July’s healthy dose of inspiration is here, and it’s a scorcher. There are immersive lightscapes, generative artworks from Beeple, ourpick of Glastonbury’s architectural design and a few more nuggets to digest(while you’re not allowed to water the garden).
SetsAppeal: the best builds at this year’s Glastonbury
Anyone lucky to have been at this year’s GlastonburyFestival may have noticed some changes to the site - perhaps most notably toShangri-la in the Southeast Corner.
We’ve been involved in Shangri-la since day one, and we love the latest reinvention of the festival’s best-loved late-night area. Gone is the apocalyptic, post-consumerist theme - replaced by a much more open, uplifting and hopeful space, based on the theme of rewilding.
Here are three of our highlights from Shangri-la and elsewhere on Worthy Farm this year…
1. Sunflower Sound System
This collaboration between DJ and producer FloatingPoints, and the Magical Mushroom Company, saw a brand new dance tent installed in Silver Hayes - another hugely popular late-night area of the festival.
Aside from being a stunning visual addition to Glastonbury’s line up, Sunflower SoundSystem is pioneering in its use of materials - sculpting mycelium from fungi to create sound absorbent acoustic discs positioned throughout the dome.
Clean bass with an environmental kicker… we’re all in.
You can read more about the ecological and acoustic benefits of the stage over on Dezeen.
2. The Shangri-la Stage
The centrepiece to the South East Corner was completely reimagined, with live reeds, grasses and cornflowers growing directly from the facade. These very same plants will return in 2027, having been nurtured off-site for the next two years, as the farm takes a well-earned break.
In front of the stage and towering over the crowd, stood four 40ft tree-like structures, hosting bespoke projections for every show. The overall aesthetic beautifully combined a feeling of urban decay and natural regrowth. Think The Last of Us, but with fewer (!) zombies and a lot more dancing.
3. The Dragon by Edgar Phillips
Taking guard over the new Dragon’s Tail area behind Shangri-la, the Dragon is a 40ft steel and stained glass structure providing shelter, seating, and a spectacular visual addition to the field.
This isn’t Edgar Phillips’ first commission for the festival, having created a giant pair of stained glass wings in 2017. It’s certainly his biggest however, comprising (in his words) a “church worth” of stained glass.
Find out more about the artist here.
July’s giant ideas
Our favouriteprojects, exhibitions and interventions
SolidLight by Anthony McCall
How manyof us have tried and failed to resist throwing shadow shapes onto a projectorscreen at one time or another? McCall’s installations take that playful joy andgive it the full cinematic treatment. We love its beautiful simplicity.
Described by the Guardian as a ‘glowing cosmic spectacle,’ this series of immersive and interactive artworks uses beams of light and a thin mist to create three-dimensional shapes you can distort and manipulate with your hands, arms and body.
The show has left the Tate Modern to tour NorthAmerica, but we’ve pulled together a few shots below, and you can still check it out on the Tate Modern website, where you’ll find a highlights reel too.
Tree of Knowledge by Beeple
Mike Winkelmann (AKA Beeple) is an American digital artist and graphic designer. Tree of Knowledge, his 2024 kinetic sculpture project, is a four-sided video installation that loops a surreal image of a demi-mechanical tree.
The screens are regularly interrupted by live data such as news headlines, stock and crypto updates, climate stats, social media chatter (all the things we’d do well to avoid when trying to get back in touch with ourselves and the natural world).
Viewers can tweak what they’re seeing by shifting between modes, creating a visual and conceptual tension that’s playing out in real time.
We love Beeple’s work, and this is a great example of his ability to play with the digital world to make an important point. In this case (and in his words), that we all create our own realities.
Find out more about the project here. And if you’re into this kind of thing, get in touch to ask us about our own very video installation concept, The Observatory.
Giant of the month: Yinka Ilori
Each month we bring you one of our favourite artists or designers. These are people who inspire us constantly with their creativity. Sometimes we’re even lucky enough to collaborate with them.
With two years to wait until the next one, we couldn’t help dropping in one more Glastonbury reference, so this month we’re bringing you a brief look at the work of artist Yinka Ilori.
Yinka brought his signature style to Shangri-la at this year’s festival, installing the colourful In Plants We Trust (shown above) inspired by the architecture of ancient temples. A quiet but powerful reminder of nature’s presence as a vital source of healing, memory, and connection.
The installation epitomises an ethos that underpins all his work - that art should be accessible to all. It’s a belief we’re right behind at Creative Giants, and we’re proud to have been involved with his Glastonbury debut.
Check out more of Yinka’s brilliant work on his website.
Book of the month
The new age of sexism by Laura Bates
Why the patriarchy might be future-proof without a new wave of feminism.
Album of the month
Gaudencia
Abrasive Ugandan rap from MC Yallah and Debmaster.
Film of the month
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Tim Key, Carey Mulligan and Tom Basden star in this brilliant comedy about a folk duo’s timely encounter with an eccentric recluse. Laugh-out-loud funny and endearing from start to finish.
That’s it for thismonth - big thanks to all our featured artists, producers and creatives. Untilnext time….
