Art Lighting Design for KKCUK’s Audio-Visual Exhibition: “Round and Around”

This project has been expanded from a cinematic release to an entire exhibition. The exhibition, now incorporating video, sound, and art installations, takes the visitor on a journey through the modern history of Korea. Our art lighting designers created specialised lighting for four different areas of this exhibit.

The most difficult of these areas to light was the lighting of 64 transparent hanging banners. You can get a close-up of this in the images. Viewing these banners from various angles had an almost holographic or 3D quality. In addition, to enhance this effect, we used various spotlight fittings. These were fitted with multiple angles of LED lamps from behind and in front of the banners. By lighting the banners from behind with stronger light levels than those in front, approximately a 70/30 split, it increased the sense of 3-dimensional visualisation.

It was necessary to get a uniform effect across the whole display. As a result, we used an LED light metre to achieve this regularity and the desired lux level on both sides.

When using LED lighting, it is essential that a specialist LED light meter (preferably calibrated) is used to read lux levels accurately. This is especially important if your art or object is sensitive to light. Moreover, standard light meters are unable to read LED light levels accurately. Therefore, your artefact would be exposed to much more harmful light or increased lux levels than your standard meter would be reading. However, in this case, it was only about uniformity and no conservation issues. Therefore, any light meter would work.

We agreed with the curator to use cool white 5000K (Kelvin) LED lamps. These lamps had anti-dazzle filters placed in front of the LED lamps to reduce glare and make them more comfortable for the visitors’ eyes. In the other exhibition areas, the curator and artist wanted the visitors to get a 3D feeling from what was essentially 2-dimensional printed imagery. The effect should make you feel like you could look through the various windows into the gardens beyond.

We used a tight 10-degree LED lamp for these artworks, which was positioned and angled so the visitor didn’t cast their own shadow on the art. The art lighting results were extraordinary! The entrance and other walls with the exhibition title and text were lit using wall washers to give an even spread of light and a contemporary freshness to the exhibition.

In between exhibits, fill-in lighting was utilised around the gallery space, providing safe movement and creating an overall cohesiveness:

• LED spotlighting
• Antiglare filters
• LED lux light level reading
• Fill in lighting
• Wall Wash Lighting
• Uniformity of lighting

The team’s efforts culminated in an immersive exhibition experience that not only exposes the rich fabric of Korea’s contemporary history but also captivates visitors with its engaging experience. Visitors are transported through time and space as they walk through the art show, surrounded by finely constructed lighting and intriguing displays, learning more about Korea’s cultural legacy and modern art.

With our bespoke lighting design schemes, we aimed to evoke emotions, spark curiosity, and foster a sense of emotive connection with the narratives unfolding before them.