New SPX Lighting for St Marys Church in Sydney
Published: WORSHIP
AUSTRALIA: St Mary’s Cathedral, said to be the spiritual home of Sydney's Catholic community, has installed new lighting to enhance a series of brand new marble sculptures. Products were chosen from the SPX range made by New Zealand-originating theatrical and architectural lighting manufacturer Selecon.
Ralph Morris, the Cathedral’s manager of facilities and conservation, commissioned the new lighting from New South Wales-based Herkes Professional Lighting (HPL). HPL’s Wayne Kellett duly recommended four SPX 25°-35° Zoomspots and four SPX 14° Fixed Beams fitted with long-life GLB lamps.
The Herkes team worked closely with Matt Huijsse from Graftons Lighting and St Mary's technical staff to re-focus and re-plot the lighting presets using the new lights and the existing stock of pars and area floodlights. Although St Mary’s has plenty of height for lighting positions, there were limitations of available angles to shoot from. Furthermore, the marble finish presented more challenges: to enhance the contours of the works without them becoming over-saturated or two-dimensional.
The sculptures are by UK artist Nigel Boonham, who created statues of The Risen Christ and Mary Magdalene to be lit alongside the signature marble altar and sanctuary.
Selecon was acquired by Royal Philips of The Netherlands in April 2009.