A Living Painting films a traditional performance of music and dance, then composites the performer into a hand-made artwork built around them. No AI at any stage.
For Diwali we propose three, made with Indian classical musicians who live and perform in Tāmaki Makaurau. Fifteen minutes of unique content, played in sequence across each evening.
Our aim with projecting Living Paintings is to treat the light canvas as a storytelling surface that reflects the city, its people, and its cultural identity.
The motion is deliberately quiet. Foliage moves. Cloud drifts. Light shifts from evening into night across a piece. The performance inside the frame carries the movement, so the artwork around it can stay still. It sits on the building the way a large painting would, rather than turning it into a screen.
A six-verse Sanskrit hymn attributed to the 8th century philosopher Adi Shankara. The artwork is a hand-built 3D recreation, no AI, of a coastal temple, lit by a single warm source as the sun sets on the horizon outside the middle archway.
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A raga set against a collage built from 14th to 16th century Indian painting, sourced from The Met collection. Two figures with open space around them, so it reads simply from Aotea Square or from a passing bus.
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A Hindustani jugalbandi, two instrumentalists answering one another in real time, set against a piece assembled from 17th century Indian painting.
Watch ↗Linked recordings carry their original audio. On the facade the work runs silent, with audio accessible via QR code. More on that below.
If a small exception for the text is willing to be considered, we will add "LISTEN" above the QR code so its purpose is clear.
A small QR code in a lower corner opens a synced livestream of whichever art-piece is on the wall, played through the visitor's own headphones or phone speaker.
The facade stays strictly visual with no sound, as specified. The music is opt-in, on personal devices, and adds nothing to the ambient noise of the street or the neighbouring buildings. For someone who scans, it becomes a private concert on a public building.
Nothing depends on it. The brief asks that we consider how audiences encounter the work both in motion and while paused, including passersby and those dwelling in the area. Someone who stops can listen. Passersby who never scan still see a beautiful, slow-moving painting on the side of the station, complete on its own terms.
The QR code opens a webpage with the livestreamed audio, but can also double as an informative panel featuring the names of the artists, the meaning behind each song and how the artworks sourced their material from 14th to 16th century paintings from India.
Auckland has one of the largest Diwali celebrations outside India, and a substantial Indian community living and working in and around the city centre. Every performer in these three works is Auckland based.
Between the Living Paintings, a short interstitial. A Bengal tiger, India's national animal, walks across the facade in shimmering orange and gold. As it passes it reveals a greeting: Happy Diwali Tāmaki Makaurau.
The Bengal tiger alternates with a peacock, India's national bird, shimmering green and blue, who glides through the scene revealing the greeting.
The brief permits no text on this facade. We put this forward only in case an exception is considered warranted given the holiday and the festival running at the time.
Content costs only. The projection system is already installed and operated by Auckland Live, so there is no gear, crew, freight or install to fund. All figures exclude GST.
If Auckland Live wanted to hold the sequence on the wall for a month rather than the festival period, that is a straightforward extension.
All three pieces already exist and can be viewed in full today, so there is no concept risk on what is being approved and no production schedule against a fixed festival date.
Happy to talk through the sequence, the audio layer or the run length.
