Live Event Installations & Projections
Badu Gili Celestial
Celestial is the vibrant new animation of powerful First Nations storytelling, featuring the work of Gail Mabo, a Meriam artist from Mer Island in the Torres Strait, and First Nations artist Nikau Hindin, a Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi woman from Aotearoa/New Zealand.
An Indigenous multimedia and content creation entertainment company, Yarnology, was brought in to interpret the art pieces, which are of a sculptural nature as opposed to the usual graphic style. This required the projection to elevate the storytelling experience, to better engage the audience in the story the artists wished to portray.
Using Mabo’s star maps constructed out of bamboo and cotton, and Hindin’s Māori aute (bark cloth), the digital animation explores the ancient practices of celestial navigation across two cultures, with vibrant symbols and sounds bringing to life the stories of our skies and waterways.
A soundscape accompanies the animation, with powerful music by Nigel Westlake supporting Mabo's work, and Te Kahureremoa Taumata (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) and Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rangitihi) complementing Hindin's.
CREW
Creative Direction - Yarnology
Creative Lead - Visual Monkey
Design Director - Anna Fraser
3D animation - Cameron Fernandes
2D animation - Jin Hien Lau
3D modeling - Tessa Eden
Cloth animation - Gareth Chang
Software
Aftereffects
Cinema 4D
Redshift
X-particles