A Massive New Contemporary Art Platform Has Opened on Auckland's Waterfront

A new contemporary art platform has launched on the waterfront just in time for Artweek Auckland.

The large-scale site dubbed The Lightship is a 110-metre-long, 13-metre-high digital light wall that wraps around the western façade of the port's new car handling building. The massive wall is made up of seven panels with nearly 8500 programmable LED lights, making it visible from Quay Street, city wharves, local buildings and the water.

Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson says the light wall is "designed to support artists and creative thinkers to produce ambitious new commissions and gives them a highly visible platform on which to display their work."

The Lightship's inaugural commission is a new artwork by Janet Lilo entitled ISLOVE. Lilo often works across digital video, photography, sculpture and installation, as well as neon signs and advertising billboards. The Lightship includes the phrase 'ISLOVE' in multi-coloured block letters, spread across the seven giant light panels, interspersed with an evocative image of rippling waves. The piece will be displayed from 8 October – 3 December, 2020.

Lilo's piece will be followed by a program of three emerging artists starting in early December 2020, curated by Sarah Hopkinson and Bridget Riggir-Cuddy. The Lightship sits near another significant public artwork, 'The Lighthouse' by Michael Parekowhai on Queens Wharf, cementing the area as a destination for contemporary public art.