Ready your cameras, because i Light Singapore is back, and it’s transformed the Marina Bay district into a space filled with captivating and ‘gram-worthy light exhibits.
Finally back after a two-year hiatus, i Light Singapore 2022 peppers our city centre with 20 breathtaking light installations that are sustainability-focused. The festival will be held from 3 to 26 June, from 7.30pm to 11pm daily – and we say, it’s definitely worth visiting, especially with your friends and loved ones.
Since AVENUE ONE had the chance to experience the light festival for ourselves ahead of the official opening, we’re here to share everything you need to know about i Light Singapore 2022, and the exhibits you have to visit while you’re there!
What makes i Light Singapore 2022 special?
This year’s i Light theme is Spark of Light, which features the colour violet. The most powerful wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum, this celestial hue signifies the awakening of the senses.
And your senses will certainly be delighted, since a violet shade washes the entire Marina Bay district, lighting up bridges and buildings, and lending a lovely festive atmosphere as you walk from installation to installation.
The festival puts a focus on sustainability this year too, with artworks that are created with environmentally-friendly materials like recycled plastic bottles, or are lit up with energy-saving lighting. They also aim to spark questions about our lifestyle habits, and how they contribute to a sustainable future!
Best i Light installations to visit
Lightwave: Isle of Light, Empowered by OPPO
Lightwave: Isle of Light, Empowered by OPPO is certainly a highlight at i Light Singapore 2022, and it’s one of our favourite programmes too!
Set upon an extended platform that stretches across the waters in front of the Marina Bay Lower Boardwalk, the installation features five breathtaking, immersive zones that are both ‘gram-worthy and interactive.
Through the Unknown
Take your first steps into the Lightwave: Isle of Light, Empowered by OPPO, and already you’ll be surrounded by glowing triangular structures that span across the entire pathway leading up to the other zones. The symmetry that’s created by these beaming triangular structures makes for the perfect picture to post on your social media.
Reflections
This interactive light wall brightens slightly with small wisps of red and orange that recall a fire’s crackle. But, walk close to the wall, and the patterns blossom into glorious sweeps of pinks, blues, and oranges that are absolutely breathtaking.
The lights and shadows react to your movements, so you’ll certainly enjoy painting this “light canvas” and capturing your best moments whilst at it.
The Seasons
Including a holographic mesh that comes to life with projections of the changing seasons, The Seasons lets you step into the centre of the artwork and be totally immersed.
Look forward to blooming flowers, rabbits, and pouring rain gleaming all around you; even be hugged by a cool mist that will make the experience all the more mystical.
The Prism
The Prism features an LED floor that displays arresting galaxy-like animations, and a prism structure that’s created with two mirror walls. Stand in the prism, and you’ll see your image as well as the celestial patterns being reflected around you. Trippy.
Of all the zones in Lightwave: Isle of Light, Empowered by OPPO, we would say that this one makes the most beautiful backdrop for your pictures!
Forest of Lights
The Forest of Lights is a maze of colourful light tubes that represent trees, and aims to recreate the experience of being inside a forest. Stand between the vertical light tubes and you’ll be photograph-ready.
Location: Marina Bay Lower Boardwalk (near Red Dot Design Museum)
Lightwave: Isle of Light, Empowered by OPPO is a ticketed programme, which charges S$8 for a weekday ticket, and S$10 for a weekend ticket. You can also get tickets at lower prices when you purchase them in bundles of four, or five and more.
Get your tickets on Klook.
Firefly Field
The most magical artwork that we experienced at i Light Singapore was the Firefly Field, by TOER from the Netherlands. The moment you catch sight of the open field, you’ll be enchanted by the magical sprinkling of “fireflies” dancing over the grass.
The “fireflies” are actually 500 alternating light points that move rhythmically to imitate the flashing patterns of fireflies in flight. Since fireflies are a rare sight in our urban landscape, this artwork creates an especially wonderful sight to behold.
Location: The Promontory at Marina Bay
Fallen
Many would agree that Fallen, by Nedist x ARTINA from South Korea, is the most intriguing artwork at i Light Singapore 2022. It’s a pulsating light sculpture with an ethereal dome-like head and unearthly stretching tentacles, and it emits a mysterious purple and blue glow.
The artwork actually follows the story of a jellyfish that roamed the universe in search of stars to consume, but mistook human’s trash for stars. Eating trash after trash in space, it became so heavy that it crashed onto Earth, right into the heart of our CBD.
Location: Lawn next to One Marina Boulevard
Exciting interactive light installations
Here and There
Here and There, by Eihi Sumi from Japan, is a large structure that mirrors the physics of a seesaw. It’s an interactive artwork that’s super fun to experience, since you can climb onto the installation and work with others to feel it shift under your feet.
Tilting the artwork also activates lighting that changes colour according to how much it slants left or right!
Location: Event Square
Light Canvas
Instead of drawing with paint, Light Canvas, by Trial & Error from Singapore, lets you do so with the light. Shining light at the wall causes it to be illuminated in a glorious neon green: trace any pattern that you like across the special walls, and your light’s movements will leave a bright green trail.
Here, we got to witness artists creating interesting designs using torchlights (as their paintbrushes), stencils, as well as natural flowers and leaves. We got to try creating patterns for ourselves too, the first time we’ve ever created drawings using light.
Light Canvas also lets you create light patterns using gestures. Stand before the wall and wave your arms to see green streaks of light illuminate it, following your body’s motion. i Light will even invite dancers to perform before this artwork, so you’ll get to witness movement and lights complement each other in a whole new way.
Just as your actions leave marks on the otherwise blank walls, so do they have an impact on the environment; this artwork probes us to consider the cost of our actions on the planet.
Location: In front of the Red Dot Design Museum
Alone Together
While it’s been more than a year since the circuit breaker phase of the pandemic, the memory of isolation still remains fresh in our minds.
Alone Together, by Ping Lim and Ian Grossberg from Singapore and USA, is a projection of individuals living in isolation within a housing estate in Singapore, inspired by our experience at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By scanning a QR code, you can choose different actions like dancing, feeling, or cleaning. Pick the one you like, and it’ll be performed by one of the characters on the screen – see if you can spot which one!
Location: Marina Bay Link Mall entrance
Meet Me Under the Moon
Meet Me Under the Moon, by One Bite Design Studio from Singapore and Hong Kong, celebrates the gathering of loved ones during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
When you’re a distance away from the exhibit, the large, round “moon” will be illuminated in soft, flickering light. But, gather around the inflatable sculpture, and the “moon” will glow brighter and brighter with more people surrounding it.
Location: Esplanade Park
Most Instagrammable light artworks
Ruffled Ice
From a distance, you wouldn’t even notice that the soft, ruffled walls of this beautiful artwork are created using plastic waste!
Ruffled Ice, by DP Design from Singapore, draws our attention to the excessive amount of plastic packaging that’s used in our everyday lives. The artwork uses redundant plastic materials to create a visualisation of melting icebergs and ice caverns, emphasising the enormous effect that they have on our environment.
The artwork’s delicate walls, lit with a subdued, soft white light create an almost meditative experience. Of course, the blurred silhouette of the walls and the dim, backlit lights also make a beautiful shot for the ‘gram.
Location: Mist Walk
Waste Not, Want Not
These larger-than-life sculptures lie lazily on the lower boardwalk of Marina Bay, and if you can’t guess what they are, we’re here to tell you: they’re ugly fruit.
Waste Not, Want Not, by Tell Your Children from Singapore, aims to normalise ugly produce by introducing them to our familiar landscape; we can waste less food if we accept that produce in irregular shapes are just as good for eating.
Since the inflatable artwork is so large, you’ll be able to capture some funny, quirky shots by playing around with the perspective.
Location: Marina Bay Lower Boardwalk
Collective Memory
Collective Memory, by LiteWerkz from Singapore, is an artwork that features many upcycled CDs interwoven and suspended with wide nets; luminescent under gradually changing lights, the shiny side of the discs reflect rays onto the floor and across bodies as people walk near the artwork.
It honours, as its name suggests, a collective memory represented by now-obsolete CDs, even as technology continues to evolve.
Gaps between the nets let you pose for pictures, even as the shiny surfaces cast dazzling rays across your body. When you face the right way, the light-bathed Marina Bay district will also be part of your photos’ backdrops.
Location: Breeze Shelter
Light installations to complete your festival experience
There are many other light exhibits around the Marina Bay district that’ll complete your i Light Singapore 2022 festival experience. We personally think that all of the installations are worth visiting, especially since they’re positioned so that you can stop by them along a single route around the Marina Bay district.
There’s Eyes of the Sea, a lovely suspension installation that’s made with discarded plastics, and Keep on Moving, which captures the motion of running, frame by frame and Chronophotography-style. Check out the other light exhibits that you can view on i Light’s website.
GastroBeats at i Light Singapore 2022
Besides lighted art installations, i Light Singapore 2022 also has an exciting spread of activities and programmes for you to participate in, especially at GastroBeats!
GastroBeats is the bustling festival village that’s set up in conjunction with i Light Singapore. A great place to start your i Light festival experience, GastroBeats hosts delightful food, entertainment, and art activities for all ages.
You can grab gastronomical delights from over 20 food vendors that include local and other bites. Or, even visit Culinary Masters, where you get to order from collaboration menus by celebrity chef Sarah Todd, and chefs George Calombaris, Genevieve Lee, as well as Derek Cheong of MasterChef fame. Entry and tasting menus are priced from S$70 per person.
Run, not walk, to the highlight of The Art Zone, which is Jumptopia, the inflatable food-themed bouncy castle and playground that’s sure to excite the little ones and those who are young at heart.
GastroBeats is open from 3 June to 26 June, from 4pm to 10.30pm.
Location: Bayfront Event Space
Price: GastroBeats General Entry ticket is priced starting from S$9 per person. Get your tickets from Klook.
Check out the array of other programmes and activities at i Light Singapore 2022 on their website!
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