Like ocean waves at the point of breaking, two walls of giant bamboo oppose each other in a stand-off of equal forces. Their power is expressed both in the potential energy stored at the “unbroken” face, and in the tapering clatter of more than 700 bamboo poles that appear to displace in their wake.

Cave Urban was commissioned by the Brisbane Festival to create an installation for the Southbank Cultural Forecourt.  Standing at 18m high and 60m long, the light garden is composed of 1000 poles of bamboo and was created in collaboration with the the festivals Creative Director, Tony Assness.

The requirements of site meant that the work had to be free standing with no anchor points to the ground. To achieve this we devised a structural system composed of two overlapping parabolic grids of bamboo attached to 5 concrete blocks weighing in total 1 tonne. The bamboo was connected using a tourniquet method first taught to us by Belgium sculptor Georges Cuvillier. By connecting the work with rope we were able to quickly assemble and disassemble the work, keeping the bamboo intact so that it could be reused on future projects.

Working with Jeremy and Morgan from Event engineering we were able to certify the work by load testing the rope joint, finding it capable of withstanding loads up to 1 tonne (Four times the amount required).

Building 

The work was constructed over a period of two weeks, onsite at Southbank, with the help of volunteers and members of Brisbane collective The BooCrew.

Harvesting

Cave Urban members Jed and Lachy spent two weeks harvesting 1000 poles of Bamboo from plantations at Crystal Waters, Kin Kin and Grafton. With the help of volunteers from QUT, they cut the bamboo to 12m lengths that where transported to site at Southbank in Brisbane.

Species harvested where Moso, Madake, Oldhamii, Guadua and Tuldoides.