The hit of the 2009 Durham Festival, Crown of Light – a stunning son-et-lumière that uses the extraordinary architecture of Durham Cathedral as its canvas – returned to the city once again this winter.
Created by renowned projection artist Ross Ashton, with a soundtrack by Robert Ziegler and John Del’Nero, Crown of Light draws its visual material from inside the cathedral itself and from the Lindisfarne Gospels, one of the most important books of all time – Crown of Light giving residents and visitors a glimpse of the book’s contents before it returns to Durham in 2013. It is the first time it has been in the City since the 17th century. Images from the Gospels are spread across the entire face of the Cathedral.
Transforming any building, but particularly one as dramatic as Durham Cathedral, with light and projection requires equally dramatic lighting equipment. Here, as so often in his work, Ashton turned to the unique PIGI large-format projectors, which offer a resolution, precision and dynamic range as yet unmatched by video projection while still allowing the creation of movement and other dramatic transformation effects.
The PIGI projectors were supplied by entertainment lighting specialist White Light, continuing a collaboration with Ashton that has encompassed projects from Edinburgh to New York.
“White Light is a valued partner on my projects,” Ashton notes. “They are helpful and accommodating, and work hard to make sure that everything goes well prior to delivery and during the operation of the kit.”
“Ross’s projects are always something to behold,” comments White Light’s Hire Director Dave Isherwood, “and we are always delighted to be part of them. As ever, we hope that our work in preparing the PIGIs will go unseen so that visitors to Durham can just marvel at the dramatic images magically spread across the width of the cathedral.”
Leave a Reply