BD: is LIT #2

More photos from BD: is LIT, the light show in Bradford. City Hall was bathed in a moving tapestry of colour: 'Worstedopolis' by Ronan Devlin, which celebrated Bradford's textile heritage. 

Elsewhere, 'Eternal Ensemble' (ONYVA studio) had four screens showing ethereal projections of a cellist, with accompanying music - 'music as living light'. It was rather beautiful (even though deaf old me couldn't hear the music!)

My own favourite was 'Rainforest Butterflies' by Anne Bennett. Inspired by the iridescent blue morpho tropical butterfly, they shimmered among the trees in Norfolk Gardens. Such a gorgeous blue, they looked quite real and were rather beautiful.

'Phenix' by Julien Menzel was also rather delightful, 'rising in light and flame' with ever changing colours from cool to warm and back again. It looked amazing set against the back drop of one of Bradford's Victorian jewels, St Georges Hall, attractively floodlit. Perhaps it's a good metaphor for our city, which is striving to 'rise again'.

BD: is LIT #1

It's not uncommon for cities to stage 'Light Nights' at this time of year. Bradford, as part of the City of Culture 2025 celebrations, was lit up for two nights so I popped down to the city centre to see it. I really enjoyed it. The light installations were, for the most part, rather good and the atmosphere around town was good too - a kind of buzzing calm; lots of people, lots of families out enjoying the sights. 

'Monolith' by  Urban Spy 'explored humanity's shifting relationship with data and technology'. It was huge and impactful, whether you made sense of that narrative or not. 

'End over End' by Studio Vertigo was a giant, colour-changing Slinky, playfully tumbling off the building. 

'Rever' by Outpoint Studio was again a colour-shifting display: 'a cascading waterfall of colour and music', with wreaths of mist giving a dreamlike sense to it. 

The play of light

I enjoyed noticing how the light behaved in various parts of the Bolton Abbey estate's woodlands. There are quite a few fallen trees, casualties - I suspect - of the stress caused to nature by the very dry summer we had last year. I loved how the sun just caught a couple of areas here, glowing gold and yellow and somehow providing a focal point and focus in a rather chaotic scene. 

Drystone walls demarcate the woodland from the fields at the top of the valley side. Low sun shoots through the branches of trees and throws strong shadows to contour the grassland. 

Further down in the wood, the sun sends bright rays where it can, momentarily blinding if you happen to glance that way. 

At one point I was fascinated by the coppery toned reflections in the water, as the sun glinted off the tops of the trees. I loved the copper v blue combination, lifted with a few white highlights as the water ripples over rocks.