You Spin Me Right Round

Artist: Paul Matthews (Australia)

Collaborators: Tony Cotter (Australia) / Dean Cotter  (Australia)

You Spin Me Right Round hijacks urban streetlights and releases their potential for facilitating impromptu disco breaks!

The artist’s scenario is as follows: on an evening stroll through Sydney you walk past a streetlight. On the pole is a circular disc connected to narrow pipes that lead to a mirror ball positioned in front of the light. It hangs there, refracting light across the surrounding environment. Spots of light stand still on the footpath and walls, perhaps swaying slightly in the breeze, tempting you to come and play. It’s a party on pause: it’s up to you to you to activate the festivities. Spin the disc, the mirror ball turns and the light dances around you. Consider yourself free to be fabulous!

You Spin Me Right Round is a ‘festive intervention’ that highlights the way that rather mundane experiences associated with urban utility can be enhanced by a touch of frivolity – and a spark of ingenuity.

Although streetlights might make a park safer or illuminate structures, they don’t usually prompt spontaneous dance moves. This installation involves attaching temporary fixtures to existing light sources in three locations around the Vivid precinct from Walsh Bay to The Rocks. The analogue fixtures are energy efficient: they draw zero electricity and interact with existing sources of artificial light.

You Spin Me Right Round aims to alter our experience of the environment without impacting it. In everyday settings, it allows moments of celebration, memory and sparkle. A disco might be waiting under a streetlight, or in a quiet park, or perhaps hiding in a laneway that you walk past every day.

Country represented by installation: Australia