Beams
Working in collaboration with the Filaments Art Collective and shadowgrapher Drew Colby, Light Vessel 21 is switching on her searchlights and turning the spotlight on the Gravesend riverfront at St Andrew’s Gardens for Gravesham Light Festival 2024.
Beams of lights and echoing sounds illuminate the quayside, calling visitors to the riverfront and welcoming audiences aboard the historic ship. Explore a series of site-specific illuminated installations and outdoor projections reflecting on the locale, its people and stories, created by the Filaments Arts Collective both aboard the ship and along the quayside - including “Disco-tents” – a colourful line of modified camping tents with internal sensory lighting systems, Tidal Traces - The piece brings together two parallel, simultaneous projections of reflections of the flowing waters of the River Thames with intertwined imagery of vintage photos featuring local people, boats and the area.
My Shadow and Me: Take part in a hands-on shadowplay workshop on the ship and learn the art of shadowgraphy with award-winning shadowgrapher Drew Colby. This show is free, but booking is required via the Woodville website:
About the artist/s: Historic lightship LV21 – arts, culture, education, heritage and wellbeing hub moored on the River Thames in Gravesend. National Historic Ship’s Flagship of the Year 2023. LV21 is a 40 metre steel-hulled lightship transformed into a floating cultural facility, celebrating and honouring the maritime traditions of the vessel. LV21 is a unique beacon for arts and culture with an individual and distinct identity, offering cultural activities across diverse artistic disciplines.
Filaments Art Collective comprises five professional contemporary artists based in the Medway/Maidstone area – Elizabeth Burman, Karen Crosby, Rosie James, Ruth Payne and Linda Simon. Together they create events and installations using light, thread, shadows, video and projection. For Gravesham Light Festival 2024, they will be installing work on board the historic lightship LV21 as well as outside on St Andrew’s Quay. Using themes of colour, celebration, ecology and local memories, the work will reflect the locality: people’s lives, past and present, as well as responses to the local ecology and the world of work.
Drew Colby specialises in the ancient art of Hand Shadows (or Shadowgraphy) - the art of creating and animating shadow images using little more than the performer's hands. In Drew Colby's hands, this artform is a source of comedy, beauty and wonder that will be wowing audiences aboard Gravesend’s historic lightship, LV21.
