The end of Daylight Saving Time prompted this post about art that lights up when night falls. Here are photos, quotes, and notes from an exciting, enlightening event.
“Join us this evening, October 15, on Dewey Square ….to hear our 2026 Dewey Square muralist, Rixy, and projection artist Pamela Hersch in conversation with Ché Anderson, Chair of Mass Cultural Council, and Liza Quiñonez, Executive Director of Street Theory Collective. Together they’ll explore the relationship between large-scale public murals and thriving democracies. This artist panel will kick off a 6-month nightly projection onto Rixy’s The Midnight Ride, bringing the mural to life in Downtown Boston.” ( quote from Greenway Conservancy invite )
Responses of each person on the panel added to the sense of planning, collaboration, commitment, and creativity involved in making a large-scale outdoor mural such as The Midnight Ride. Also, all the changing intensities of color, light, patterns, and details throughout the nighttime illumination made me more attentive to the whole mural during daylight.
“Drawing upon elements of fantasy, manga and anime, practices of creative worldbuilding, and a vibrant palette, The Midnight Ride brings into dialogue multiple histories of activism in Boston, blending iconography and public narratives in ways that create and encourage new points of access, imagination, and critical reflection. ” (Quote from Greenway Public Art Mural Rixy )
“Projection artist Pamela Hersch collaborated with 2026 Dewey Square muralist, Rixy, to animate key elements of “The Midnight Ride.” (Quote from Greenway Public Art Mural Rixy)
“Pamela Hersch is a Mexican visual artist working in projection mapping, motion design, and interactive installation. Her work turns light into something physical, bringing static surfaces into motion and making familiar places feel new.” (Quote from Greenway Public Art Mural Rixy)
“Hersch has a particular focus on animating murals in close collaboration with the artists who made them. She created projection content for Rob “Problak” Gibbs’ 2022 Dewey Square mural Breathe Life Together and Jeffrey Gibson’s 2024 Dewey Square mural your spirit whispering in my ear, extending each work’s color, pattern, and rhythm into movement.“(Quote from Greenway Public Art Mural Rixy )
Video of The Midnight Ride mural projection https://www.facebook.com/reel/1701466161537892 Great view from above of how the mural changes through the seconds! ( or:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5VVf4z2IpY )
KEY RESOURCE: Greenway Public Art Mural Rixy: https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/rixy
