Step into the vibrant world of immersive art and music with Lima Brightlove, a multi-genre DJ and installation artist transforming Perth's creative landscape. In this episode of Through the Creative Door, Alexis dives into Lima’s fascinating journey—from crafting large-scale interactive art pieces with reclaimed materials to collaborating on the groundbreaking Strange Festival. Discover how Lima’s innovative installations breathe new life into unexpected locations, creating communities where people can c...
Step into the vibrant world of immersive art and music with Lima Brightlove, a multi-genre DJ and installation artist transforming Perth's creative landscape. In this episode of Through the Creative Door, Alexis dives into Lima’s fascinating journey—from crafting large-scale interactive art pieces with reclaimed materials to collaborating on the groundbreaking Strange Festival. Discover how Lima’s innovative installations breathe new life into unexpected locations, creating communities where people can connect, linger, and explore.
If you’d like to see more, you can follow Lima on instagram; @ limabrightlove
This episode was recorded on 28 August 2024 on the lands of the Wajuk Peoples. We hope that this episode inspires you as a creative person and as a human being.
Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.
Psst! We are always on the lookout for creative people to share their story and inspire others. Have you got someone in mind who would love to have a chat? Get in contact with us via Instagram @throughthecreativedoor
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CREDITS
Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor
Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel
Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel
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00:09 - Alexis (Host)
Hello, my name is Alexis Naylor and I am your host here at Through the Creative Door. On behalf of myself and my guests, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on which this podcast is recorded and produced. Owners and custodians on which this podcast is recorded and produced. May we pay our respects to all First Nations people and acknowledge Elders, past and present. On this podcast, I'll be chatting to an array of creative guests, getting a glimpse into their worlds and having some honest and inspiring conversations along the way. I'm delighted to welcome you to Through the Creative Door.
Hello, Lima, how are you going?
00:52 - Lima (Guest)
Yeah, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant,
00:54 - Alexis (Host)
oh my goodness. Thank you so much for coming to Through the Creative Door. We're actually coming through another creative door in this beautiful space, but, yes, I'm so thrilled to be chatting with you. You are such a talented bear so that, for those that are listening, you are a multi-genre DJ and you play all around Perth and very loved, very loved. But also you are an immersive installation artist, which I'm very intrigued to delve into, because I feel like you will be the best person to describe what that encompasses, because I feel like that's quite massive, like that could be a lot of things, yep.
01:36 - Alexis (Host)
Just when I was chatting to you and organising this interview, I was so chuffed to hear that you were involved in the Strange Festival which I was so lucky enough to just fall upon when I was living in Perth, which is this. For those that don't know, how about you describe what that festival is?
01:56 - Lima (Guest)
Sure, no dramas. So hi everyone. My name's Lima, I'm an immersive installation artist, and what that means is I create art that's interactive. It means most of it tends to be on the larger scale and all of it comes out of ideas, out of my head, and I only work with reclaimed and repurposed materials as well.
02:24 - Alexis (Host)
That resonates with me so much I love that.
02:29 - Lima (Guest)
So three years ago, Strange Festival. The festival directors wanted to bring more people into the CBD in the middle of winter, at a time when nobody, especially in hot, sunny Perth, wants to go out. The first year I actually worked on the doors of Strange Festival. I was one of their ushers and pedestrian traffic wranglers and I loved it so much that the following year I put together a proposal and did an artist submission. So never one to do things by halves. I collaborated with two other artists. We had an enormous space, close to maybe a hundred square meters or so, that we turned into an experimental music ambient lounge, chill space. I built four secret rooms. There were just so many hidden little puzzles and things to see and do and find.
03:39 - Alexis (Host)
For those listening, the beautiful thing was that this festival happened with all of the sort of shop fronts and warehouse spaces and all of these spaces that were vacant in the city and they were just like turned into these magic wonderlands as this festival. It is just like I said, I stumbled upon it and I was just like taken into another world, being like I've just like walked off you know a main street in the CBD of Perth and suddenly I'm in this like mystical. What is happening? Yeah, fantastic.
04:11 - Lima (Guest)
So each artist gets allocated a yeah, like an empty shop in the CBD. Strange works very, very hard with other stakeholders in the CBD to have access to these empty spaces and fill them full of art for 10 days. You know we're so lucky to have that kind of support, you know, from commercial, from the commercial sector. We, I guess, you know, in some ways we wanted to, we wanted it to, we wanted the retail sector to feel inspired and invigorated as well. There are some very dead spaces in the city which I think don't add to your civic pride or anything like that. So, yeah, I was so, so excited when I was chosen as one of the first artists last year to do something like that. Yeah, it was really exciting. And then this year I thought to myself well, if I can do it with, you know, like a team of people, maybe I can do this on my own as well. And, you know, maybe I could produce all the art that's in. You know that I want to exhibit inside it. Yeah, and I did. It's amazing.
05:29
Yeah, everyone loves the treasure map. I call it. You get, you get given. You know, you get given a little. You know a five piece of paper that has all the empty location, all the you know locations, the venues, mapped down on it. It's your job to uncover, find them all. Yeah, it's so cool.
05:48 - Alexis (Host)
I love that element of it. It's like the adult treasure hunt.
05:55 - Lima (Guest)
It's so great we call it the art trail. Everyone knows what an art trail is. This is an art trail that has a bit of an element of mystery about it. You never know who's doing what part of the trail at what time, so you do run into the same people sometimes. And, yeah, it's, it's a. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of fun. They expanded last year, and this year as well, into live music, so they created a live music venue out of the basement of the Carillion, which used to be the food court, so they were putting on bands in an abandoned food court, and they also had a pop-up cinema as well, which, yeah, had some incredible food offerings that were only for strange. So it was popcorn seasoning, strange popcorn, and, yeah, it all it was. It was such an amazing way to, yeah, I guess, show people what local people can do 100% locals, like all people from Perth.
06:53 - Alexis (Host)
Yeah, amazing. This might be a hard question to ask because, obviously, being a DJ and then also installing art in the way that you do. But what does a creative space mean to you and why?
07:12 - Lima (Guest)
I love this question. I love this question. Let's go back to you know, talking about working with reclaimed and repurposed materials. So I love working in unusual locations that have, I guess, certain boundaries or parameters around them If you're working in a space. So I'll give you an example the empty shop front that I was allocated this year for Strange had seven power points in the wrong room in the wrong room. So our first challenge was to run power from one space into another space through a gap between the wall and the window which was about maybe four and a half centimetres wide.
07:59
So when we go into some of these pre-loved, you know, spaces, part of our creativity is the problem-solving. You know that goes into, okay, the idea that I have in my head. Now the execution. You know I have to, I have to find a way through this, through this. Yeah, even things like you know you never know what ceiling height you're going to get. You never know.
08:26
You know I had grand plans to do a lot of stuff hanging from the ceiling, but a lot of the ceiling panels that I was working with were so fragile and, you know, not capable of taking the weight that I wanted, so we brought in some trussing instead, which had winch winches on it. So we wound up the trussing, you know, hung my three meter western ground parrot off it. I built a three meter bird for this out of a cafe blind, which is one of those big plastic things that stops the rain from coming in on a veranda, and a whole bunch of soft plastics, yeah. So in the style of faux stained glass, yeah, we winched up this enormous bird, yeah, and dressed it and put heaps and heaps of. I guess we built these trees out of fallen branches and things and, yeah, we brought all the outside to the inside.
09:25 - Alexis (Host)
Yeah, so creating space to you is forever changing, depending on what the project is.
09:32 - Lima (Guest)
Absolutely. I guess one of the things that I like to do in my installations is I really like to have an entry and an exit point. A lot of gallery spaces are just kind of like, you know, they throw you into this big empty room, you know, and you do wander around on your own and, you know, choose where you want to go, but people being people, they kind of just all migrate to the same thing. What I like. It's almost like I'm building a mini art trail inside an art trail, like people come into one of my venues and they do follow a bit of a path, but every zone that they're walking through, every artwork that they stop at, has opportunities to stay and opportunities to interact.
10:16
Yeah, and we have people that sometimes get to the end and go oh, I'm not ready to leave yet. They turn around and they go back in. Yeah, and I get a lot of people who just stay, and that is exactly what I want to do. You know my whole ethos around putting creativity into an empty space. You know I want it to be a place where people feel like they can stay, feel like they belong, feel like they have a place where, you know, they have that sense of belonging and yeah, and they're in part of a mini community in there.
10:50 - Alexis (Host)
Oh, I love that. What a beautiful answer. Oh, I adore it. What is something that you're proud of creating and how did it come about?
11:05 - Lima (Guest)
I recently worked on a NAIDOC week project with a venue called the Rechabite in Northbridge in the city. Here in Perth we're on I forgot to say as well, look, we're on Wadjuk Noongar country here. I just want to recognize that, pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging. It was really special being invited to dress three venues inside one building for NAIDOC week with full blessings from the First Nations folks that we were working with, the thing that I'm super proud of directing the theme for our event. So there was in the main hall there was a large party going on with performances 100% First Nations, of course. On the rooftop we had DJs and market stalls and sensory activities going on, and then in the main bar area there was a media wall set up with blue carpet not red carpet, blue carpet, and the blue carpet was a deliberate move. The theme of this whole event was we Are the River Inunga, ngaalak, nidja, milyar, and so the whole thing was river themed Swan River, durbal, yarragan. Very, very important resting place for the Woggle Rainbow Serpent, as it's called in the culture, and for the main entrance of Rechab ite, which is, if you imagine, like a kind of an oldie grand heritage staircase. You know that kind of leads you up and then has two little staircases peeling off. At the top we built a river along the balustrading using all you know bits of blue shade cloth and pool coverings and and then I ran blue LED lights all the way through it. That chased each other and, you know, created flow up the staircase. We had two mannequins at the front. One was wrapped in indigenous flags, again with full blessings, and the other one was wrapped in Torres Strait Islander colours, and we did the whole thing with as much native greenery as we could get our hands on.
13:27
I'm really proud of my team for running with these creative ideas and the vision that I had for this Part of it always feels a bit, I feel, very humbled by the amount of creativity my installers and my volunteers bring to the team as well, bring to the art. So, on the one hand, you know I am definitely in there up to my elbows and on my hands and knees with them. On the other hand, I can also walk away from that to direct something else or to, you know, talk to a different team that's looking after rooftop bunting, for example, bunting being the fabric flags, and I know that the team that I've left behind doing plastics is absolutely going to keep going ahead with the right visio. So, um, yeah, that's I'm really, really proud of. We also only had 13 days to pull off nadoc weeks. So, yeah, right, we were under the pump. Yeah, we were really under the pump to come up with the concept, the design, the execution, yeah, and then, yeah, sort it all out.
14:29 - Alexis (Host)
Part of the beauty and we spoke off mic about this is about that sort of in the middle of a project, where you know sometimes you're like, oh my goodness, can we get this across the line? And sometimes it's the time pressures or the ideas or, yeah, like you said, the circumstance, the locations, but there's something really beautiful about the being able to rally together and just still deliver, with all of that in the middle.
15:07 - Lima (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, look, I want, I need to be able to trust my team. I also need them to be able to trust me as well. You know, because there are times when we have to make really crunchy decisions on something that might have been set in stone and I might have to, you know, cut it in half, for example, and say, look, I said we were going to do a, b and C, but actually we've only got time to do a and B. We're going to have to leave out C. You know, and you're going to have to trust me on this, that it's still going to be just as good. Yeah, but doing that sort of stuff, you know, like, yeah, just, I guess you can't do it without a team. You really can't, you really can't.
15:46 - Alexis (Host)
So, yeah, this is probably a good segue, maybe into what do you think has challenged your creativity and what do you think the major lesson was?
16:01 - Lima (Guest)
Good question, good question. As an installation artist like the, the challenges of working with reclaimed and repurposed materials. One of the challenges is that you can't just go out to the shop and buy another one. If I found something on the side of the road, I can't go back to that same spot. To me, that's a challenge that's worth doing because it extends you in ways that you wouldn't normally. Sometimes it's great when you have materials that you know are going to keep coming in Cardboard, for example, you know we go to. You can go to the back of any good guy's shop and help yourself to as much cardboard as you like. But yeah, when it's something that you know is precious, that you know is rare, or that you know is really integral to your artwork, is really integral to delivering your concept, but there's only 30 centimetres of it available, you know the pressure's on. You've got to rise to that challenge. Yeah, yeah, there is no second chance with that.
17:15 - Alexis (Host)
Do you think there's also some kind of like beauty in that, though, that you only have one crack?
17:21 - Lima (Guest)
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. You know, I never thought that I'd be drawing parallels with this style of visual arts and music, which is what my background is. You know, I've been a musician since I was five. The live element of that and having only one crack at it, you know, is often what drives us as musicians. But in visual arts, what I found was that, working with reclaimed materials, I found that same drive, I found that same spark, you know, wanting to do my absolute best, you know, to really honour this material that I only have a small piece of, or 30 centimetres of, or that I know will be you know, a really important part of this.
18:07 - Alexis (Host)
Yeah, I love that. And it’s so true. All you can do is be prepared as you possibly can be and it will fall where it may. Whether that's art or music, yeah. Now if you could give one piece of advice, one nugget of gold, to another creative or another human being, what would it be?
18:36 - Lima (Guest)
I think it would be, find your people. Surround yourself with the people who do egg you on, who make you feel like you want to be bigger and better than what you've just done. Who make you feel like you're capable of more. Some years ago I'd been living in Perth for a very long time and I was going down a path with music that I thought I wanted you know, festivals, heading into clubs, that sort of thing but I wasn't happy and I wasn't getting the job satisfaction from it. And at the time I thought it was because I was angry at Perth, I was angry at where I was for not being able to deliver that to me. So I uprooted myself and I moved, you know, over east and I'm gonna, you know, do this differently and it's gonna be a whole new experience, and it was a whole new experience.
19:43
But during COVID I was forced to move back to Perth, as a lot of people were, and I had the opportunity to start again and to restart my music career and what I found was that when I reached out in different ways to different people who aligned more with my values rather than what I thought was my career trajectory. Man, amazing things started to happen. That's how I ended up in places like this, Like in. We're sitting here in, you know, a beautiful bar that is queer friendly, that is welcoming and accepting, arts friendly and I wasn't connecting with those parts of myself that felt fired up about that, and so I wasn't reaching out to those people. Now I know I know how to recognise that little, that little burn inside me that goes oh, I love this and I want to work with you and, yeah, I want to support your gigs or your exhibitions, or you know your ideas as well um, and let's find ways to do that yes,
21:07 - Alexis (Host)
Oh, my goodness, I'm so glad that you came back to Perth and that you found your people,yay! I’m curious, would you have any advice if anyone wanted to do what you do in any way, shape or form? Would you have any suggestions of resources or materials that one could read, watch, attend?
21:30 - Lima (Guest)
Yes, there's courses you can do. They're quite heavily marketed online. They're aimed at curators, installation artists, but the things that I found the most helpful wasn't necessarily reading about what other people did or looking at it on Instagram. It was going and being immersed in other people's immersive art and it was being on that, receiving end of the immersion and then coming out of it going. How did I feel about that? And if I was to do something that evoked a similar depth or frequency of feeling in someone else, how would I go about that and what would I want to do? The examples that come to my head are and they're pretty famous examples around the world.
22:23
Teamlab do some incredible work in the digital space and as well as the 3D immersive space as well. They work a lot with projections as well, and the other one that I find really intriguing is Meow Wolf. So Meow Wolf build worlds within worlds within worlds, so you can walk into one of their, I guess, fake supermarkets and there will be a refrigerator that actually turns out to be a door into another room, which is another world, that has neon cats in garbage bags. You pull a pram out and there's a slide in a tunnel that goes to another world. Oh my goodness. Going to places like this, where people built worlds inside worlds, really, really made me go. This is what I want to do, yeah yeah.
23:32
My all-time favourite festival is a teeny, tiny little festival called The Town in rural Victoria. About 2,000 people go every year, set way up in the Upper Gippsland Mountains, and it's actually it's called the town because the whole festival is themed as a town. The whole festival is themed as a town. So there is a fake, Well, there is a real post office and there's a Centrelink and there's shops and there's a bakery, yeah. So yeah, there's lots of ways that you can theme things without necessarily heading into sort of like cosplay or, you know, like augmented reality territory. You can theme things using your imagination and you can create.
24:30 - Alexis (Host)
Sometimes you need that external to unlock it yeah, yeah.
24:35 - Lima (Guest)
Um, the fantasy is as good as you want it to be yeah, oh, that's a good line that is a good line.
24:43 - Alexis (Host)
One last question, if you could hear someone come on this podcast and answer these questions, who would it be and why?
24:54 - Lima (Guest)
Oh my god, I'm so excited to answer this question. I'm so excited to answer this question. I spoke about a little festival called The Town that really inspired me to be an installation artist the creative director and founder of the Town, Michael Scarlett. If I heard an interview like this of his, I would be over the moon. Yeah, I would love, love to find out what. I would love to see what goes on in Michael's head to be able to produce the types of events that he does immersive events that he does.
25:31 - Alexis (Host)
Amazing. Well, I will just have to see what I can do to make that happen.
25:37 - Lima (Guest)
Please do Please do, please do. I guess you know a lot of just in closing, when people would come through my exhibits. They come through and they're often, you know, sort of awestruck and then they say, so, where did all this come from? And I said, well, it came from inside my head. All the things that you're seeing are the ideas from inside my head. Out of my head, yeah, and you know it's. It's such an honor to be able to do things like that, to feel like some people are enjoying the things that I come up with in my head.
26:18 - Alexis (Host)
Oh, my goodness, and it's such a beautiful gift that we have as artists to be able to share what's going on in our head and be able to give it to others.
26:28 - Lima (Guest)
Look, that's something that artificial intelligence is never, ever going to be able to replicate no, that's very true. Never, ever. Not in a million years. Yeah, I feel really excited for, yeah, what's going to come up next?
26:40 - Alexis (Host)
Amazing. Well, I can't wait to see what you do next. It's just you're already doing amazing things and I'm just so chuffed. Thank you so much for coming through the creative door. It's been an absolute pleasure. You are such a gem.
26:55 - Lima (Guest)
My pleasure Alexis, thanks for having me.
27:00 - Alexis (Host)
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