Ambitious plans for Perth’s biggest ever public artwork have been approved.
Cinema style projectors will be installed at Mill Street as part of a £30,000 project aimed at reinvigorating the city’s night life, while thrusting the Fair City into the global spotlight.
Fife artists Elizabeth Ogilvie and Rob Page have been selected by local culture chiefs to transform a vast brick wall into an animated mural.
The projectors will beam animated images of the River Tay onto the building, from dusk until 11pm from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on weekends.
Now the scheme has secured planning consent from council officers, paving the way for work to begin later this summer.
The scheme attracted no objections.
Planning officer Joanne Ferguson said the project would deliver a visitor boost to the city.
“The economic impact of the proposal will be encouraging more people into the city centre,” she said.
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Addressing concerns about the impact on neighbouring properties, she said: “The closest flatted properties to the projectors are approximately 38 metres away.
“Environmental Health consider the lighting effects of the light-based art has the potential to impact beyond the public realm space and effect residential amenities.
“However, as the projectors do not directly face homes then the likelihood of this is significantly decreased.”
The lamps should last about 10 years.
Culture Perth and Kinross launched a contest in 2018, offering designers the chance to lead the city’s biggest ever public art project.
Ms Ogilvie and Mr Page beat 18 other entrants from as far afield as America, Russia and Australia with their project, entitled Meander.
Ms Ogilvie has exhibited across the globe, with hit shows in London, Osaka, South Korea and at the DCA in Dundee.
Mr Page is an artist and film-maker with more than 15 years’ experience of producing single and multi-screen videos for exhibitions.
Last year, the wall was at the centre of a simmering feud involving local artist Ian Cuthbert Imrie.
He installed three huge portraits of dead rock stars on the wall, but was ordered by the building’s owner to remove them.
When the paintings were eventually cleaned off in November, Mr Imrie called the move “cultural vandalism”.
