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Nighttime video projections on downtown buildings are captivating basketball fans visiting Indianapolis for NBA All-Star Weekend.
Michigan City resident Niko Cabela paused Friday near 141 S. Meridian St., a 6-story building anchored by the District Tap, to watch moving images of dancers and athletes in a projection titled “Kinetic Reflections.”
“Look at this building,” Cabela said. “Without these projections, it’s like a blank canvas that’s ready to be painted. This is really cool to see.”
The arts and culture committee within the NBA All-Star 2024 Host Committee arranged for “Kinetic Reflections” and three other light-based installations of public art.
Pedestrians pulled out phones to capture images of a projection titled “Rebounding Reflections” on the 9-story H. P. Wasson & Co. Building at the northwest corner of the intersection of Washington and Meridian streets.
Bloomington-based Blockhouse Studios created “Kinetic Reflections” and “Rebounding Reflections,” with the latter featuring images of basketballs rising and falling fluidly in vertical columns, flanked by colorful geometric shapes suggestive of flippers in an Art Deco pinball machine.
“It’s futuristic,” said Mike Gil, visiting Indianapolis from Lake County.
Indianapolis resident Jose Dominguez also expressed admiration for “Rebounding Reflections.”
“It’s colorful,” Dominguez said. “The moving basketballs caught my attention. Typically we don’t have this downtown.”
More basketballs in motion can be seen in “Shining a Light: The All-Star Spark,” a creation of Indianapolis-based creative agency Innovative that’s projected on multiple Monument Circle buildings.
The arts and culture committee also commissioned “Evanescent,” a large-scale bubble sculpture installed at Hudnut Commons, 50 S. Capitol Ave. The sculpture is present around the clock and illuminated at night. Australian-based design studio Atelier Sisu created “Evanescent.”
Another Australian artist was scheduled to work on All-Star public art, but Wendy Yu dropped out because of unforeseen circumstances, including travel and technical complications, according to the Indy Arts Council.
Yu had planned a projection titled “Secret Worlds on South Meridian Street” in collaboration with Blockhouse Studios.
Blockhouse took over the project that became “Kinetic Reflections.” The video retains imagery of Indianapolis-based artists and athletes originally intended for Yu’s work. The projection includes representatives of Iibada Dance Company, 31Svn Dance Academy and Dance Kaleidoscope as well as WNBA and Butler University basketball players.
Charles Carson, an Indiana University alum who recently moved back to Indiana from Washington, D.C., said “Kinetic Reflections” succeeds in its mission to engage viewers.
“I notice public art in Indianapolis,” Carson said. “I feel like it’s on par with what we had in D.C. There’s a lot of art out there and there’s a lot of art here. Any type of culture is going to help a city, especially in the Midwest because people think the Midwest is just a bunch of podunks who don’t know what’s going on. But when you come here, there’s actually culture.”
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