Leeds based artist Rhian Cooke has been commissioned by Yorkshire Contemporary to create a new moving-image work for Light Night 2025.
Titled, Wow Now, the artwork is inspired by the swans in Roundhay Park, Leeds, exploring tranquil and turbulent energy found in natural and abstract landscapes.
Wow Now is shown on a portable screen reflecting imagery the artist often returns to: vehicles, reflections on water and lights in urban environments that represent energy, motion or thought.
In collaboration with Leeds based band Bug Teeth, Rhian has created new audio for the artwork.
This is Rhian’s first major commission for Light Night after leading family workshops for Light Night 2023 and 2024. In 2025, she will also design the festival’s first community packs.
The community packs give children and young people in hospitals or residential care the opportunity to get involved in fun activities during Light Night. Inspired by Rhian’s use of a screen to display her video, participants can create their own glowing car.
To plan your visit to Light Night Leeds 2025, please see further information here
About the artist
Rhian Cooke, (b. 1995, Lincoln) is a Leeds-based multidisciplinary artist, working across film, animation, sculpture, and installation.
Using handmade and digital processes, Rhian’s work shares ongoing stories about nature and the environment. She is interested in energy in both its physical and abstract forms, often considering it in relation to both psychological landscapes and urban and natural environments. For her videos, Rhian collages handmade materials with digital processes, utilising animation and unexpected techniques to create new worlds.
Rhian is currently part of Yorkshire Contemporary’s artist development programme, Practice: Leeds. This year-long programme supports three Leeds-based artists; Rhian Cooke, Matilya Njau and Thahmina Begum.
Previously Rhian has exhibited at Leeds Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, Blank Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Serf. In 2019 she was an Associate Artist for Yorkshire Sculpture International. Selected recent commissions include Invisible Real, a collaboration with musician Faye MacCalman at The Glass House, Newcastle, Loose Screw Film Festival at The Art House, Wakefield and Material Matters at Sunny Bank Mills. In 2023 and 2024 Rhian worked with Yorkshire Contemporary to design three family workshops in collaboration with artists K Walker and Wes Foster.