Luminous Paths: Nanaimo's 150 and Beyond

Candycombs, Monkey C Interactive

Candycombs are pressure-sensitive floor panels that light up and trigger sound loops, allowing multiple users to make music together by stepping on the illuminated floor. Featuring music by David Parfit. Candycombs were originally created with help from Creative BC and after multiple installations on the mainland, including Mississauga, Ontario. This is their first public exhibit on Vancouver Island.

The Portal, Mauro Dalla Costa

This art installation presents a towering, symbolic doorway that invites viewers to step into a space of reflection and wonder. Covered in mirrors, the piece reflects its surroundings, creating a striking visual presence that shifts with the changing light. Infinity mirrors along its sides evoke a sense of endless repetition, prompting contemplation on themes of continuity and infinite possibilities.

Surrounding the main structure, smaller mirrored totems complete the immersive experience, engaging visitors from different perspectives. The installation symbolizes life’s journey, offering a space for introspection and connection. It invites viewers to pause, walk through, and interact with the piece, exploring the concept of parallel realities and the infinite nature of existence.

Designed for engagement, this artwork encourages visitors to reflect on their own journey, while offering a visually impactful and interactive experience.

Pythagorhythm, Monkey C Interactive

Pythagorhythm is an interactive-multi-user-music creation installation with two dozen touch-responsive sensors allowing users to remix sounds and change the sound-responsive led lighting. Because of its configuration, it encourages teamwork, collaboration and interaction between participants.   Featuring music by Longwalkshortdock. Pythagorythm is the prototype of the Musical Railings, a beloved interactive art installation at the Yates Street Parkade in Bastion Square in Victoria. Photo by doddseye.com.

yahkikiw (they push forward in growth), bailey macabre

yahkikiw (they push forward in growth) features a holographic acrylic tree symbolizing growth, movement, and the complexity of identity while highlighting the beauty of multifaceted existence.

Reconversion, David Martinello

Inspired by wood's characteristics, Reconversion uses lumber's evident and hidden attributes, in conjunction with the tropes of green, to create a dialogue between the manufactured and natural.

The name Reconversion refers to how the sculpture was created by finding the organic inflections of wood held within the straight-sawn lumber to inform the construction of the lit crown. With its profile referencing a tree, Reconversion considers the legacy of timber and its influence. The artwork intends to form a holistic perspective of the environment by fostering an account of the material's value.

Cyber Tree, Jenny Smith

Planted amongst the trees and constructed of panels that allude to the screens which have come to define the digital age, Cyber Tree juxtaposes the past and future to highlight this juncture in time as the City of Nanaimo celebrates its 150th anniversary.

From inside of Cyber Tree, a looped montage of hands touching real trees is projected onto its inner surface, while simultaneously illuminating the viewer. The projected hands that also “touch” the inner surface of Cyber Tree, without actually touching it, extend to the viewer’s presence, stirring philosophical questions about our affinity to nature and an entanglement with technology, to engage its audience in a dialogue that supports a consciously engineered future.

Continuum, David Martinello

Continuum is a pixelated representation of a forest that considers the value of timber to foster a holistic relationship with the environment. Blocking out space using the tropes of green creates an intuitive reference to the substance of nature, and when paired with the expressiveness of woodgrain in the columns, it connotes the structure of a tree.

Since trees are not square, depicting them rectilinearly suggests the commodification of timber in how it’s cut into dimensional lumber. By having the crowns of each of the 11 trees in Continuum at different heights, the artwork evaluates our relationship and reliance on wood as an iterative entity in natural and constructed environments.

bailey macabre - bailey macabre is an agender nêhiyaw/michif/Ukrainian self-taught interdisciplinary artist and writer residing on the homelands of the Snuneymuxw on so-called Vancouver Island with matrilineal ties to Beardys & Okemasis Cree Nation. Their practice includes a variety of mediums from comics and digital art to painting, sculpture, beadwork and zines.

David Martinello - David Martinello uses print, sculpture, painting, film, poetry, installation and performances alongside traditional woodworking to investigate the expressive attributes of wood. By curating an impressionistic response to the material’s characteristics, Martinello contemplates wood’s legacy to develop a holistic account of its influence in natural and constructed environments. Martinello’s practice is informed by a BFA from Queen’s University and years of building furniture with his company Alternative Woodworks. He has curated several shows and owned a gallery, and his art has been seen in galleries across Canada and public artworks commissioned by municipalities in BC and Alberta.

Jenny Smith - Jenny Smith is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on community engagement. With a first love of literature, she was a winner for the Royal British Columbia Museum's writing contest on Leonardo Da Vinci's art, and her paintings have been featured in multiple literary journals, including on the cover of Room Magazine. In 2021, her interactive-engagement sculpture "In Your Hands" was installed on the West Vancouver waterfront for the summer. In 2023, she engaged hundreds of Pender Island residents in a community art project themed upon the inner child. Her current work explores relationships between technology, nature and the unseen world.

Mauro Dalla Costa - Mauro is a multidisciplinary artist from Argentina based in Nanaimo since 2017. He specializes in printmaking, particularly screen printing. Mauro also explores 3D art, animation and other creative disciplines. His work combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary techniques inspired by geometry, space and the universe. He creates pieces that invite reflection and connection blending meticulous detail with experimentation.

Monkey C - Monkey C Interactive is the interactive work of artists David Parfit and Scott Amos. Whether it's a strange and whimsical musical instrument like the Bubble Organ, a giant motion-responsive LED cube sculpture, a tech-house-looping mutant cash register or a 5-story-tall musical stairwell, Monkey C Interactive's public art installations and interactive sculptures have amused and delighted countless people in their hometown of Victoria, BC and at numerous festivals and events.