Page 81 - Lighting Magazine May 2018

Alps Festival orchestrated by Fram Kitagawa. In the forest, Tapsco ’s “Arc Zero Nimbus” estab- lished a magical presence in the trees.
“I don’t like to impose my will on a place,” Tap- sco reveals. “Beginning a project with a so set of parameters allows for real magic to happen. I was delighted to be part of the Japan Alps festival and fortunate to receive their wonderful support.”
Arc Zero is a nearly nine-foot, walk-through ring that is set over a wooden bridge in a forest. Illu- minated by two layers of so LEDs, the ring is set with nozzles that mist local river water like a halo, creating a magical play between light and liquid, and turning the negative space of the ring into a diaphanous crystalline O.
Blending with the forest surroundings during the day, the mist works with the ambient condi- tions to produce twilight-like rays and rainbows around the viewer, while in darker hours the struc- ture glows as if with a spiritual energy. A discrete hut nearby houses the many pumps and lters required to get the river water clean and pressur- ized into mist.
It was another Arc project (called Arc One) done in 2009 that especially stands out in Tap- sco ’s mind. “It was an experimental piece in a large salt lake a few hours from Melbourne – a site I’ve visited and worked at many times now, with vastly di ering results,” he recalls. “My original intention for the work was so far removed from what the result was (which was something quite magical), it taught me a di erent way to approach a project — a much more exible, and truly site- speci c approach. I learned not to try to bend things to my will, and impose just the right amount of control to coax a work towards a result, while allowing the phenomena of the site to do its thing; it’s a 50/50 collaboration.”
It began as a length of rope light just over 100 yards long, embedded into the surface of the lake (dug by hand in 100-degree heat) in the shape of a very subtle arc. “The intention was that at the right time of day, it would e ectively enhance the curvature of the earth from a speci c point of view – something already heightened by the feature- less terrain of the lake,” Tapsco explains. “Due to a faulty generator, it didn’t work. So I decided to leave it there for a while and see what would happen, hoping it would form a natural crust and become part of the landscape. A er one month, I went back to the site and found the work had
been moved around, li le by li le by the daily tide ow, to create a shape formed entirely by the site itself. It also e ected the surrounding structure of the salt crust to alter the adjacent landscape. It really taught me to read a site in more detail and recognize the potential of very subtle natural phenomena to have an amazing e ect when com- bined with my in uence in the right way.”
The future looks bright for Tapsco , the founder and director of the Globelight Festival in Australia, who has exhibited in galleries and sculpture parks in Australia, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, and California.
“I have a few temporary projects on the horizon, one in Tasmania for the Dark MOFO festival, and one at the Amsterdam Light Festival which should be fun,” Tapsco comments. “The main thing I’m excited about at the moment is a residency with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado. It will give me the opportunity to col- laborate with some of the best research facilities and universities studying environmental and at- mospheric sciences in the country and a chance to take my work to another level.” 
light in Bloom “I try to
avoid complicated technology, as it can be a real barrier between people
and their experience of the space.”
The Arc One project was constructed alongside a large salt lake in Australia.
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