I visited Canary Wharf Winter Lights last week. This event is held annually in January to bring colour and light into a dark and often depressing time of the year. The event this year took place from the third week in January and finished at the end of the month/early February. The annual festival this year showcased over a dozen new illuminated sculptures and exhibitions, and some of them were interactive. In addition, there are a few permanent light-based sculptures around to see. I was impressed with the selection again this year.
I visited Canary Wharf after work to see Winter Lights.
Hulahoop by Scale: This sculpture was set to light, movement, and sound with the different rings performing different movement and patterns. This changed colours and position and seemed to capture a lot of interest while we waited for the rings to move around each other at different paces.
Un-Reel Access by KAPPA: This glowing doorway symbolises a mystery about what lies behind it. The corner of the door is up-turned in one corner to reveal a bright light.
Colour Rush by Liz West: This colourful pillar of light was created with inspiration of a kaleidoscope. It sits on a mirror base with other mirrors around.
Blueprint by Studio Vertigo: This light and sound sculpture has moving beams of light that shift colour. The sculpture is inspired by DNA and the health sciences.
Trispheric Garden by Reelize Studio: This mirrored sculpture is set to sound and shifts colour, illuminating the surrounding fountain and sculpture itself. The sculpture's form seems to mirror the tall buildings at Canary Wharf.
Out of Body Experience by Alaa Minawi: This sculpture is a group of figures illuminated into different poses.
Lacto-Reacto-Light by Jack Wimperis: This colourful sculpture is comprised of milk cartons and wire mesh cages. As it shifts colours, it takes the patterns of people and objects in front of it and projects them as shadows.
Flower Power by Aerosculpture: This sculpture creates flowers that spin out of pinwheels that change colour and speed and pattern. It is set to music, and creates an optical illusion of flowers.
In Bloom by Kumquat Lab: This sculpture is inspired by the bloom of flowers and activates upon touch with the colour of the orb changing to a new colour.
Manifestation by Marcus Lyall: This motion-projected lazer artwork is inspired by Victorian age and magic with the different drawings miorphing into different shapres and heads of figures that appear to sing as a choir, which was haunting in depiction.
At the Hand by Lacroix: This sculpture is created by the viewer who places their hand on a sensor, and a three-dimension light of the hand is created within rows of light.
Amplitudes by Limbic Cinema: This ever-changing sculpture uses light, sound, and mist from the spray of water particals. The artwork is projected near the bridge with the trains rushing past, which adds to the experience. Different colours and shapes, including wave-like forms, are projected.
SOL by Artistic Latvia: This installation is located around Crossrail Gardens and features many different planets in the solar system suspended in the air and near the ground.
Aether by Architecture Social Club: Glowing lights and sound creates patterns projected onto rows of light, which is always changing shape.
Sanctuary by Ithaca Studio: This installation is a structure that surrounds the viewer in a mirrored sound and light-scape with glowing stars and rods of colour. The installation felt like a cathedral or being surrounded by space.
For Ever and Ever and Ever by Anna Lomax: Three different series of sculptures were placed within different parts of the malls at Canary Wharf. The different lights are constructured with mirrors, and each side has a different view with different shapes and colours.
I had a crumble from one of the special "Light Bites" food vans during my visit. There are always several options and restaurants to visit.
Below are some of the permanent light installations.
Whale on the Wharf
Bit.fall
The Clew
Stack
Shine Your Colours
Lightbenches
We Could Meet
The Boulder
Captivated by Colour
Previous years of Winter Lights can be seen below:
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2025
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2024
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2023
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2022 - cancelled
Canary Wharf "Connected by Light" 2021
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2020
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2019
Winter Lights @ Canary Wharf 2018
Canary Wharf Winter Lights (2017)
Winter Lights @ Canary Wharf (2016)
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