Rays of Light

They’re peeking down at us from the historic Montelbaanstoren. This monument used to be part of Amsterdam’s town walls – the city’s defences. So basically, the tower has always been there to spy on people. Tamar Frank decided to add the light beams that radiate from the structure. Although it isn’t a searchlight as such. It can’t be cast in every direction, to drag something out of the shadows. The work is made up of dozens of thin fluorescent fishing lines, carefully strung between the historic tower and the opposite side of the canal. And when these lines are hit by UV, they seem to become rays of pure light. Allowing us to look at the light beam itself, rather than it picking out for us what we need to look at.

Fun fact
How in heaven’s name do you get dozens of fishing lines to stretch that tightly across a canal? Amsterdam Light Festival’s technical team developed a special line dispenser for this purpose. It’s a tube filled with multiple spools of line – allowing you to string the entire beam of 50 fishing lines in one go. Remember those retractable clotheslines people sometimes use for their laundry?