A light show that’s likely to become invisible
Ido not commute by boat. I know someone who does, but suspect she’s a rarity. This made me wonder, during the launch of this giant public artwork on the bridges across the Thames: for whose eyes, standing where, has it been designed?
Illuminated River, created by the American artist Leo Villareal, is a semi-permanent installation of “dynamic light art”, formed of networks of LEDS. At present, it includes four bridges, but by 2022 that number may grow to “up to 15”. If it reaches its full extent – the caution may be due to its reliance on private funds – it will become the “longest” work of public art in the world.
With only London, Cannon Street, Southwark and the Millennium bridges aglow, the sample size is thin. The first three are compliantly uniform: soft fuchsia and lavender colours spread across each structure, dappling slowly along the span of the bridge above the black river beneath. In contrast, the Millennium Bridge, designed by Norman Foster to resemble a “blade of light”, looks sharper: a streak of cold white giving definition to the sinuous design.
Simple premise, smart technology. The municipal lights on these bridges were old and weak, and spilt into the water enough to disturb the fish. Villareal’s LEDS, which will be in place for at least a decade, eliminate most of that pollution and are more efficient by far. (The Bay Lights, his similar ongoing project on San Francisco’s giant Bay Bridge, costs around $4 an hour – £3.20 – to run.)
Some of the claims on the artistic side seem equally impressive, if a little odd. At just over five miles, the artwork will claim a record length when complete, but that’s counting the long, empty stretches between bridges. (From Vauxhall Bridge, Grosvenor isn’t even visible.) The organisers say it “will be seen over 137 million times each year”. How can that figure take stock of millions of Londoners’ changing routines?
Moreover: how should we “see” this work? Judging from Wednesday night’s launch, the best view is from either the air – the photocall was on top of Tower Bridge – or the water, passing squarely under one bridge after the next. On land, by contrast, neither bank is easily passable all the way from east to west; stand on a bridge instead and its lights will be hidden below your feet. If the Thames is becoming a gallery, the best way to “see” its works as a group would seem to be one that few can usefully take.
Illuminated River, like a lot of public art, wants only to be harmless, and it lights up the Thames in an eco-friendly and visually pleasant way. But Villareal’s design feels strangled by politeness. So soft are these colours, so quietly their patterns shift, that I suspect the most prominent work of public art in London will become its most invisible. You’ll walk past it once, twice, 10 times, and – like magic – you’ll no longer see it at all.