On Friday 14th October 2016 the culmination of ideas, planning, mentoring and designing came to fruition, in the form of Stellar Project’s Nightfall Event. The programme of installations and activities took place in Middlesbrough Town Centre, inspired by the beauty and wonder of the night sky.
Stellar Projects and Navigator North have collaborated to offer five emerging artists from Teesside and County Durham the opportunity to create site specific installations as content for a series of Stargazing Tents. Each artist has benefited from a bursary which included mentoring, workspace, technical and professional support.
Life on Mars, Caroline Devine
Inspired by the latest images of the surface of Mars, Caroline Devine created a piece of the Martian landscape here on Earth. Using a mixture of textile printing, sculptural techniques and manipulation of light sources to bring her vision of the newly discovered side of Mars to life.
Wishes, Rebecca Nicholson
The act of wishing upon stars has been around since the ancient Greeks and is still something that brings a sense of hope, wonder and magic today. ‘Wishes’ was based upon this superstition and looked at the wishes of the people of Teesside. The interactive installation invited people to write a wish upon the star and add it to the sea of fallen stars which fill the space.
Moment, Namita Vijayakumar
Moment, a light and sound installation inspired by the Northern Lights, included a sculpture that shifted various colours and emitted mysterious sounds in order to evoke its mesmerising atmosphere. Audiences stepped inside the tent and took the opportunity to take a moment, relax and enjoy an immersive experience.
Am I Still Functional? Hope Stebbing
Am I still functional? Explored man’s relatively recent venture into space. In a universe where cosmic leftovers litter the sky, audiences could take the chance to rummage through the barren landscape, immersing themselves in texture and light.
Infinity, Saud Baloch
Infinity brought the feeling of gazing into outer space into the intimate sphere of the stargazing tent. Inside, lights swirled around a dark centre, evoking in miniature a sense of the infinite depth of the universe, the vast collections of gas, dust and stars our galaxy is made of.
Special thanks to our project partners Stellar Projects. It was magical evening, with fantastic responses from visitors to the event.
All photographs taken by Jason Hynes