The Bullring presents Borealis by Dan Acher - 9th to 18th February 2024

From the 9th to 18th February 2024 at the Bullring in Birmingham was an art installation by Dan Acher called Borealis. Based on the Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis. It was on Central Street (St Martin's Walk) for 10 days from 5pm to 9pm each evening. Best seen after dark, as the effect didn't really work in daylight I found. Smoke machines and ambient music.

Borealis

BOREALIS THE NORTHERN LIGHTS - ANYTIME, ANYWHERE Borealis recreates one of nature’s most awe-inspiring phenomena over cities around the world. It shifts our emotional experience of familiar urban landmarks and awakens a shared conscience by creating something magical - something that shouldn’t naturally be there. Borealis is about our ancestral communion with nature and our more recent compulsion to control it. As our planet’s climate breaks down, the question arises: will technology one day replace everything that nature currently provides for us?

Dan Acher's Borealis was held at the Bullring on St Martin's Walk above St Martin's Square (aka Central Street) from the 9th to 18th February 2024. Time started each evening at 5pm, ended each night at 9pm. Every evening attracted a big crowd looking at the artificial Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. Personally I think they should have started it a month earlier, as between 5pm and 6pm, it's not that dark in February, although getting dark after sunset, which is getting a bit later each day now.

11th February 2024

First spotted one of the Borealis light towers from Edgbaston Street, after walking from Southside between buses.

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12th February 2024

Nice sunset down St Martin's Walk to St Martin in the Bullring, at approx 4:50pm, so 10 minutes before Borealis was due to start. This day I didn't wait for the lights to turn on.

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14th February 2024

This day, I waited the 5 minutes until 5pm for the multi-coloured lights to turn on, but was cloudy, and you don't really get the full Borealis effect at this time, but noticed the smoke machines going on.

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16th February 2024

That evening was when I hoped to catch Borealis after dark, I even popped to Costa Coffee in Grand Central beforehand after work, but I got there at 5:30pm and it wasn't dark yet, but got the full effect, and not much to see from St Martin's Square below.

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18th February 2024

The last evening, one more attempt, so got the bus up from home, then popped to Caffe Nero in Birmingham New Street Station (other coffee shops close at 5pm). Then got here for 6:30pm, and got a lot of photos of it, best I could, these are the best photos I took of Borealis.

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Borealis is next scheduled to go to Australia in Adelaide. It goes around the world.

Photography by Elliott Brown

A Nightmare on Central Street - Halloween at the Bullring, October 2021

There are scary things happening down Central Street aka St Martin's Walk at the Bullring, ahead of Halloween. A Nightmare on Central Street. If you are lucky you might be able to spot the tentacles of sea monsters above the malls.

It's a Nightmare on Central Street at Bullring & Grand Central Birmingham from the 25th to 31st October 2021. During Birmingham's October Half Term scary creatures can be hunyted down day and night.

Get you camera ready and share with Birmingham We Are.

Follow the link above to the official Bullring website for more information.

The photo below was taken on Sunday 24th October 2021, from the steps heading down to St Martin's Square. Blue and green tentacles cower above the bronze statue of Horatio Nelson, days after the 216th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

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You should be able to spot more tentacles above the East Mall and West Mall, between Rotunda Square, if heading down St Martin's Walk, towards St Martin's Square and St Martin's Church.

As we see in this photo below taken on the 25th October 2021. You have until the 31st October 2021 to spot them, and anything else spooky down here (day or night).

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown can also be found on Twitter: ellrbrown

The Floral Trail, The Big Hoot & Sleuth at St Martin's Square

There has been a couple of Birmingham City Centre Floral Trail pieces in St Martin's Square, but only in 2009 and 2013. In 2015 there was several Big Hoot owls around the Bullring, with at least one outside of St Martin's Church. Plus in 2017 there was one Big Sleuth bear outside of the church in the square (another bear was to be found inside Selfridges).

Birmingham City Centre Floral Trail

Birmingham Parks & Nurseries (aka Cofton Nursery) have over the years been making floral trail pieces to go on display in the City Centre every summer. But first they take the main display to the Chelsea Flower Show and Gardeners World Live, where they usually win the Gold prize. These are the floral trail features spotted over the years in St Martin's Square.

Trafalgar Medal, Summer 2009

I didn't really start exploring the Birmingham City Centre Floral Trail until August or September 2009. One of the first pieces I found was Trafalgar, Oct 21 1805 near St Martin's Church in August 2009. It is based on a medal that Matthew Boulton made, following the death of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He approached the Admiralty and offered to commemorate the famous victory by presenting sailors who fought in the battle with a medal. Birmingham was the first place in the country to erect a statue of Horatio Nelson in 1809.

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The Best of Birmingham, Summer 2012

This is the second half of The Best of Birmingham. It won Gold at the Chelsea Flower Show, plus Gold and Best of Show at Gardeners World Live in 2012. Seen in St Martin's Square during August 2012. At the top is the Bullring Bull, then Selfridges in the middle and the Birmingham canals at the bottom with a narrowboat. The first half was in Centenary Square (with the Town Hall, Silver Spoon and a Mini).

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A look at the bottom half with Selfridges and the Narrowboat in the canal with a lock.

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View from the balcony near Selfridges looking down to St Martin's Square. It was very impressive looking. Must have been nice having the two halves together at Chelsea and at The NEC that year.

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The Big Hoot Birmingham 2015

Now onto The Big Hoot. In St Martin's Square there was about 3 Big Hoot painted owls from July 2015, for around 10 weeks. Before they were auctioned off for the Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity.

Beorma

This owl was located outside of St Martin's Church and was called Beorma (after the nearby Beorma Quarter in Digbeth). It was  painted by the artists Jodie Silverman from a design by Betty Underwood a pupil from Camp Hill School for Girls. The sponsor was The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham. Seen during July 2015.

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There was about 8 interlocking hands at the front.

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Plus flags of the world on a wing at the back. More little owls could be found inside of St Martin's Church at the time.

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Selfie

This Big Hoot owl resembled Selfridges (seen behind) and was called Selfie. The artist was Martin Band, and the sponsor was LDC. This was up the ramp around the back of the Spiceal Street development, not far from Jamie's Italian. Seen during July 2015. And yes I took a selfie with this one.

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Skyline 2015

This Big Hoot owl was located at the bottom of St Martin's Walk at the Bullring, with the spire of St Martin's Church and the statue of Horatio Nelson behind. Skyline 2015 was by the artist Nick Murley. The sponsor was Bullring. Seen during July 2015.

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The skyline was painted on the back of this owl as well.

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The Big Sleuth Birmingham 2017

Now onto The Big Sleuth. There was several Big Sleuth bears around the Bullring starting from July 2017, for around 10 weeks. Before they were auctioned off for the Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity.

Bearmingham

This Big Sleuth bear was located outside of St Martin's Church, and resembled the Birmingham Forward coat of arms. It was by the artist James Mustafa. The sponsor was The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham. Seen during July 2017. There was more little bears inside of St Martin's to find at the time.

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Brummie Bear

This Big Sleuth bear was to be found inside of Selfridges (and not in St Martin's Square, but adding for completion). It was by the artist Slobodan Topolović. The sponsor was Selfridges Birmingham. It resembled Selfridges, Rotunda, St Martin's Church, Bullring Bull and Birmingham New Street Station.

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The famous Selfridges discs at the back of the bear. Lasting longer than the real discs that need some TLC.

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Photos taken by Elliott Brown. Can be found on Twitter: ellrbrown

Festival of Light at the Bullring, from St Martin's Square to Rotunda Square

There are five artworks that are lit up after dark from 5pm each evening from the 24th January to the 2nd February 2020 at the Bullring. For the second year running. This time coinciding with Chinese New Year. Talk to the Skies in St Martin's Square. Up St Martin's Walk With Love, Neon Angel Wings and Pulse. And in Rotunda Square is Birds that Fly Around with You.

Another Brumtography meet with Karl Newton and one other member of this Facebook group. It had been raining on and off in the afternoon, so wasn't many of us.

Talk to the Skies - St Martin's Square

Shortly after 5pm on Sunday 26th January 2020, a look at Talk to the Skies by ITHACA Studio. Red, blue and green colours go across the bulbs on the ground. While pink, blue or green on the tube where beams of blue light shoot out into the sky. Selfridges seen behind. Wasn't quite dark enough at this point.

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The view from the balcony near Selfridges. This was by 5:50pm. On the right was With Love, the throbing red heart that plays music. More on that further down this post.

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From the area behind Chaophraya Thai Restaurant looking to the left, as the beams of blue light shoots into the sky to the left of the spire of St Martin in the Bullring.

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Back to the Selfridges balcony area, sometime after 6pm. The colours keep chaging down there, and the heart keeps beating.

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The beams of light goes so high above the spire of St Martin in the Bullring. It is best to see from up here, although you can check it out from St Martin's Square.

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With Love - St Martin's Walk

They didn't get the red heart inflated until about 5:30pm on the evening we went. Seen here from down Pulse on St Martin's Walk. With Neon Angel Wings below. It was designed by Franck Pelletier. You can hear a beating heart sound effect and they had music playing, which you could change if you pressed a button.

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Tried to get some views of the With Love red heart with the statue of Horatio Nelson. Which has been at the Bullring since 1809 (sculpted by Sir Richard Westmacott), some 4 years after Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Meaning this statue is older than Nelson's Column in London!

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There was also a view of the heat with Selfridges, which was lit up orange. I missed seeing it in red for Chinese New Year. I think they should have left the lights red all weekend and not turn it back to orange.

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Where the heart is was where the Snow Dome was until the end of the Christmas season.

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This view lining the heart up with the Talk to the Skies blue beams and the spire of St Martin in the Bullring. This was one of my Creative Effect photos (trying out different settings).

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Neon Angel Wings - St Martin's Walk

Seen down the semi circle tube called Pulse is the Neon Angel Wings by Carla O'Brien. Visitors can pose for selfies with the pair of wings. From this side a bit difficult to get a clear shot without anyone in the way of them.

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A bit further down Pulse towards Neon Angel Wings.  The wings to the left was near the East Mall while the wings to the right was by the West Mall.

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Managed to get a clear view of the wings from the back on St Martin's Walk, looking up towards the Rotunda.

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A close up look at one of the set of wings with Pulse seen behind.

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From the other side. I think the Bullring malls were closed by 6pm, although it seemed like they had closed earlier than that (due to Sunday trading laws). I'm not sure if the restaurants were still open by then.

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Pulse - St Martin's Walk

This semi circle tube of lights is on St Martin's Walk and is by This is Loop. The lights have different patterns. The show lasts 5 minutes, and repeats every 20 minutes.

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From the top of St Martin's Walk looking down to the spire of St Martin in the Bullring. A Chinese lady had a facemask on, although that's probably common with Chinese people in this country (and nothing to do with that virus outbreak).

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Caught this cyclist heading through the tunnel down St Martin's Walk.

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Added a star filter on my camera (which is in one of my cameras Creative effects).

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One last look at Pulse, up towards Rotunda Square.

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Birds that Fly Around with You - Rotunda Square

At first they were having problems turning the lights on for this Birds feature in Rotunda Square. As you can see it is loads of birds in a circle. By 5:25pm they still were unable to turn it on. It is by Masochism Shimada.

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Got several photos up here, before heading down St Martin's Walk and checking out the other light displays at the Bullring.

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Later we popped back up St Martin's Walk to check if they were able to turn it on. After 6pm they had managed to get it working. If someone walks around the centre, the lights on the birds follows them around in a anti clockwise direction.

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This view of the birds with the Rotunda (I have still not been up).

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One more view of the light on the birds going around in circles.

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We spent well over an hour going up and down checking out the Festival of Light features. It was good but very cold. And worth seeing as I missed seeing the 2019 Festival of Light after dark (I only saw it in the daylight hours). So this made up for it.

Photos taken by Elliott Brown.

Follow me on Twitter here ellrbrown.

Birmingham We Are People with Passion award winner 2020