Children of the Light
Role: Producer & Studio Manager
Year: 2018 - 2019
City: Amsterdam
WARPING HALOS at de Gashouder
Warping Halos was a performative installation that combines light, colour, sound and elemental geometric forms to create a profound transcendental experience for the viewer.
The work is inspired by the duo’s research into the halo – the natural phenomenon of circle of white or coloured light that can form around a luminous object - caused by the refraction through ice crystals in the atmosphere. In the iconography of many cultures halos represent a worldly manifestation of spiritual energy and of an underlying divine order in the universe.
The physical element of the work comprises a large motorized, illuminated ring, suspended from the ceiling that revolves in the space. This elemental geometric form, science-fiction like in appearance, is accompanied by light and sound that periodically fills the perception of the viewers.
The light emitted by the ring changes during the performance, in colour and in solidity, occasionally pulsing and flashing. At times the effect of the light seems to turn the ring into a solid disc, floating and rotating in space or a portal into another world.
At the premier of Warping Halos in Amsterdam in 2019 the work was completed by a rich and atmospheric soundscape created by producer Huerco S. inspired by the harmonic resonances of colours and live performances by soprano Brigitte van Hagen.
As is characteristic of the work of Children of the Light, Warping Halos comprises an interplay between perception and reality, presence and absence, generating in the viewer that sense of wonder that is so rare in the modern world.
Additional projects included installations of Diapositive at New Media Castle curated by Alex Czetwertynski in Cluj, Romania, Overflow at Alexander Whitley, Totem for a New Religion at HERO Gallery.
Children of the Light are a duo of Amsterdam-based visual artists: Christopher Gabriel (1980, Oslo) and Arnout Hulskamp (1978, Amsterdam). Children of the Light create art and experiences using light as their primary material. Their multimedia practice spans performance, video, sculpture and immersive installations. Working on a deeply visceral and sensorial level, their art often evokes moments of wonder and transcendence in their audience.
Their work has been exhibited at Stedelijk Museum, Oude Kerk, TodaysArt, Day for Night, STRP Biënnale, Wuzhen Triënnale, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the New Institute. They have collaborated with musicians and artists including Philip Glass, Darkside, Nicolas Jaar, Huerco S., and Alexander Whitley Dance Company, amongst others. Children of the Light are frequent guest teachers at institutions like the Academy for Architecture and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.