CONTROL NO CONTROL is a large-scale interactive installation in the form of a minimalistic geometric structure, true to Canada-based Studio Iregular’s signature style.

Created in 2011 in Montreal for Igloofest, it has since been presented over 35 times around the world.

The installation is a big LED cube that reacts to everything that touches it and every movement performed on its surface. Streamlined patterns and generative sound emerge as interaction occurs. Allowing 48 people to participate at the same time, the experience is extremely intuitive, leading to quick audience engagement and prolonged interactions.

"It Takes a Village" is a contemporary and interactive window installation that pairs artists with community centers to create art about the stories and work of people in Grand Rapids. It is based on the idea that it takes a village to support people - we all work together.

The artworks are curated by Mallory Shotwell and created by three separate artists:

1. Nirmal Raja: @nirmal.raja (located at 352 South Division)

2. Gina Kukulski: @ginakukulski (located at 29 Pearl Street)

3. Celine Browning: @celine.browning (located at 29 Pearl Street)

This alleyway art installation by artist Kenzi Goss allows visitors to transport to a fantasy world with an Alice in Wonderland feel complete with bees hanging above you, plants, animals and music.

This illuminated musical installation, featuring a distinctive retro-futuristic look, uses cylinders two meters in diameter and plays short flipbook-style movies inspired by Quebec literature.  The work is inspired by the zoetrope, an optical toy invented in the 19th century. Loop is a hybrid of the music box, zoetrope and railway handcar.

Loop is a creation of Jonathan Villeneuve, Olivier Girouard and Ottoblix and was co-produced by Ekumen and Quartier des Spectacles Partnership in Montreal. The names of each Loop and the creators of each featured film are:

1. Six degrés de liberté by Nicolas Dickner, illustrated by Amélie Tourangeau

2. Le silence est d’or by Émilie Turgeon, illustrated by Laurent Pinabel

3. Bondrée by Andrée A. Michaud, illustrated by Urban9

4. Joséphine Bacon’s poem Uiesh – Quelque part, rendered by Marie-Hélène Turcotte

5. The children’s book Au-delà de la forêt, co-written by Nadine Robert and Gérard Dubois, illustrated by Gérard Dubois

6. Fannie Cloutier by Stéphanie Lapointe, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

The word “Mashkiki” means medicine in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabek of this area.

Mashkiki Medicine is a painting by local artist Alan Compo and it is meant to represemt the medicines and stories he grew up with as an Ottawa artist from The Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians.

This mixed-media installation by artist Mandy Cano Villalobos consists of a house-like structure filled with thousands of hanging objects and papers. This ephemera – shoes, clothing, old photographs, trinkets, handwritten letters, etc. – reference ideas of home and personal memories.

By day, viewers will see the interior objects through the transparent walls, and recognize items that evoke a cultural familiarity and sense of belonging. By night, an opalescent spotlight in the center of the floor will cast light and shadow light over the immediate environment and passersby.

Window art installation presented by Valerie Wahna.

This is a continuation of the 2021 World of Winter window display called “Beam me up, Snowpeople!” which was featured at Dwelling Place. This will be a playful, 3D, diorama-like display featuring a snowpeople adventure where they meet the aliens that visited in UFOs in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 shows the snowpeople going to the Alien planet to make peace. It will center on a celebration of different cultures as both sides share the tradition of roasting marshmallows. The snowpeople (carrot noses and all) will be dressed in astronaut suits in front of a fantasy winter alien landscape.

A snowy winter window display by artist Jamie Shackleton that depicts a family of foxes in the winterscape. The display will consist of watercolor, sculpture and design.

Come and see this Instagrammable neon plant wall installation by artist Chris Meyer!

This faux plant wall reminds onlookers of summer weather and helps to celebrate Grand Rapids as a four-season city during the winter season.

A large outdoor installation brought to you in partnership with Amigo & Amigo based in Australia.

You can’t help but feel you are shrinking as you approach these super-sized trumpet flowers. Tentatively stepping inside some unseen Giant’s musical garden, you become surrounded by an explosive and immersive jungle of light, color and sound. Moving in and around the flower forest uncovers a deeper connection with their individual trumpet key controllers, interactive keys that allow you to play each flower as a 2-6m towering musical and light instrument.

Make your own spectacular floral symphony of sound and light or catch one of the scheduled animated musical scores throughout the evening. Inspired by vintage gramophones, Trumpet Flowers will shock and surprise as the entire world periodically bursts to life and plays its own commissioned musical score: a piece composed and played by Otis Studio and some of Sydney’s finest Jazz musicians. Every tuba, trumpet, trombone and drum sound in Trumpet Flowers’ repertoire is an individual live recorded and energetic moment at your fingertips to experiment with.

A large outdoor installation brought to you in partnership with Amigo & Amigo based in Australia.

Crank Zappa Jellyfish is an interactive sculpture created from plastic waste. Lights animate and respond to touch sensors at the ends of the tentacles. The sculpture is also accompanied by music and voice combining to bring the character of Crank Zappa to life, as well as educate the public on plastic waste in an accessible and engaging way.

Crank Zappa is completely constructed from single-use plastic items including 1,000 plastic bags, straws and 800 plastic bottles that were salvaged from Scotts Creek and 1,200 meters of recycled twine that was weaved together by 40 volunteers. As visitors gather under Crank, he electrifies and animates in response to human touch.

"It Takes a Village" will promote the impact individuals and groups outside the "family" have - positive and/or negative - on a child's emotional and physical well-being, and campaign for a society that meets ALL of each child's needs.

Residents and clients from Eagle Village ages 5-17 will express what it could personally mean to them to have their needs met, who has been there for them in their lives, and what they hope their "village" looks like in the future through an art contest.

“You, Me and a Butterfly” is a large-scale mixed-media, abstract sculpture based on a butterfly bursting out of its cocoon.

The sculpture is interactive as the viewer is encouraged to step within the space between the ornate, mirrored wings for photos. Reflections of onlookers in the partially mirrored wings allow multiple viewers to participate in the shared interaction.

The individual triangles that make up the abstracted wings produce a kaleidoscope effect with their multiple colors, patterns, and mirrors. Some of the individual triangles will also have internal lights that become part of the experience in the evening.

Created by local artists Valeria Wahna, Scott Floria, and Brent Wenz.

A large outdoor art installation brought to you in partnership with Parer Studio based in Australia.

Some very large white rabbits, illuminated in stark white light, have been invading the planet. The bunnies of Intrude stand enormous, yet relaxed in their given new homes.

Rabbits in artist Amanda Parer’s native Australia are a feral species, they leave a trail of ecological destruction wherever they go and defy attempts at eradication. First introduced by white settlers in 1788, they have caused a great imbalance in the country’s endemic species.

Yet, the rabbit is also an animal of contradiction. They represent the fairy-tale animals of our childhood, of furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and strong visual humor to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. The bunnies of Intrude are huge, the size referencing “the elephant in the room”, the problem, like our mismanagement of the environment, big, but one that we too easily ignore.

“It can be said that the rabbit is my muse. My artwork, Intrude, is like any good fairytale, it works from both the light and the dark. In Australia, the rabbit simultaneously represents a cute, cuddly character from our childhood and is an animal known to impose great destruction of the island continents’ delicate ecosystems. It has been fun to use these motifs to explore our relationship with the natural world.” – Amanda Parer, Artist 

PLEASE NOTE: For safety reasons, the bunnies will be taken down whenever the wind is too strong.

Submergence is a large, immersive, walk-through experience created by SquidSoup based in the United Kingdom.

It can be installed indoors or outside and uses many thousands of individual points of suspended light to create feelings of presence and movement within physical space.

The installation transforms space into a hybrid environment where virtual and physical worlds coincide. As you enter the piece, you are walking into a space occupied by both real and virtual components, and you can affect both.

The piece moves through several movements, creating a semi-linear 12-minute piece. In its entirety, an abstract narrative is formed with a gradual increase in tension, building to a final climax. Each movement has its own elements, atmosphere and responsiveness. They are also all open to one’s own interpretation.

Submergence has been shown in over 70 spaces and events on six continents, including:

Place de L’Albertine Brussels (Belgium Dec 2019)
Ars Pedregal (Mexico City, Jul-Oct 2019)
Burning Man (Nevada USA, Sept 2018, 2019)
Canary Wharf (London UK, Jan 2019)
Scottsdale Museum of Modern Art (AZ, USA, May-Sept 2017)
Usina del Arte (Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sept-Nov 2016)
SIGGRAPH (LA, USA, July 2016)
Adelaide Festival (AUS, Feb-Mar 2015)

“Adolescent Echo” is an interactive installation of wooden birdhouses by artist Craig Merchant. They are painted in vibrant colors, they light up at night, and some of the birdhouses will repeat short phrases that are spoken into them.

Students from Kendall College of Art & Design will transform their atrium windows into a winter art show viewable from the street.

A window art installation by Emily and Jim Lynch of House of Wine. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation by artist Karen Thelen at Umbrella Reading. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation by artist Dania Grevengoed, sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation located at the storefront of The Color Forest. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation located at Stan’s Tacos. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

Designer: Sotir Davidhi

Maker: River City Productions

Installed: Ed Cullivan

A window art installation by Matthew Provoast and Erika Townsley of Speckl Goods. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation located at Second Dance Consignments. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation by Sadie Rothenberg and Nancy Tobin of ArtRat Gallery. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation by Renise Warners and Terrace Anderson. Located at Basic Bee Boutique, sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A window art installation by Alex Benda of Oh, Hello Paper & Gifts. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

A large light-based art installation brought to you in partnership with Ximenez Group based in Spain.

Designed by the German architect Ben Busche, from Brut Deluxe studio, the light maze was born with the aim of offering an innovative and immersive experience.

A window art installation by Hannah Berry of Lions & Rabbits art gallery. Located at Social House and sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

We’ve all had a tough past year and need more positivity in the world. Local artist Andrea Zelenak believes that kindness is like the butterfly effect: One small action can set a wave of positivity.

Zelenak’s Kindness Machine is a colorful vending machine that will give mystery kindness challenges to help spread kindness in Grand Rapids.