WE-EF Lighting Aurora sculpture at Docklands, Melbourne

Geoffrey Bartlett is the artist responsible for this new work of art which is a recent addition to the rapidly growing Docklands precinct. 'Aurora' is a 14 metre high stainless steel piece commissioned by the State Government. A crucial element in Geoff's design was that 'Aurora' should present strikingly different characters by day and by night. Steve Wright of Light Well Design was engaged to assist in realising the all important night view.

Construction of the sculpture and the inclusion of lighting within its structure represented an enormous technical challenge; the process of resolving the luminaire mounting arrangement was something akin to building a 'ship in a bottle'. A custom stainless tray was fabricated that would permit sufficient pan and tilt during commissioning. A combination of seven WE-EF FLC100 series luminaires with 70W and 150W CDM-T lamps was selected for the task.

An additional difficulty arose in that there was absolutely no space available to locate the control gear. It had to be in a cubicle, at ground level; moreover the convoluted reticulation route through the sculpture meant that the effective distance between gear and lamp would approach twenty metres. The solution was HARVARD electronic control gear featuring resonant start circuitry and WE-EF's silicone polyflex cable approved by Harvard for an ignition distance of twenty five metres plus.

The final result has been greeted as an outstanding success in two respects; first it will serve as an artistic and lighting landmark within the Docklands precinct for years to come; secondly it is a fine example of how artist, designer, supplier and installer, co-operating together can overcome significant and challenging technical hurdles.