Spirit
Designing, fabricating and installing a large scenic installation art piece for Leeds city centre
The Brief
NEWSUBSTANCE were approached by Leeds BID to design, fabricate and install a large scenic installation art piece to celebrate innovation and industry in Leeds. The artwork would be installed at a major thoroughfare in the city to welcome and inspire residents and visitors alike over the winter period from November to February.
Event Statistics
Installed in the Leeds Train Station the sculptural installation will be viewed by millions of people over the course of three months.
— Client
Leeds BID
— Location
Leeds, UK
The Outcome
NEWSUBSTANCE produced the concept for ‘Spirit’, a bold and inspirational figure to symbolise hope, innovation and creative endeavour in the city. We designed, engineered and managed the installation from initial concepts through to completion on site.
The central figure, manufactured in engineered fibreglass and perforated with over a thousand points of light, soars above the North Concourse greeting commuters and visitors to the city as they pass beneath. Purposefully androgynous the flying pose engenders thoughts of dynamic forward motion, looking ahead to the future whilst points of light illustrate the inspirational spark of innovation that sits within all of us. Radiating out from the spine of the figure, a network of over eight hundred individual threads weave the Spirit into the fabric of the city whilst giving recognition to the textiles heritage of Leeds.
Mounted through the roof of the station concourse the, Spirit is suspended via steel wire ropes and stabilised with an engineered truss frame. The fibreglass shell is supported with an internal steel frame clad in over 3000 LEDs to produce the internal glow that radiate out through the pin holes drilled into the surface.
Spirit is a brave new statement for the city and sets a new and exciting precedent for both industry and the creative arts, we are proud to have this beacon of creativity and hope as part of the winter trail of art, light and magic. NEWSUBSTANCE are a fantastic team who have have gone above and beyond with this project in the pursuit of creative excellence. This is our debut activity with them and we very much hope to have the opportunity to collaborate again in the near future.