Entertainment

A Swarm of Rainbow Butterflies Lights Up a Shanghai Train Station

A ring of LED lights wrap around the stations cylinder pillars of Shanghai Metro’s Hanzhong Road Station, turning them into what looks like beams of light peaking through the clouds on a gloomy day. Schools of illuminated 3D printed butterflies sail across the the station’s sweeping perimeter walls. Known for his robotic wallflowers and data visualization installations, new media artist Jiayu Liu, in conjunction with ToMaster lead designer Linjie Wang, Shanghai design studio Topos‘ Lin Chen, and M&W studio’s Ninian MacQueen, brings the temperate ambience of wet woodlands underground to his latest project, Magic Forest.

Magic Forest from Jiayu Liu on Vimeo.

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Liu writes, “In my previous works, I would prefer to use light as language to endue objects with colors and use space for audience to experience the work. The original intention for this project is to create natural scenery bring sunlight into an underground space by nature.” Magic Forest mirrors the same serene damp neon aesthetic generated by the hanging fans in one of Liu’s previous installations, Within Invisibility. In conjunction with design director Linjie Wang, and Ohio-based urban design studio, Topos, Liu creates a merger of architecture and new media art that breathes a whole new life into the station.

Head over to Jiayu Liu’s website, here, to check out more of his work.

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