With Vivid Sydney now under way, there are lighting installations all around Circular Quay and at various other city locations. In Barangaroo, a luminous six-metre puppet called Marri Dyin is making her mark in a beautiful installation called The Liminal Hour.

The Liminal Hour. All photographs © Daniel Boud

Marri Dyin (pronounced Muhr-ee Djin and meaning Great Woman) will appear three times each night during Vivid at Barangaroo’s Wulugul Walk between 6pm and 9pm. Watching her emerge last night, the audience gathered round her quickly and was clearly delighted as a team of puppeteers helped raise her to her feet. Inflated and filled with lights which change to different hues during her journey, she is a gorgeous, almost ghostly yet colourful presence as she moves slowly along the foreshore accompanied by a evocative score by James Brown. Her “skin” was based on the pubescent glow of an oyster shell, said one of her creators Scott Wright, Artistic Director of Erth. Her eyes seem to open and close, and she uses her hands to touch trees and reach out to the people around her.

The Liminal Hour, which is enjoying its world premiere, is free...