Flowing river lights up Peel Street
Small-bar and restaurant hotspot Peel Street is being lit up with a slow-moving river thanks to a new projection work by two Adelaide artists.
Titled Karrawirra Parri Lane, after the Kaurna name for the River Torrens, the projection in the windows of Marchese Partners architectural firm measures around 11.5m by 2m and will have its official launch tonight.
“This project is really about bringing attention to the river … bringing elements of Adelaide’s natural landscape right into the urban environment,” artist Jessica Loughlin says.
Loughlin, a glass artist, created Karrawirra Parri Lane with graphic designer Rachel Harris. The pair work alongside each other at the Gate 8 workshop in Thebarton and last year started Project 2 Project, a collaboration through which they create public installations that mix large-scale graphics, moving image and other elements.
“The thing we are interested in is altering people’s perspective a bit – giving them a bit of a surprise by placing something in a spot that’s not meant to be there,” Loughlin says.
“Just for that moment, as people walk past, it makes them question and take a second look.”
Project 2 Project’s first installation was in the old post office at Port Adelaide during the Unexpected Port festival.
Loughlin and Harris also created a projection work for the 2015 SALA festival, The Rising, in which moving images of the River Torrens were projected onto the old church windows of the Gate 8 workshop (see video clip below), and they currently have another work in the window of Urbanest Artspace in Bank Street which combines a printed image of the street with a moving projection of the river.
For the Peel Street projection, Loughlin says they spent many days filming on the River Torrens, before eventually capturing the desired footage from a paddleboat.
“The movement and the rhythms of the water are really important to what we do. Getting the rhythm right is the thing that creates the mood of the whole thing.
“Our work is very calming, almost meditative in a way. … [there’s] that idea of bringing a sense of calm and encouraging people to slow down a bit; bringing the rhythms of nature into the rhythms of the city.”
Karrawirra Parri Lane will be lit up nightly, from 6pm until 1am, at 24 Peel Street until June 12. The Bank Street work, Undercurrent, ends later this month.
