24 May – 15 June 2024
Through fantastic and impossible imagery, Australian artist and Archibald Prize winner Julia Gutman with animation technologists, Pleasant Company, conjure an epic animated journey of inner and self-discovery.
| Date | Time |
| Friday 24 May | 6pm |
| Saturday 25 May | 6pm |
| Sunday 26 May | 6pm |
| Monday 27 May | 6pm |
| Tuesday 28 May | 6pm |
| Wednesday 29 May | 6pm |
| Thursday 30 May | 6pm |
| Friday 31 May | 6pm |
| Saturday 1 June | 6pm |
| Sunday 2 June | 6pm |
| Monday 3 June | 6pm |
| Tuesday 4 June | 6pm |
| Wednesday 5 June | 6pm |
| Thursday 6 June | 6pm |
| Friday 7 June | 6pm |
| Saturday 8 June | 6pm |
| Sunday 9 June | 6pm |
| Monday 10 June | 6pm |
| Tuesday 11 June | 6pm |
| Wednesday 12 June | 6pm |
| Thursday 13 June | 6pm |
| Friday 14 June | 6pm |
| Saturday 15 June | 6pm |
Lighting of the Sails: Echo (2024) by Julia Gutman and Pleasant Company is a free event for everyone to enjoy.
Make the most of your Opera House experience and explore the Vivid LIVE lineup featuring original Australian premieres, one-off projects and unmissable performances from Australian artists, alongside select global acts, emerging voices and Sydney’s vibrant local communities who amplify the nation’s culture.
Wheelchair accessible
Find out more about accessibility at Sydney Opera House
Age
Suitable for all ages.
Art Guide AustraliaTruly in the hands of a new generation.
Through the fabric of dreams
With striking, fantastical imagery, Australian artist and Archibald Prize winner Julia Gutman teams up with animation technologists Pleasant Company to conjure an animated journey of self-discovery and wonder. Lighting of the Sails: Echo digitises centuries-old fabric-making techniques, transforming humble textiles that have been donated to the artist from her community into an animated epic projected daily on the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE 2024.
Gutman reaches deep into literature and art history, remaking Ovid’s myth of Echo and Narcissus for our contemporary age. After being spurned and rejected by Narcissus, our protagonist appears in a frayed forest of fabrics. In a striped T-shirt, with hair made from her mother’s scarf and a face sewn from an old hessian sack, Echo is lured by her reflection, finding herself transported into unfamiliar terrain, navigating rocky subsoils of satin and dangerous rivers of denim.
With dance, music and puppetry, Echo tells a story of vulnerability and strength. It is generous and generative, entangling the imagined and the real, the public and the private, the dark and the light - all while imploring self-awareness and self-belief in overcoming the challenges around us. Echo crackles with possibility into a fantasia of fabric on a grand scale.
Commissioned by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW for Vivid LIVE 2024.
Watch on demand
If you couldn't make it to the Sydney Opera House on Friday 24 May, watch the livestream of Lighting of the Sails: Echo and watch the sails light up with stunning art by Julia Gutman and Pleasant Company with soundtrack by Angus Mills.
“My first ever animation, Echo is a digital translation of patchworks I’ve made to date alongside a suite of imagery created specifically from the work, all of which have been composed from worn clothing, sheets and blankets donated by my community. The lines between self and other blur.
The work is about the paradox of self-consciousness, the limitations of our own capacity to truly see ourselves, and the way our own unconscious wounds spill out into our perceptions of one another. It’s a story about confronting your shadow.
Intimacy lives at the core of my practice. I truly believe that life is just one long conversation, or at least that’s what makes it mean something. Echo brings together my interests in narrative, materiality and the psychological in a story that I hope can be simultaneously personal and universal.
I’m incredibly overwhelmed and grateful that this work will be projected on the sails of the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE 2024.”
- Julia Gutman
Meet the artists
Julia Gutman
Julia Gutman is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is anchored by an experimental textile process, with which she interrogates her own relationships and the performance of selfhood. Her figurative works are made primarily from donated fabric – worn clothes, slept-in sheets – and often replicate compositional moments from historical artworks, using her friends as models to respond to and reinvent the originals. Garments often become physical artifacts of the past – stand-ins for those we have lost, or relics of who we once were. Gutman works with the textures of memory, using found textiles as a vehicle for connection and collaboration.
In May 2023, Gutman was awarded the Archibald prize, making her the youngest winner in 85 years. She was one of six exhibiting artists in Primavera at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in 2022. She was a finalist in the 2021 Ramsay Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the 2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship at Artspace Sydney.
Her work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally in Rome, Milan and New York.
Angus Mills
Angus Mills is a composer, sound designer and electronic music producer from Eora/Sydney. As a composer, his music incorporates textual sound recordings and experimental electronics alongside more traditional musical influences and instrumentation. Since 2017 he has released music on Australian labels Moonshoe, Only Choice, Soothsayer and Local Traffic. In 2023, Angus released ‘Alva’ with Moonshoe, described by Resident Advisor as a 'collection of intricate, outer space rhythmic excursions' that 'beckon you to come closer.' Angus has worked as a composer and sound designer across theatre and film. As a sound designer and composer in theatre, he has worked at venues across Sydney including Belvoir 25A, Red Line at the Old Fitz, and Brand X. Angus' music has been featured on broadcast and digital stations including BBC Radio 6, NTS, Rinse FM, Triple R, Triple J, FBi and Skylab Radio.
Pleasant Company
Pleasant Company is dedicated to pushing the bounds of creativity and technology to deliver unforgettable immersive encounters. With passion and play at the forefront, we redefine engagement to leave a lasting impression on individuals and communities the world over.
Christian J. Heinrich Creative director
Fabio Nardo ECD
Phil Sullivan CTO
Michelle Schuberg CEO
Andy Noonan, Julian Reinhold Animators
Jasmin Luna Motion Capture Performance
Claudia Osborne Movement Direction
Ben Freeman, Jack Doepel Musicians
Previous Works, Behind the Scenes and Live Photography
Previous Works, Behind the Scenes and Live Photography
VIVID LIVE 2024
Plan your visit
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
Visitors and ticketholders are strongly encouraged to plan ahead and allow extra travel time and use public transport whenever possible when arriving for an event or performance. Large crowds are expected on the Opera House precinct and around the CBD, and road closures may be in place.
For further information, please visit Transport NSW’s Vivid Sydney page.
The Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay precincts are very popular and attract large crowds during Vivid Sydney. Visitors are strongly encouraged to leave the car at home and use public transport wherever possible. During this time, there will be changes to transport timetables so allow extra travel time.
Visit Transport NSW’s Vivid Sydney page for more details on service changes
There will be a range of road closures in the Sydney CBD during Vivid Sydney. For detailed information on road closures during Vivid Sydney, please visit Live Traffic NSW.
The Sydney Opera House car park will be open every evening during Vivid Sydney, however it is expected to reach capacity early. Patrons are encouraged to use public transport wherever possible and allow extra travel time.
Please note that if you drive and arrive early for parking, you may not be able to exit if there are road closures in place.
For detailed information on road closures during Vivid Sydney, please visit Live Traffic NSW.
Frequently asked questions
Attending the Opera House during Vivid Sydney
The Lighting of the Sails during Vivid Sydney is a free event. You do not need a ticket to view the incredible animations by Julia Gutman on the Sails every night from 24 May – 15 June.
If you are attending a performance as part of the Vivid LIVE program, a valid ticket is required. It’s highly recommended that you purchase tickets in advance.
It is highly recommended to purchase tickets in advance, as tickets may not be available at the door.
In line with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags on entry. Please travel lightly and do not bring items that require cloaking e.g. handbags bigger than A4-size, backpacks and umbrellas, which are not permitted inside our venues.
Please follow the directions of Opera House staff and security.
Yes, cloaking will remain available but it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly and leave large, bulky items at home.
The following items are prohibited:
- BYO alcohol
- Glass beverage containers
- Professional cameras or recording devices
- Laser pointers or selfie sticks
- Illegal substances including controlled, dangerous or illicit drugs
- Offensive signage or clothing
Further information about items that are prohibited onsite can be found on our Conditions of Entry.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House is a smoke-free site.
The Smoke-free Environment Policy applies to all areas of the Opera House precinct and covers all forms of tobacco and non-tobacco smoking, including cigarettes, vapes, e-cigarettes, cigars and water pipe tobacco smoking. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
Yes, a complimentary shuttle bus and buggy service will be in operation during Vivid Sydney. Please contact the Box Office to confirm operating hours on 02 9250 7777.
Download shuttle bus route map during Vivid Sydney (PDF)
For patrons who are blind or have low vision, the Opera House will be hosting two audio-described sessions of this year’s images projected on to the sails on 4 and 6 June. Bookings are required. For more information please visit the event page.
Gig Buddies, an organisation that pairs adults with a learning disability or autism with volunteers to attend social events, have offers available for AIR Play Moon Safari, Astral People presents Spice Trail, Thelma Plum, BARKAA, dstreet Studio Party and Tia Gostelow. Bookings are required. For more information contact accessibility@sydneyoperahouse.com.
How do I travel to the Opera House during Vivid Sydney?
The Opera House and Circular Quay precincts are popular and attract large crowds during Vivid Sydney. Visitors are strongly encouraged to leave the car at home and use public transport wherever possible. During this time, there will be changes to transport timetables. For further information, please visit Transport NSW’s Vivid Sydney page.
There will be a range of road closures in the Sydney CBD during Vivid Sydney. For detailed information on road closures please refer to the road closure map and visit Live Traffic NSW.
The Opera House Wilson car park will be open every evening during Vivid Sydney, however the car park is expected to reach capacity early and egress will likely be delayed due to long queues.
Entry and exit may be impacted by the temporary closure of Macquarie Street during the Vivid Sydney drone show, Love Is In The Air, on the 8, 9 and 15 June.
What can I eat and drink during Vivid LIVE?
Ticketholders are welcome to bring their own water bottle (as long as it isn’t made of glass) but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues. BYO alcohol is strictly prohibited from the Opera House.
The Opera House has a range of onsite bars and restaurants which are perfect for a quick snack or sit-down meal.
Food trucks will also be set up on the forecourt offering festival-goers a variety of snacks and small plates to dine on after dark. Vegan and vegetarian options will also be available. Open from 5pm every day of the festival.
For more information on what’s on offer, visit the Eat & Drink at Vivid LIVE page.
Cashless payment methods are strongly recommended. Please bring a credit or debit card for any on-site purchases to assist with swift transactions.
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