beams of light pierce through this 19th-century derelict building in sydney, australia

‘light intersections II’ jolts dilapidated building back to life

commissioned by the city of sydney, ‘light intersections II’ is artist ian strange’s latest public installation that sits brightly lit in a city-fringed, now-gentrified neighborhood of surrey hills, sydney. echoing a long-time exploration of ‘home’ through superscale interventions, the site-specific artwork transforms the façade of a 19th-century victorian building by piercing it with bright beams of lights – highlighting the architecture’s dilapidated condition, and attempting to jolt it back to life. the installation was unveiled during australia’s mid-2021 lockdown and was on view for 10 days between 24 june- 4 july 2021.

a continuation of the artist’s lyon housemuseum 2019 installation, ‘light intersections II’ extracts the building’s perspective lines, abstracts them, and re-inserts them into the architecture as light beams. these, indeed, appear to puncture the victorian terrace home across two perspective planes – piercing the roof and façade, as well as penetrating the interior rooms, stairwells, and balcony.  

a continous exploration of abstracted perspective lines 

such a process reflects the artist’s peculiar interest in how simple lines can impact the relationship between art, architecture, and landscapes: ‘the lines of light in intersections are an attempt to place abstracted perspective lines back into the environment. these drawn perspective lines don’t appear in nature, but are staples in both painting, drawing, and architecture, used as a way of containing, representing, and changing the natural environment,’ reveals strange. 

‘light intersection II’ was completed in collaboration with design firm OFFICE and production company scoundrel projects. to install the light beams, both the OFFICE team and strange custom-designed over 120 meters of LED lighting and engineered steel suspended through the building interior and cantilevered 3.5 meters off the façade. an essay written by melbourne university associate professor rory hyde, titled ‘threads of vision’, also accompanies the final work. 

project info:

name: light intersections II

artist: ian strange

client: city of sydney 

location: surrey hills, sydney, australia

architecture + design: OFFICE

production: scoundrel projects 

producers: jedda andrews (ian strange studio) / holly winter, adrian shapiro (scoundrel projects)