Photo: Connor Sullivan
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – “This is not an off-the-shelf light show. This is custom curated… like nothing I’ve ever seen,” a reporter for the local Public Broadcasting station exclaimed after touring ENLIGHTEN at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in western Michigan. Certainly not a case of “fake news” here!
Now in its second year, the brilliantly lit walk-through experience, which runs from November 24th to January 3rd, breaks the mold when it comes to this type of holiday event. Walk along its entire one-mile path and you will be hard pressed to see any typical “Christmas light” red and green color schemes. Nor will you encounter typical holiday gobos projected everywhere.
Photo: Connor Sullivan
John Featherstone and the team at Lightswitch would have it no other way. “ENLIGHTEN is a celebration of the holidays on the incredible Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park campus, not just a ‘Christmas show,’” Featherstone, who served as the project’s creative director, said of the color section, which involved translucent jewel tones and myriad other hues.
As for the absence of gobos? Featherstone had this to say: “Because we let nature and the garden’s collection of astonishing works by some of the world’s greatest artists provide the texture, we elected not to have the clutter of gobos or texture everywhere. We didn’t want gobos to fight either the world class art or the beautiful natural setting, so we elected to use broad strokes of color.”
Photo: Connor Sullivan
Help to create those strokes of color was a collection of 182 Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes, 19 STRIKE 1 blinders, and 14 STRIKE P38 units supplied by Upstaging. Positioned throughout the mile-long path, these fixtures were used in a variety of ways, depending on the artwork or garden section being lit, providing “the beautifully rich and balanced colors we need,” according to Featherstone.
“Lightswitch differs from many other holiday garden celebration creators because our work is entirely site-specific,” continued Featherstone. “Following this philosophy, we took everything that already existed at the Meijer Gardens, interpreted it, and then devised a plan to enhance it. We asked ourselves, ‘How do we create a light show that is hyper-specific to Meijer Gardens—that can only exist at Meijer Gardens?’ We then built upon that foundation.”
Photo: Connor Sullivan
The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park offered an abundance of rich material to light for Featherstone and his team, which included Collin Mulligan (lighting designer and co-creative director), Mark Villa (lighting designer), Connor Sullivan (lighting designer and media programmer), Steve Hiben (technical designer) and Upstaging’s Ryan Breneisen, who served as project director.
Said Featherstone said, “We are so fortunate to work with Upstaging and their talented team of incredibly hard working professionals – together with Chauvet’s world class technology, it empowered our creativity in remarkable ways.”
Photo: Connor Sullivan
In addition to stunning garden and foliage arrangements, the walk through features masterpieces by legendary sculptors including Rodin, Henry Moore, and Ai Weiwei. Contemporary art, and the celebrate The American Horse by Nina Akamu, which was inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci also enliven the experience.
The Lightswitch team channels its own artistic vision crafting light to draw out the essence of each work of art. This is evident everywhere at ENLIGHTEN, including The American Horse. Up lit in soft amber tones and surrounded by boldly colored trees, the 24-foot trotting bronze horse seems to come alive in the light, infused with the passion handed down from Leonardo… to Nina Akamu… to visitors walking through the garden on cold Michigan nights — a very good holiday gift indeed!
Photo: Connor Sullivan
Photo: Connor Sullivan
Color STRIKE M
STRIKE 1
