reVITALise 2023 Creative Lighting
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reVITALise 2023
The reVITALise program is a series of state-wide collaborative and community-driven demonstration projects to trial creative interventions that support long term best-practice placemaking and attachment to place.
The reVITALise program kicked off during Sydney WorldPride Festival 2023, with rainbow lighting transformations of four walkways, three within Sydney's Inner West and one at Central Station.
The project is also part of TfNSW’s Safer Cities Program which supports trials of place-based approaches to improving women, girls and gender diverse peoples’ perception of safety within public spaces.
Three rainbow tunnels in Sydney’s Inner West
Three pedestrian tunnels in Sydney’s Inner West were reimagined with rainbow lighting artworks by local LGBTIQA+ artists as part of a broad range of activities for Sydney's WorldPride Festival 2023.
Through a strategic collaboration with Inner West Council, the installations were part of a myriad of Pride Inner West events across three weeks of celebrations throughout the Inner West, including council's renaming of Newtown Square to ‘Pride Square’.
Each of the three Rainbow Tunnels was designed by a different local LGBTIQA+ artist to celebrate the Inner West community and boost public space experience, sense of pride, and attachment to place. The installations were up from February to May 2023 and were located at three different Inner West sites.
Petersham pedestrian subway tunnel
(accessed via Trafalgar Street and Terminus Street)
Local artist HOSSEI transformed the underpass with his design ‘Stars of Splatters’ featuring expressive neon lighting and bouncing reflective vibrant ‘splatters’ capturing the free spirit of the LGBTIQA+ community.
Ashfield Station pedestrian tunnel
(accessed via Brown Street and Dengate Avenue)
A whimsical, sugary, fluid landscape designed by LGBTIQA+ artists Alexandra Jonscher and Andrew Christie titled ‘Slipstream’ invites audiences to connect with various expressions of LGBTIQA+ identity in a fun, interactive and playful environment.
Newtown pedestrian tunnel
(accessed via Bedford Street and Trafalgar Street)
Multidisciplinary artist, Kieran Butler’s, poetic meditation titled ‘1000 Kisses’, illuminated the walls of the Newtown tunnel.
Key Findings
Read the key findings from the evaluation of the Inner West Rainbow Tunnels below.
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Rainbow Colonnade at Eddy Avenue
From February 2023, to celebrate Sydney WorldPride, the Festival of Place has brought rainbow lighting to the colonnade along Eddy Avenue. This forms part of the revitalisation of the Central Precinct with the Sydney Terminal Building, Eddy Avenue and Eddy Avenue Plaza becoming a welcoming new day and night destination.
The new rainbow lights adorning the heritage colonnade of Eddy Avenue are for all to enjoy as you explore the city or wander on your journey home. It also celebrated the 15 pop-up retailers that joined at this time, and the six existing businesses along Eddy Avenue, to show customers and the wider community what a renewed Central Precinct could look like in the future.
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WorldPride comes to Wynscreen
Alexandra Jonscher and Andrew Christie’s artwork Slipstream extended beyond the walls of the Ashfield pedestrian tunnel and took over Wynscreen (Wynyard Station’s large digital art screen) during Sydney WorldPride 17 Feb - 5 Mar 2023.
Wynscreen combines art, culture and technology to create a series of visual experiences as it showcases a diverse range of specially commissioned works by a variety of Australian artists and animators. Over 30,000 daily passers-by were immersed and inspired by the artist's fun, whimsical, and animated landscape design, populated by a series of abstract characters that signify different types of LGBTIQA+ expression.
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