lmagine... you are walking through a maze of colour and light that you change as you move through it - one moment the space you are in is a bright, cheery yellow, the next it is a cold, dark green and suddenly a flaming hot red. You don’t have to just imagine it - Light Labyrinth is an interactive installation, using colour and light, on at the Fisher Gallery from the 17th of September to the 20th of October.
Light Labyrinth is a maze-like structure that can be changed by the visitor as they move through it. Panels move to change the layout of the cube-like structure, and as this is done, a changing chaos of light and colour results. We all know that people react to different colours and that colour and light in our environment can influence the way we think, act and feel. The changes in light and colour in Light Labyrinth will induce a range of emotions and unique experiences for those that take part.
Light Labyrinth has been developed by a group of Auckland artists and designers, and built by students at Auckland University’s Architecture School. The installation has been developed in New Zealand from workshops held by International Colour Designer, Dr Leonard Oberascher, in Vienna during 1998. The idea originally began with the work of a group of architecture students at the Technical Institute of Vienna and was later transformed by various people including architects, lighting specialists, professional designers and photographers. This year, a series of electronic and architectural workshops held at Auckland University and the Fisher Gallery continue to transform and develop ideas of the interaction between colour and light.
Candy Elsmore, director of the Fisher Gallery says ‘Light Labyrinth is a stunning installation that people can move through and change, and experience those changes in light and colour. There is nothing else like it, and it has to be experienced to be believed - it will really blow your mind!’
Press
→ Colour Kind, New Zealand Herald, 15-09-1999
→ Fishing for hallucinations, Howick & Pakuranga Times, 27-09-1999
→ Sketches, Art News New Zealand, Spring 1999
→ Sound and light, Lava13, September 1999
Ephemera
→ Melanie Yonge: Light Labyrinth, 1999, exhibition card
→ Melanie Yonge: Light Labyrinth, 1999, exhibition card