Lighting The Sound
March 2026, 10 nights (Dates TBC)
A major outdoor light experience produced and delivered by FORM Building a State of Creativity in conjunction with internationally renowned Finnish artist, Kari Kola. Visible from key locations around Albany, the dramatic illumination of the landforms in and around King George’s Sound, will divert eyes and attention outward from the coast towards the life-giving source of the ocean, the focus of so much ancestral, cultural, ecological and historical meaning.
Kari Kola is renowned for his lighting treatments of natural and human-made phenomena, notably the Connemara Mountains (Ireland), and Stonehenge (UK). Lighting the Sound is the first opportunity to see his work in Australia.
Kari visited Albany in 2024, developing “Roots of the Sky” as his concept. This is inspired by the Menang (or Bloodroot) plant, for which the region’s First Nations peoples are named, and it gestures towards elements of reconciliation and intergenerational transfer of knowledge through broad interpretations of story.
Symbolising the meaningful co-creation of the Menang and broader Albany communities with an artist of international calibre, it is anticipated to be the largest light installation on Earth in history.
Albany Is
Dates TBC / Location Albany / Cost Free
Albany Is, a soundscape of the voices, songs and sounds of Albany and its surroundings, co-created by FORM Building a State of Creativity and a Western Australian sound production team within the local community.
In a recording of the voices, songs and sounds of this port city, the local community explores ‘what Albany is’ to them. Menang songs and Creation Stories, Kongal-boyal dialect, other languages, sea shanties, ocean, birdcalls, wind in trees, marching army boots all tell the stories of what Albany Is.
Once complete, this audio experience will be available for self-navigation on personal devices. It will be produced to accompany the meditative experience of walking the area’s coastal and city trails.
Carrying The Fire
Dates TBC / Location Albany / Cost Free
A community-led closing celebration for Albany 2026, tracing the coastline, with Albany residents and visitors of all ages invited to hold lamps and walk as one up the hills and along trails of the coastal fringe. Along the way lamp-bearers will stop to create a string of lights, themselves becoming part of an enormous ephemeral artwork captured in breathtaking footage to be shared worldwide. Arguably one of the largest single performative gatherings yet staged in Western Australia, the event will be as much a celebration of human cooperation as it is a homage to landscape. A moving ceremony, which also symbolises ‘handing on the flame’ for Perth’s 2029 bicentenary.