|1| ROTIFERS

Nicole Anona Banowetz, UNITED STATES in Collaboration with Light Art Collection

LOCATION: Canal Lock 4 (between Thomas Jefferson & 31st Streets​)

Rotifers are fascinating creatures; evolutionary mysteries that survive through endurance and adaptations. When the rotifer is attacked by predatory fungus it dries up and is carried away in the wind to a new environment. Its DNA is shattered, allowing the rotifer to pick up new DNA from its surroundings. This inflatable artwork offers a microscopic view of the circle of life for rotifers. On a higher level, it also represents the circle of life for nature in general. The DNA as an information carrier functions as a beautiful analogy, especially in our contemporary society where access to information is more ubiquitous than ever.

ARTIST BIO
Nicole Anona Banowetz is a Denver sculptor who makes sewn inflatable sculptures and delicate assembled forms. Her artwork addresses vulnerability and struggle. She empowers objects through embellishment, building up protective layers which - over time - become destructive. Her forms move freely between growth and decay, blurring the distinction between decoration and disease. Nicole’s work is inspired by the natural world. She addresses human qualities while using the imagery she finds in the animal, plant, mineral, and bacterial worlds - creating works inspired by bacteria, parasitic fungus, viruses, radiolaria, rotifers, horses, and rhinos. All of these forms are recreated in soft inflatable sculptures, which Banowetz designs and sews on her sewing machine - sometimes adding illumination from within so that the forms glow at night, and other times adding delicate sculpted porcelain forms which balance within or on top of the inflatable.

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NICOLE BANOWETZ

|2| FOLLOW THE LIGHT

Thiadmer van Galen, Jasper van Roden & Olav van Enkhuijzen, NETHERLANDS in Collaboration with Light Art Collection

LOCATION: WASHINGTON HARBOUR LAWN (K & 30th STREETS NW)

Follow the Light is a kinetic light art installation resembling a giant metal marble track with an infinite loop. The luminescent spheres will capture your focus, and make you want to follow the light. The excitement is rising when a sphere starts its way up on the 13-foot-high lift. When it is finally released at the top, visitors will be hypnotized by its journey through the dazzling installation. Together, the different spheres form a unique universe where the light continues to move infinitely, creating a visual mix of colors as they spin through the track.

ARTIST BIO
After graduating from art school, Thiadmer van Galen and Jasper van Roden opened a workshop that mainly focuses on design for interactive stage sets. Olav van Enkhuijzen is self-taught and has a background in electrical engineering and light design. The trio’s collaboration in the present artwork is based on their complementary creative backgrounds.

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THIADMER VAN GALEN
JASPER VAN RODEN
OLAV VAN ENKHUIJZEN

Follow The Light is presented in partnership with:
Washington Harbour

|3| TALKING HEADS

Viktor Vicsek, HUNGARY in Collaboration with Light Art Collection

LOCATION: Georgetown Waterfront Park (Near Intersection of Wisconsin Ave & K St NW)

Human beings communicate without the use of words - capable of numerous facial expressions through the use of dozens of muscles. This enables us to show a range of emotions, in the hope that people will understand us and react adequately. When you look sad, someone is inclined to comfort you. When you laugh, you invite someone to join you. In this installation, two spectacular heads also show countless emotions and react to one another. But unlike people, Talking Heads don't use muscles to do it. Per head, some 4,000 individually controllable LEDs provide different facial expressions and conduct conversations by means of light. But what, exactly, are they saying to each other and visitors?

ARTIST BIO
Viktor Vicsek was born in Serbia but has been living in Budapest, Hungary, for the biggest part of his life. Vicsek also spent a couple of years at the Intermedia Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. For the past 20 years he has been working in light and projection - from designing projections for theatre scenes and interactive dance performances to 3D animations for projection mapping with his company Limelight. His animations were projected in cities such as New York, São Paulo, Montevideo, Tokyo, Sharjah, and Dubai, and in light festivals in Poland, Slovakia and Finland.

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VIKTOR VICSEK

|4| DARTH FISHER

STREETART FRANKEY, NETHERLANDS in Collaboration with Light Art Collection

LOCATION: East Market Lane (3276 M St NW)

This installation is inspired by the famous Toronto Bridge in Amsterdam. The imposing pillars of the bridge appealed to the artist's imagination and made him think of the futuristic, megalomaniac architecture that can be seen in the famous Star Wars movies. And who is more at home in a setting like that than Darth Vader? In Frankey’s version of Darth Vader, the Star Wars villain isn't holding his light sword or light saber, but rather a fishing rod. He isn't terrorizing brave movie heroes; he's innocently fishing, just like the many street fishers that can be spotted around cities throughout the world.

ARTIST BIO
Under the pseudonym Streetart Frankey, Frank de Ruwe puts a smile on the faces of passers-by with his touching observations and fun interventions on places all over Amsterdam. During his studies at the TU Delft, De Ruwe was already busy attaching stickers, painting with chalk and placing little objects on the street. In 2001 he moved to Amsterdam. There, many of his little artworks can be found on buildings, streets and bridges. De Ruwe has recently been adding light to his work; he made his first light sculpture, Darth Fisher, for the anniversary edition of Amsterdam Light Festival in 2021.

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STREETART FRANKEY

Darth Fisher is presented in partnership with:
Georgetown Park

|5| NEIGHBORHOOD

SERGEY KIM, United states in Collaboration with Light Art Collection

LOCATION: CADY’S ALLEY (Enter at 3300 M st nw)

Illuminated laundry hangs to dry on washing lines, as though it were a hot summer day. Glowing white garments, T-shirts, underwear, trousers, a pair of wide Turkish pants, a Moroccan djellaba, and more: together these pieces represent the cultural and ethnic mix of residents in the city as a subtle but surprising intervention in the cityscape. The washing lines create a friendly, neighborhood feeling. It is this connection that is paramount for Sergey Kim; according to the artist, despite globalization and the wealth of information exchange around the world, we increasingly fear foreigners. In large cities, people live in isolation and often don't know their neighbors. The artist hopes to send a positive message by using something as everyday and universal as drying laundry to represent people harmoniously coexisting.

ARTIST BIO
Sergey Kim works, among other things, as a graphic designer, industrial designer, and 3D artist. In 2016, Kim took part in Google’s talent program, ‘30 Weeks’. Afterward, he went on to found Velooq, the first company to create light-emitting bicycle tires. He is currently a senior art director at the creative agency Heat, based in New York.

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SERGEY KIM

Neighborhood is presented in partnership with:
S&R Evermay