Vivid Sydney is an annual 18-day festival of light, music and ideas that transforms the city of Sydney Australia into “a wonderland of 'light art' sculptures, innovative light installations and grand-scale projections for all to enjoy.” One of those projects – OPALessence (play.with.colour) – used Rosco Custom Gobos to convey the message of the color, history and mythology of the fascinating opal.
OPALessence (play.with.colour) is inspired by the colors and patterns of Australia’s national gemstone – the beautiful and mysterious opal. Artist Olivia Deskoski designed OPALessence to be a dynamic light sequence, projected onto a historic sandstone surface, that showcases the gemstone’s vivid play-of-color.
A series of custom gobos were created, featuring stunning images of black opals from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales that were captured by photographers Robert A. Smith, Len Cram and Jenni Brammall. The gobos projected were a variety of the magical black opal patterns found in Australia, including: Chinese Writing, Broad Flash, Flagstone, Ribbon and Harlequin.
According to Aboriginal “Dreamtime” mythology, opal is associated with the Creator, the gift of fire, and the capture of rainbows. These opalized myths are projected in an area of Sydney known as “The Rocks,” which is where European settlers chose to step ashore of the continent in 1788. By choosing to project OPALessence among the cobbled laneways and historic pubs found in The Rocks – the artists vividly blend Australia’s mythology with its history.