Crave’s new public art space

AUCKLAND, Today: Creative indie Crave Global has launched plans for The Lightship, a new platform for contemporary art, which launches today at Ports of Auckland.

Crave ECD Hadleigh Averill, who created the concept, said: “The large-scale digital light wall on Quay Street provides Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland with a unique place for public art to be enjoyed.”

The Lightship is a 110-metre-long, 13-metre-high light wall that wraps around the western façade of the port’s new car handling building. It is made up of seven panels with 8500 individually programmable LED lights and is visible from busy Quay Street, city wharves, local buildings and the water. 

“The Lightship is a bold initiative from our client Ports of Auckland, who wanted to create a space that would give back to Aucklanders,” Averill said.

As an artist himself, Averill has been well-known in the  art space, having exhibited work at the LA international Biennial Art Invitational, Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery (New York), Artspace Auckland and COCA Christchurch.

“We know that culture can have a transformative effect on how people interact with a space, and hope the new light installation will be part of a regeneration that turns Quay Street into a destination for public art,” he said.

Ports of Auckland comms manager Matt Ball said: “We wanted to create a truly stunning building on Auckland’s waterfront, and added a light sculpture to create a space for public art – but we’re a port, we had no idea how to bring that to life!

“When the team at Crave came to us with a plan for turning the car handling building into a site for contemporary art, we didn’t hesitate. Crave brought to life our dream of creating a highly visible platform that supports artists and creative thinkers to produce ambitious new commissions.

“It is our way of saying thank-you to Auckland’s artists for enriching our lives.”

Which goes live from tonight until the first week of December.”

“The Lightship sits near another significant public artwork, The Lighthouse, by Michael Parekowhai on Queens Wharf, cementing the area as a destination for contemporary public art.”

Janet Lilo works across digital video, photography, sculpture and installation. Her practice explores documentation as a conversational and social tool for recording time, people and place. Lilo often engages with forms of display common to global media and popular culture, such a neon signs and advertising billboards. She is a stalwart of public art, and her many interventions in the city space include the ever-popular banana lightboxes on Karangahape Road.

Lilo’s work for The Lightship includes the phrase ISLOVE in multi-coloured block letters, spread across the seven giant light panels, interspersed with an evocative image of rippling waves.

Janet Lilo says: “Created for a future defined by the current global pandemic, BLM, social and political upheavals, and great loss, ISLOVE refocuses Auckland’s harbour as a place of connection and light.”

Janet Lilo’s piece will be followed by a programme of three emerging artists starting in early December, curated by Sarah Hopkinson and Bridget Riggir-Cuddy.

Sarah Hopkinson says: “We are excited to see how artists will respond to this incredible piece of technology, the special character of the port, and rich social history of downtown Auckland.”

The Lightship sits near another significant public artwork, The Lighthouse, by Michael Parekowhai on Queens Wharf, cementing the area as a destination for contemporary public art.

• More here: www.thelightship.co.nz

About the Car Handling Building
The car handling building was developed by Plus Architecture as part of Ports of Auckland’s 30-year master plan. It is designed to reduce the space taken up by imported vehicles and better integrate Auckland’s port into the surrounding community.

The car handling building is no ordinary ‘car park’. It is a harbour-saving building, which removes the need to take more of the Waitematā harbour for reclamation by stacking cars vertically. On its southern wall, facing Quay Street it has the world’s largest soil-based vertical garden, which was created by local company Hanging Gardens.

The western wall, facing Queens Wharf holds The Lightship and a public park is currently being designed for the roof, giving Aucklanders a beautiful new green space with outstanding views of the harbour, the central city and their port at work.

It is a remarkable building, weaving the functional and the aesthetic together to create a building that works both for the port and the city. There is nothing like it anywhere else on earth.