As part of the Illuminate Adelaide Festival, Harbor Lights Victor Harbor brings the festival to the Fleurieu region with neon installations and interactive displays in Warland Reserve until this Sunday, the 11th of September 2022.
Every evening from 6pm – 10pm the light shows and interactive exhibits are on and if you have the chance to get there and see it, do!
There have been a few of these regional installations around South Australia and they are all tailored for the specific region they’re in. The Victor Harbor illuminate event is no different with items specific to its beachside location and night time projections that transform trees into living sculptural monuments.
The highlight of the festival is ‘Monuments’ by Craig Walsh, which has to be the most incredible display I’ve ever seen. It aims to challenge traditional expectations of public monuments and the selective history of the statues that sit in our civic places. This amazing installation recognises the contribution of influential first nations people from the Fleurieu region, or Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri country.
The faces of Josh Trevorrow, Cedric Varcoe, Kyla McHuges, Mark Koolmatrie, and Amanda Westley are projected onto the towering pine trees in and around Warland Reserve. Their faces and all their expressions become part of the trees and bring them to life. With every blink, mouth movement and look you swear the trees have human faces. It’s just a remarkable effect that absolutely leaves you mesmerised.
I like the fact that it challenges the need for permanent historical monuments especially when you see how these fusions humanise living trees and do away with the reason for monuments.
Information of all the subjects chosen and their connection to the community, can be found around the reserve and you can also find links to their Instagram accounts for more information.
Another part of the festival is Affirmation Stations from one of my favourite artists, Joel Van Moore (Vans the Omega). When you find the stations, stand on the directly lit spot and you’ll experience audio technology where sonic waves are delivered directly to your ears, and a personal message is delivered ‘for your ears only’. Only the person standing on the spot, can hear the message which is an uplifting affirmation and a reminder of what is important.
The neon installations of a shark, penguins, jellyfish, dolphin and more are really popular with the kids and one thing popular with all ages is the light installation called ‘Submergence’.
Thousands of individual points of suspended light create a walk through experience which present how virtual and physical worlds collide. And, it’s just fun and beautiful to walk through.
Enjoy
Glenys
Caravan Correspondent 
This display would be fun to see. What a clever idea to use the trees as a backdrop. I once went to an outdoor performance of Macbeth where the large trees were used as the screen for some of the characters. It was very effective.
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That sounds fabulous, I really loved the concept of using nature as a backdrop, the people featured just became part of the trees which was so striking especially as they are all local indigenous role models.
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