Hailed as one of Melbourne’s major cultural events, White Night welcomed thousands of dwellers who flooded the streets, looking for the combination of art and entertainment.
The distinct event was a chance to look through the noise of the crowd and the sound of the various stages set out around the city, featuring every kind of band, to experience some of the best offerings; an extraordinary display of artistry and creativity from some of the most challenging visual artists in the city.
Not least among them was Nick Azidis, who has been enjoying the status of a true ground-breaking visionary.
The projection artist had a new work commissioned for this year’s event, a team work with Lisa Greenaway, Adem Jaffers and Bentley Dean, named Ideation, that was projected on one of the most iconic sites in Melbourne – the La Trobe Dome in the State Library of Victoria.
“The dome is a terrarium, a container of human experience, constantly growing”, state the artists in a statement they issued. “Standing on this threshold, we can explore both inside and out. We can travel anywhere, learn anything. It is the ideal place to explore the conception of an idea”.
The “birth of an idea” is the main theme of Ideation, a work of art that reflects Nick Azidis’ aspiration to create “something political, something dangerous, something that would trigger inspiration in audiences to look at the world with a more holistic spirit”. Focusing on the things that connect rather than divide people, the artists aimed to send “a positive message of the interconnectedness of all things, with an underlying ecological message that we ignore these connections at our peril”.
This was be put forth in a series of images projected on the dome, showcasing “the changing nature of knowledge and patterns of growth that exist everywhere in nature”. Fingers of hands, tendrils and roots of stalks and bulbs, synapses of brains, lightning strikes, electricity, rivers, deltas, solar systems, the nervous system and musical harmonies, were all apart of this inspired and inspirational light show, which magnificently unfolded before the eyes of the people headed to the State Library of Victoria.
