WONDERLOOPER

Northern Spire Bridge, Sunderland, UK

An interactive audio-visual installation developed in community workshops to celebrate the opening of Sunderland’s Northern Spire Bridge.

Commission

Di was commissioned by Sunderland Culture to create an installation to mark the Northern Spire Bridge’s opening on 16th September 2018. Di worked closely with local community groups to develop the piece, Wonderlooper, which consisted of fourteen audio-visual kaledidoscopes shaped like seaside telescopes. The Wonderloopers were fashioned from left over off-cuts of the bridge’s soaring white cable-pipes.

Experience

On it’s opening day, visitors to the Northern Spire Bridge peered through one of fourteen Wonderloopers which lined the bridge and saw a kaleidoscopic view of the bridge’s cables, mixed with fragments of visitors, clouds and skyline. Inside each Wonderlooper, participants could hear aeolian sounds of the wind vibrating the bridge’s cables mixed with spoken-word performances of community members exploring their hopes, fears and dreams for Sunderland.

Tour

2018 Northern Spire Bridge, Sunderland

Partners

Sunderland Culture
Fablab Sunderland

Full credits below

We worked with communities on both sides of the river to explore how we could see the bridge and its environment differently. Through Wonderlooper’s kaleidoscope, visitors could hear the sounds of the bridge accompanied by musical soundscapes and interviews with local people about their experiences of Sunderland.

Di mainstone
Artist

The idea for the name came about when I first moved to Sunderland and a friend of mine said ‘enjoy yourself in wonderland.

di mainstone
artist
CREDITS

Di Mainstone

Suzy O’Hara

Architects of Rosslyn

Di Mainstone ©Di Mainstone

Di is a multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker whose work has been exhibited at Southbank Centre, The Barbican, the V&A, Sage Gateshead, The National Portrait Gallery & more.

Visit

Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, London EC2A 3PQ