A Glowing, Swaying Field of 28,000 Lights Is Sprouting in the Seaport
Called Entre les rangs, it's made of thousands of reflectors on sticks, and it's the latest eye-catching installation in the neighborhood.
Entre les rangs / City field, a creation by Kanva Architecture, Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal. (Photo : Cindy Boyce)
For the third year in a row, a giant glowing art exhibition is on its way to the Seaport this winter.
This latest spectacle, which debuts Monday, December 9, will feature serpentine rows of 28,000 plastic stalks, each of which has been topped with a circular reflector designed to catch the light of its surroundings. Around the edges of the space, projectors will be set up to bathe the installation in constantly changing colors, causing the reflective surfaces to glow as they sway in the wind. It’s called Entre les rangs, which in English means “between the rows.” According to a release, it’s meant to be “evocative of a rural wheat field swaying in the breeze.”
“The installation seeks to establish a dialogue between agricultural landscapes and urban frameworks,” Rami Bebawi, partner and cofounder of KANVA, the Montreal architecture firm behind the installation, says in a statement. “As such, with its proximity to the waterfront and surrounded by a dynamic urban district, the Seaport offers a wonderful opportunity for visitors to wander calmly through the art installation while reflecting on our relationship to natural environments.”
After spending some time in Chicago, London, and Charlotte, it comes to Boston as part of a collaboration with the nonprofit Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, as well as Creos, an art company based in Quebec. We have the partnership to thank for last winter’s cartoonish neon sculptures that visitors could sit in and manipulate like an old-timey railcar, and 2018’s glowing, musical seesaws.
“With our illuminated winter art program now in its third year, Boston has come to expect a visually stunning, seasonal winter experience in Seaport,” says Debra Brodsky, head of marketing for the Seaport at the Massachusetts firm WS Development. “Entre les rangs will be the most unique exploration of our artistic tradition yet, literally and metaphorically brightening the season in our neighborhood.”
You can find Entre les Rangs on the Seaport Common at 85 Northern Ave from Monday, December 9 through Monday, February 2.
Entre les Rangs from Kanva on Vimeo.
