper parts of the buildings, depending on the actions of the audience. These interactive works can be a lot of fun, as people can stand below and move around to see the effect they are having on what happens.
"I saw a fantastic piece at Lumiere in Durham (a biannual light festival across the city) where Swedish artists Floating Pictures created a piece that responded to the audience’s mobile phone torches, creating a kind of ‘light graffiti on the floor in a city street."
3. The Old House
"This landmark building is situated in Hereford’s main market square. Occupying its own space with no other building touching it, the half-timbered, black and white structure would make a fantastic foil for image mapping projections.
"You may have seen these elsewhere: the projections are fitted exactly to the architecture of the building they are projected onto, making it seem to come alive. Because of the position of the building, we could project onto more than one side of it, making a spectacular artwork happen from every direction. Light projections often have a soundtrack to accompany them, like this spectacular show called Dr Blighty at Brighton Pavilion [above]."
4. The Old Bridge & Victoria footbridge
"Imagine a journey across the Old Bridge, which spans the River Wye, accompanied by coloured lights that react to you as you pass, lighting up the stonework and the footpath.
"A soundscape comes alive, emanating from the alcoves on the bridge and accompanying your footsteps. This is the start of a riverside walk, along through King George V Playing Fields where the trees are lit up and whispered stories reward your patience as you stop to listen by each one.
"What tales would they tell? Walk along to the Victoria Footbridge, which is beautifully lit and plays music as you step along it, go backwards and forwards to change the notes like a piano. Finish your journey back at the Cathedral, and watch the light show there!"
5. Hereford Train Station
"One of the benefits of the new link road in Hereford is that the train station building is now visible as you pass, and what a great building it is! You could go with a simple installation of coloured lights that draws out the architectural effects, or image mapping could be used to project images of travel and Herefordshire’s landscapes onto the building’s façade.
"Another option that could be really exciting would be to use a screen to create a moving image artwork here, a bit like piece [above] by Julian Opie at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park or maybe it could be the beginning point for a moving projection like this innovative piece by Dave Lynch."
For more on Rebecca Farkas visit her website here.
For more on the Lumiere Festival, click here.