MELBOURNE.- Leading Australian artist Lindy Lee has been commissioned to illuminate the National Gallery of Australia’s iconic building façade for Kamberri/Canberra’s upcoming 2025 Enlighten Festival.

For ten nights only from 28 February – 10 March 2025, Lee presents 100 Flowers Falling – a digital work that brings to life an ancient Zen story about embracing the complexity of our humanity. Cosmic imagery, colour, and ancient Chinese symbolism will merge across the National Gallery’s facade, celebrating both the transience of individual histories and their connection to a greater whole.

Lee’s work for Enlighten embodies the themes central to the Meanjin/Brisbane born artist’s practice which has evolved from long-held questions around identity and belonging stemming from her Chinese ancestry and Australian birthplace.

Through a series of moving images that shift in colour, intensity and scale, the story will follow Ch’ien, a young woman torn between her duty as a daughter and her desire for independence. She lives a dual existence until both sides of her being ultimately converge. The narrative raises the question: which is the ‘true’ Ch’ien?

Running daily from 8-11pm, the projection is a sound-based work with a voiceover by Lee accompanied by an original score by Australian composer Lawrence English.

The commission will complement the recent unveiling of Lee’s immersive sculpture Ouroboros in the National Sculpture Garden and the Lindy Lee exhibition, on display until June 2025. Visitors to 100 Flowers Falling during Enlighten will be able to see the Ouroboros transform at night when it is lit internally.

To celebrate the display of 100 Flowers Falling, the National Gallery will also open late until 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays during Enlighten, providing visitors a chance to experience current exhibitions including Ethel Carrick and Anne Dangar after hours before the illuminations begin.

Lindy Lee AO: ‘This work links the vast cosmos with the intimacy of individual lives. Cosmos is the length, depth and breadth of everything that has ever existed, exists now, and will exist in the future. It is intrinsic to us, and we to it. I’m excited for Enlighten visitors to experience the ancient Zen story brought to life in 100 Flowers Falling and invite them to embrace the 10,000 things within themselves.’

Lindy Lee’s commission for Enlighten 2025 follows commissions in previous years by some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists; Tony Albert (Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples) in 2019, Club Até in 2020, Joan Ross in 2021, Daniel Crooks in 2022, The Mulka Project in 2023 and Vincent Namatjira (Western Aranda people) in 2024.

Dr Nick Mitzevich, National Gallery Director: ‘The National Gallery’s iconic building offers a unique canvas for the creation of new artistic work. Handing over our 60-metre façade to Australian contemporary artists has resulted in ambitious and compelling illuminations that have been enjoyed by thousands of visitors to Enlighten. This year, we are excited to be working with Lindy Lee on a new digital work to illuminate the building, adding to the magic of the Ouroboros at nighttime in the National Sculpture Garden.'