Presented by Riyadh Art and the Royal Commission of Riyadh City
November 28 - December 14, 2024
Exhibition Website
Role: Artistic Manager, Curatorial Team with Pico International LLC (Official Contractor for Noor Riyadh 2024)
Photograph and text courtesy of Riyadh Art, Royal Commission of Riyadh City
Chris Levine, Higher Power, 2024
Chris Levine’s Higher Power (2024) is a city-scale light installation that creates a powerful beam using cutting-edge laser technology. Designed to be visible over the entire city, the newly commissioned work carefully aligns the direction and placement of the light to follow the spiritual ley lines that connect ancient landmarks on Earth.Projected from the top of the 267-meter-high Al Faisaliah Tower, the linear beam complements the sweeping edges of the building. Viewers across the city are invited to look up and unravel a message encoded in the light, which pulsates the title of the installation and the word ‘peace’ in Morse code.
As the colored beam arcs over the city, it acts as a reminder to the viewer of the potential light has to bring about peace, hope and positive change.
Guinness World Record: Longuest Distance Covered by a Laser Light Show
Artist: Chris Levine
Title: Higher Power, (Noor_24)
© Sphere9 Limited and Chris Levine, All rights reserved DACS 202
Date: 2024
Medium: Ultra-high powered laser artwork, Sound
Commissioned by Noor Riyadh 2024, Riyadh Art, Royal Commission of Riyadh City.
Photographs courtesy of Riyadh Art.
Chris Levine (b. 1960, UK)
Chris Levine is a UK-based light artist, who works across a variety of media in pursuit of an expanded state of perception and awareness. Levine uses light to imbue his work with a spiritual and meditative edge, drawing the viewer towards stillness and a heightened state of awareness. His seminal portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, ‘Lightness of Being’, was hailed by the National Portrait Gallery as ‘the most evocative image of a royal by any artist’, and is recognised today as a 21st century icon.
Levine’s status as one of the world’s leading light artists has led to several highprofile cross media collaborations and his subsequent portraits of Kate Moss, Sir Paul Smith, Naomi Campbell, Grace Jones and Frankel “The Great” have captured the same signature sense of stillness, strength and equanimity. Levine’s multi-disciplinary approach has led him to work with a diverse array of collaborators including Massive Attack, Anthony and the Johnsons, Hussein Chalayan, Asprey Jewellers and Swarovski. Over the years, Levine’s work has raised substantial funds for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and amfAR alike.
His portraiture and light-based work has been exhibited in esteemed institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Kensington Palace, Science Museum and Cornwall’s Eden Project. Internationally, Levine has been part of exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Annenberg Foundation in Los Angeles and the Mona in Tasmania to name a few. In late 2021, Levine was invited by Lord Cholmondeley to produce a solo indoor/ outdoor exhibition at the historic Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England, an honour previously bestowed upon artists Anish Kapoor, James Turrell, Damien Hirst and the estate of Henry Moore. The exhibition, titled ‘528 Hz Love Frequency’ was the first in Houghton Hall’s history to be held through the winter months. In November 2023, the 25m high light sculpture ‘Molecule of Light’, first unveiled at Houghton Hall, was further exhibited in the Wadi Namar desert as part of Noor Riyadh.