Gertrude Street Projection Festival’s glow to take over Fitzroy

GSPF Ian de GruchyNow in its 10th year, Melbourne’s Gertrude Street will be awash with colour as multiple light installations takeover shop fronts, laneways, galleries and footpaths with bright electrifying artworks or ten nights from Friday 21 until Sunday 30 July 2017.

The Gertrude Street Projection Festival is a free, community-driven event, boasting over 30 artworks from large-scale illuminated outdoor projections to more intimate video artworks. The annual event sees Melburnians brace the cold mid-winter nights with attendance on average being 50,000 plus each year.

Mixed-media artworks occupy every nook and cranny along this popular inner-city thoroughfare, the 2017 Festival welcomes back the key sites starting at the Nicholson Street end with the return of the Festival Hub at Catfish, down to Atherton Towers, The Gertrude Hotel, and all the way to Smith Street junction.

“As a non-for-profit organisation, the success of Gertrude Street Projection Festival and its 10th Anniversary is undeniably thanks to the ongoing support from the local traders and community organisations,” said Festival Director Nicky Pastore. “Each year we are amazed by the enthusiasm and willingness of our artists and supporters to turn the street into a living artwork, encouraging audiences to explore and celebrate the diversity of the neighbourhood.”

Over the last ten years Gertrude Street Projection Festival has seen hundreds of formidable artists take part in the program. A diverse range of artists – young to old, local to international, emerging to established – are drawn in by the excitement seeing their works projected storeys high and transforming the popular strip into a spectacular outdoor museum. This year will be no different featuring unique and challenging projects that aim to push the projection artform.

Curated by RMIT lecturer Fiona Hillary, the 2017 artists responded to the theme of Unfurling Futures: the social, political and environmental concerns of our times, and what ignites our collective social imagination. She says, “Unfurling Futures is an invitation to artists and audiences to explore notions of the past and present and how they shape the possibility of multiple futures.”

Four Australian artists have been announced for this year’s program: Yandell Walton, Ray Thomas, Susan Forrester and Jody Haines. They will join an illustrious list of Gertrude Street Projection Festival alumni including Ian de Gruchy, Nick Azidis, Lauren Dunn, Jacob Tolo, Luzena Adams, Rose Staff, Amanda Morgan and Skunk Control.

Once again running alongside the major light installations, Gertrude Street Projection Festival will have a dedicated free and ticketed Special Events program of dance, food, live performances from local DJs and musicians, and late night music happenings including temporary artworks within the Atherton Gardens Precinct.

The Gertrude Street Projection Festival runs from 6.00pm to midnight from Friday 21 – Sunday 30 July 2017. For more information, visit: www.gspf.com.au for details.

Image: Ian de Gruchy (supplied)