Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights festival will return to London this January, bringing an enchanting trail of nineteen illuminated installations to the Wharf. Now an annual tradition for many Londoners, the free to attend festival is set to brighten up the frosty, dark nights in the capital for its eighth edition.
The immersive art trail opens to visitors for 11 nights from Wednesday 17th to Saturday 27thJanuary between 5-10pm and is London’s largest free to attend light display. Visitors are invited to explore Canary Wharf like never before as the festival includes five pieces not previously displayed in the UK and five brand new commissions. It brings together some of the world’s most creative and celebrated light installation artists, exploring the intersection and juxtaposition of nature and technology: allowing for moments of beauty and technicality to co-exist.
Key works include the comeback of Submergence by Squidsoup, an immersive experience of suspended lights, on Montgomery Square; Sign by Vendel & De Wolf, a flickering mass of LED flames on Westferry Circus; and Neuron by Juan Fuentes at Riverside – an intricate, branching installation comprised of thousands of luminous filaments.
Visitors, residents and those who work on the Estate can enjoy a bite to eat whilst taking a break from exploring the installations with a wide choice of pop-up food vendors serving a delicious range of street food and hot drinks along the trail. Those with a sweet tooth should head to Jubilee Park for a fire-roasted marshmallow, and for something heartier, visitors can choose from the various cafes, bars and restaurants that Canary Wharf has to offer. There’s something for everyone from the best of British specialist Fish Game to newly opened vegan spot mallow, Blacklock chop house, Grind and more.
Pippa Dale Senior Arts & Events Manager at Canary Wharf Group comments: “Canary Wharf will once again cast a light across London’s dark January nights, as the 2024 Winter Lights festival returns to transform the area. A truly unique experience for visitors of any age, it’s the biggest free-to-attend light festival in the capital and we’re excited to present a dynamic collection of artworks from the world’s most innovative light artists. We invite visitors to take in all that Canary Wharf has to offer through our restaurants, shops and ice rink during the festival.”
Art enthusiasts visiting the installations can download the Winter Lights map from the Canary Wharf App to help them navigate the exhibition.
Please note we encourage visitors to attend on weeknights if possible, as the weekends get extremely busy.
Installations in map order
1. On a Wave of Light by Those Guys Lighting, located at Riverside, greets you at the beginning of the trail. This interactive installation comprises 100 LED light sticks which shines brighter in the presence of movement and then slowly fades out, creating a waved effect and leaving the imprint of the viewer behind.
2. Neuron by Juan Fuentes is located at Riverside. Inspired by the intricate network of the neural connections in the human brain, this vast three-dimensional structure is composed of thousands of luminous filaments. Each filament represents a neuron, and their interconnection symbolizes neuronal synapses, where the transmission of electrical and chemical signals take place.
3. Sign by Vendel & De Wolf in Westferry Circus has been created with lengths of bamboo rising high against the dark night sky, creating the illusion of a mass of flickering flames. The frightening and fascinating sight of fire is full of contradictions – fire is at once beautiful and terrifying; it razes forests whilst simultaneously making the soil fertile; it is transformative yet destructive.
4. LES OISEAUX by Simon Chevalier, located on Cabot Square, is a celebration of the winged denizens of the city. This 3D piece pays tribute to the wildlife and species which cohabit the metropolis that is London. In contrast to a world saturated with speed, colour and noise, French artist Simon Chevalier presents a simple, static, black and white artwork.
5. Marbles by Gertjan Adema on Wren Landing is a giant marble run which gives an enchanting interplay of geometry, movement, light and sound. The marble run has two parts in its cycle, the vertical movement through the centre and the outer, spiralling movement around the surface. The two components are parts of one cycle and express the connection between inner growth and outer expression.
6. The Peace Poem by EEA on Adams Plaza, is a 14ft high illuminated poem created to commemorate the 100 years since the first day of peace after WWI. The large-scale mobile artwork, created with leading artist and poet Robert Montgomery has toured around the country engaging communities in discussions about peace. Freedom and hope for the future.
7. Vessels by Limbic Cinema in Crossrail Place Roof Garden is a sculpture where science, technology and culture collide. Three monolithic pyramid structures are filled with smoke. A laser, mounted at the apex, shines vivid and defined rays that create three-dimensional forms that shift in synchronisation with music.
8. Biophilia by Frankie Boyle which can be found in Crossrail Place Roof Garden, is a three-dimensional creation harnessing the power of the visible light spectrum in tandem with human behaviour, light, motion, and a captivating interplay of colours, creating an entrancing, ever-evolving spectacle of light.
9. In-Between by Daniel Popescu, located in Crossrail Place Roof Garden, introduces viewers to a realm that exists between the organic and the artificial, presenting a captivating art installation that blurs the boundaries between nature and technology. Three seemingly simple cubes, positioned on black pedestals, conceal hidden mirrors beneath their surfaces, revealing a complex and electrifying internal structure with a continuous pulse that alternates between the three pieces.
10. Submergence by Squidsoup on Montgomery Square. Following its huge success at Winter Lights 2019, Submergence is returning to the Wharf this year. This large, immersive walkthrough experience comprises many thousands of individual points of suspended light to create feelings of presence and movement. The installation transforms space into a hybrid environment where virtual and physical worlds coincide.
11. Kinetic Perspectives by Juan Fuentes is located on Water Street. Inspired by optical illusionary art of the 1960s, Kinetic Perspective, with a row of 32 illuminated spinning circles, plays with our perception as circles continually disappear and reappear. Invited to actively participate and observe, the audience must move around to uncover the patterns and distortions in which a hidden geometry will be revealed.
12. Geist by This is Loop on Union Square is inspired by enormous neutrino detectors. Geist is an exploration of the complex game of ‘hide and seek’ that scientists play to prove the existence of these particles. The scientific narrative of Geist has involved input from particle physicists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Physics Department at Oxford University. They have provided access to and context for real neutrino oscillation measurements from the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan. This is Loop have re-interpreted this data, using input from motion sensor cameras and complex code, into the animation of moving light and audio for Geist.
13. Idle Time by Marcus Lyall on Union Square, shows animated figures in the form of line drawings, who can be seen ‘at rest’. Relaxing. Taking a moment. Scratching an itch. Pondering. Stretching. Doing nothing productive at all. This piece is a reminder that being idle is a natural, human state of affairs, and important to our wellbeing. Utilising the construction tarp of a new building as the canvas, Idle Time is here to remind Canary Wharf inhabitants, workers, and visitors of the need for rest and relaxation.
For more information on the upcoming Winter Lights festival visit https://canarywharf.com/whats-on/winter-lights/.
