Sir Joseph Banks achievements re-visioned in a spellbinding new digital display.
The legacy of one of the world’s most famed botanists, the wealthy and wildly curious Joseph Banks, has been reinterpreted by a talented team of artistic digital designers in a stunning new sound and light display now open at the National Library of Australia to complement the blockbuster Cook And The Pacific exhibition.
Titled Beauty Rich and Rare and created by Vivid Light founders AGB Events, the immersive display illuminates in a new era the extraordinary collection of flora and fauna and the artworks created at the time by the fabled British Botanist Sir Joseph Banks and his team, who journeyed with Cook on his first Pacific voyage in 1766.
The brilliance of the collection, that was a precursor to the foundation of the famous Kew Gardens under Banks, has been vividly repainted in light and digital moving imagery using the very original colour charts prescribed by Banks’ and his illustrator Sydney Parkinson.
The extraordinary display is narrated by Angela Catterns to enlighten viewers on the true scale of adventure and achievement of Banks’ grand ambition when the 25-year old member of the Royal Society paid a huge sum to join Cook’s voyage of discovery.
The AGB design team has included graphic and digital artists to weave a tapestry that magnifies the scientific achievements of the expedition as well as conjuring the sheer awe that was inspired in the explorers when they witnessed the people and species upon arrival at The Great Southern Land.
The National Library of Australia has commissioned the first showing of Beauty Rich and Rare to be held in Canberra until 10 February 2019, in the Brindabella Room, open from 10am – 5pm daily.
Beauty Rich and Rare features beautiful original works from 250 years ago, digitally animated and projected onto a five-panel screen that measure 20 metres by 2.5 metres. The content combines hand-painted images from the time with and other details drawn digitally to create a virtual world of 3D digital animation. The experience has been over two years in the making, involving hundreds of hours of animation.
Founder and Director of AGB Events, Anthony Bastic, is thrilled to be exploring significant historical stories in a new way to engage audiences. He has undertaken similar large scale and ground-breaking projects like the Macquarie Visions projection for Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s 200th Anniversary in Sydney, as well as the spectacular Parrtjima festival in light where the aboriginal culture of 60,000 years of storytelling is curated and projected across the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia.
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with the National Library to unlock contents from their rich collection and re-imagine them digitally, said Bastic. “I hope visitors to Beauty Rich and Rare gain an understanding of the absolute delight that Banks and his team must have felt when they reached the East Coast of Australia.”
For more information visit: www.nla.gov.au
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