WHITE NIGHT MELBOURNE
Melbourne once again took to the night in abundance and abandon, giving into the seduction of art and togetherness, with White Night, once more, transforming our grey inner city streets into a glittering wonderland of projection art and performance. All encompassing and, at once, possible of deep and affecting introspection and of spectacle, now in its sixth year, it feels like White Night has finally hit its stride. In Carlton Gardens, late night ravellers were greeted by a fire eating creature and engulfed in the illuminated walls of the The Royal Exhibition Building that momentarily came to life in a shock of vibrant colour, crumbling away into nothingness within moments.
Inside the majesty of our State Library’s grand reading room you were at once transported to an aquatic play ground, as creatures from the deep swam over your head. Tucked away off Swanston St, Little Bourke was here a wintery place of falling snow, whilst off Little Collins, an installation was strung up between street posts, revealing hung undergarments of anonymous people. From balconies spilled the sounds of bands, DJs and opera signers, adding to the joyous sensation that hung thick in the night air.
Federation Square, adorned with a work that conjured images of silver weeds caught sawing in the breeze, a soft contrast to the projections that activated both Flinder St and buildings in the immediate surrounds. The walls of NGV were turned into a canvas for the political, with a work that bought to the masses the cold and harsh reality of refugees that have come to our country seeking shelter, dipping into Alexandria gardens with works that were all the more intimate and playful. White Night is perhaps the pinnacle of such sentiment, where families and young children can marvel art and beauty along side young revellers and makers themselves.
