Guiding light
A stunning new interactive artwork, unveiled during Matariki,
has brought its warm glow to a humble bus shelter – and to passersby – in Tauranga.
The Willow Street bus shelter in central Tauranga has a chequered history, but artist Sara Hughes (left) hopes her interactive, colourful art installation, Midnight Sun, will shift the public’s opinion of the troubled site. The artwork launched during Matariki, and its intent is to bring beauty, light and a feeling of warmth and safety into the city centre during a season of new beginnings.
Suspended above the Willow Street bus shelter and wrapping around Tauranga Art Gallery to Wharf Street, Midnight Sun is comprised of 96 panels of glass which create a 260-square-metre corridor of coloured light on the footpath below. As clouds pass overhead, hues of pink and gold will flicker on the pavement, bathing passers-by in a warm glow. At night, Midnight Sun
will be lit to simulate the luminosity of sunset and bring beauty – and safety – to the bus stop and surrounding area.
Sara, an established and dynamic artist whose works grace public and private spaces across Australasia, tells UNO more about her creative process and what inspired her to create Midnight Sun.
UNO: How did this project come about?
Sara: I was approached by Sonya Korohina of Supercut Projects at the end of 2020. At that time, she was putting forward a proposal to Creative New Zealand to fund a series of public artworks for Tauranga. These projects were originally to coincide with the Tauranga Arts Festival, but due to COVID-19 cancellations, the projects were delayed and have been spread out over the past year, with mine being the final one. I was drawn to this project as I felt an affinity with the city.
UNO: What is your aim with the piece?
Sara: Midnight Sun is an artwork about the daily rhythm of the setting sun. I aim to draw viewers in with beauty and recognition, then allow them to discover the artwork and have their own encounter with it. I hope it will pause people in their daily life. Midnight Sun can be walked under and driven past; it will have different moods in different weather conditions; it can be viewed during the day and at night; it’s open 24 hours a day – there are many ways to experience this artwork.
UNO: What was it like to work on?
Sara: The project has been in development since early 2021. There are a lot of different people required to get this artwork to completion, and it’s been great to work with Sonya and Tauranga City Council on the details and project management. Local photographer Anne Shirley documented sunsets in Tauranga for me over the month of June in 2021. These photographs form the base layers on top of which I layer my painted imagery. While I have been developing the imagery, I work closely on the technique with a printer, and I worked with light designer Richard Bracebridge on achieving a warm golden glow of 2200 kelvin to mimic the light at sunset. It’s exciting to see all the parts come together.
UNO: What inspires you?
Sara: I have travelled a lot and lived all over the world, and these experiences have influenced me. I’m currently fascinated by the measuring of time and light and the way our day is structured by the sun and the earth’s orbit. How the light changes during this rotation from day to night and all the variants in between. Wherever you are in the world you can experience this – that’s what I’m interested in capturing in Midnight Sun.
UNO: What do you love about public art?
Sara: Over the past 20 years, I’ve focussed on working in site-specific contexts and examining the way people relate to art in their environment. I strongly believe public artworks are important to the urban fabric of cities. Aesthetics are important, but public art is more than decoration; it can make an important contribution to a site, it can communicate with the public, and it gives voice to ideas. I love that public art can be seen by everybody. There’s humanity in that. It’s rewarding for me to hear from a wide range of people who respond to seeing my public artwork. People’s lives are busy and its fulfilling when someone tells you that the highlight of their day is the bus trip past your artwork.