Member Article

Exclusive Star Wars Installation Comes To Spinningfields

SPINNINGFIELDS, MANCHESTER is set to become the first location outside of London to host a public exhibition of the illuminated sculpture Heavy Petal, which features two up-cycled Star Wars aircrafts, the X Wing Fighter and TIE Interceptor, recently showcased in science, culture and technology magazine, WIRED. These pop art sculptures are made from unloved old retro Raleigh bicycles, created and designed as a collaboration between lighting specialist, Andrew Gibson of Tyson Lighting and Vinny Smith of Northern Backdrop Interior Design. Heavy Petal will be suspended in the West reception of 3 Hardman Street, Spinningfields and on exclusive public display from the 9th April 2015. This innovative design installation was previously installed at a WIRED exhibition at Tobacco Dock in London where it attracted high profile attention from the media and a purchase offer from American songwriter and entrepreneur will.i.am; although the designers say they have held out from selling it so far, preferring instead to showcase the installation in Manchester.

According to Vinny Smith, “The X-wing Fighter was made by fabricating together the frames of four Raleigh Grifters . The Raleigh Grifter bike was pre-cursor to the BMX and actually released around the same time as the first Star Wars film, Episode IV A New Hope, so it re-kindled childhood memories of mine that formed the basis of this installation.” Andrew Gibson said, “I decided to use the neon effect Encapsulite Fluorescent tubes to bring the ships to life. The ice blue gun tube offers reflections off the ships chromed body, give it an ‘in flight’ appearance, whilst the warm red engine section switches the installation on.

Vinny was adamant about the positioning of the green Encapsulite tubes on the TIE Interceptor, and I must say he got it bang on. The finishing touches are clever whilst subtle, replacing original Raleigh badges on the frames, as a mark of respect to the components previous form.

The success of the installations has come from Vinny and I allowing each other to take control in our specialised area, plus we decided any disputes, we did have - with a light sabre duel!!!“

Vinny Smith added, “Since Heavy Petal’s appearance in WIRED magazine, we’ve had a lot of incredible feedback online from Star Wars and Comicon enthusiasts and we’re hoping that this Spinningfields exhibition will be the first of many. We’re hoping to complete the Star Wars Bike Trilogy to coincide with the 7th Star Wars film coming out later this year.” Tyson Lighting have recently up-scaled their custom-made, bespoke manufacturing design division at their headquarters in Blackburn, Lancashire and are currently working on further, high profile bespoke lighting collaborations - due to be announced later this year.

Visit the Heavy Petal (Star Wars X Wing Fighter and TIE Interceptor) light installation exhibition from 9th April 2015 at the West reception of 3 Hardman Street, Spinningfields. Price available on request.

Please contact Natalie@tysonlighting.com for sales enquiries.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Passam .