Spier has announced the third edition of Spier Light Art will take place on the wine estate from 26 February to 28 March 2021, and has invited designers, architects, light-, sound- and video artists (including students and institutions) to submit expressions of interest for projects and video-based artworks for the exhibition.
“These experiences – of walking and pausing, catching a glimpse or settling down to absorb – invited introspection, adventure and playfulness.”
The second edition of Spier Light Art attracted over 12 000 visitors to wander through the wine estate at night and view the 18 artworks on display (which can be seen here).
The curators, Jay Pather and Vaughn Sadie, say, “These experiences – of walking and pausing, catching a glimpse or settling down to absorb – invited introspection, adventure and playfulness. Scattered across the Spier estate, each work offered an opportunity to experience the complex, multi-hued, multi-faceted texture of our environment and ourselves.”
COVID-19 has made both the present and future far more uncertain, so the upcoming exhibition gives artists a chance to try and make sense of what we are experiencing and imagine where we might be going from here.
The Spier Arts Trust will fund or part fund the installations chosen by the Selection Committee headed by curator Jay Pather.
How to submit a proposal
Expressions of interest must include a short response to either of the below themes (no more than a page), concept sketches and provisional budget indicating whether this is to be funded in part or total by the Spier Arts Trust.
Submission of video-based artworks must include a short conceptual outline with web links to the work or examples of previous work.
Submissions must be emailed to the Project Manager at lightart@spier.co.za before 20 November 2020. A more thorough proposal may be requested after the initial short list is announced.
Thematic directions
- The whimsical/ethereal: works can reflect a light-hearted engagement with one of multiple sites.
- The conceptual: works can reflect and integrate more topical conceptual interests that frame our current socio-political landscape as well as COVID-19 directly.
- Works could also reflect on our shifting relationship to technology and its disruptive influence.
- There is a specific call for existing video-based artworks produced during lockdown which reflect and integrate more topical conceptual interests that frame our current socio-political landscape.
COVID-19 restrictions
Audience’s safety is paramount, and interactive works need to follow COVID-19 safety protocols around touch and social distancing. The works will be curated so that audiences will be able to move from one work to another while observing these protocols as well.
Cover image: Fire Snake by David Brits (Spier Light Art 2019)
