Hi-Lights is a public artwork for the Gold Coast Gateway situated on two sites, framing north and south entrances of the city of Gold Coast in Australia. Inspired by the north site, a narrow stretch along the median of the Gold Coast Highway, the artwork is a radical adaptive reuse of seemingly familiar infrastructure - the light poles, cantilever arms, and fixtures to be found all along the highway itself.
For the Northern site along the highway median strip, the highway lighting fixtures are closely spaced and modified to different heights so that the illuminated points of the fixtures spell out the words GOLD COAST—our “name in lights”. The poles and fixtures are double-arm, illuminating both directions of traffic and spelling out the letters and words in both directions. Standard double-fixture poles plus double-double poles and triple-double poles (a total of 79 light poles, with an average of 9 per letter), at a fixture height from 6.6 to 11.0 meters, map out the letterforms. The shaping of the letterforms has been curated to an optimum when seen obliquely and in motion, as well as to make the most of the available construction envelope—and, in a pointillist or ‘dot-matrix’ array, of the terminal points of light. To add a little dazzle during daytime, segments of the silvery galvanized steel of the poles will be partially coated in yellow paint, forming a geometry that echoes and amplifies the rounded letterforms above.
For the Southern gateway site, the installation of 22 additional lights will simply spell out GC as iconic acronym and reminder of the extended Gold Coast sign at the Northern gateway. The larger letterforms are located right at the entry/exit of the main airport, framing the arrival by air in a more pedestrian and bike-friendly and accessible landscape.
Media credit:
The Gateway Public Art Commission was co-funded by the City of Gold Coast and QLD State Government as a legacy of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018
