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This past weekend was one of those spectacular New York City summer weekends, with clear blue skies, hot but dry air, and more interesting fun events taking place than time to see them all. We opted for the very colorful Mermaid Parade on Coney Island (30th anniversary, no less), the Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg, the Gay Pride Parade in the Village, and the play “Slow Girl” at the lovely new (and quite affordable) Claire Tow Theater with a beautiful terrace offering up some of the nicest views of Lincoln Center. Saturday night was our biggest dilemma: free concert at Bryant Park? Lumen Festival in Staten Island? However, after bopping around multiple subway lines in Brooklyn during the day, we went for the low-key option of the new Woody Allen film in the neighborhood.

BUT, back to the topic of this post: Lumen 2012. Over on the industrial waterfront property of Staten Island, more specifically, the Atlantic Salt Company—the company that supplies road salt to the city during its snowy winters—all sorts of light-related exhibits took place. Due to an almost snowless winter in NY this year, the piles at the New Brighton company are still high with over 150,000 tons of salt, some piles as high as 5 stories. Roughly 50 artists, projected and performed their works on and around the mounds of salt, which (at least in the photos) looks very cool and in some cases Felliniesque. I wasn’t able to match many of the works with their artists, but here are the ones I found, followed by a link to a list of all the participating artists.

Top photo: Brendan Coyle’s piece titled “Mr. Canard”; second photo: Jeanne Verdoux’s “Woman Working” animation; Marco Brambilla’s “Sea of Tranquility,” a recreation of a lunar expedition; Phillip David Stearns neon light installation; and here’s the link to the list of artists (we welcome any additional information, if anyone knows the other works)

Photos: Garret Ziegler; Rocco S. Cetera; Eric Norcross; and Anthony DePrimo.