art
Transient Installation Lust for Light A NEW GENERATION OF ARTISTS CONSIDERS THE ALLURE OF VISUAL STIMULATION, CREATING PLAYFUL AND IMMERSIVE PROJECTS THAT TRIGGER SENSORY EXPERIENCES.
As a species, we have a pretty nuanced understanding of how cannot physically register photons, we cannot see without light works, and how it blends into our lives seamlessly. This them either. It contains a spectrum of seven visible colours, includes the birth of photography – a medium now ingrained and millions of gradations between them. It all feels infinite.” With such an open landscape for discussion, the collecin daily feeds – a way of capturing a burst of ultraviolet rays bouncing off the subject matter in front of us. However, what tion dives headfirst into well-known experiential practitionwe see isn’t always an exact representation of the truth. As ers like Olivier Ratsi, sculptors such as Iván Navarro and Laurence Scott notes in Picnic Comma Lightning: In Search Romain Tardy, photographers like Brice Bischoff and Barbara of a New Reality (2018): “Our brains can’t see, hear or taste. Kasten, and site-specific artists such as Bill FitzGibbons. PerThey sit in the dark, making up a world informed by electrical haps most significantly, any discussion of light would not be stimuli from our sense organs. What we consciously perceive complete without mentioning Yayoi Kusama, who has arguably become one of the most iconic avant-garde figures in is our brain’s ‘best guess’ at what the outside world is like.” Image-making has advanced from anthropological and the world. Nick Clark wrote in The Independent (April 2015): documentary usages into the realm of high art, so an associ- “[Her] trademark polka-dotted sculptures and mirror instalated form of expression developed. In light art, the visible lations have proved a huge draw, with up to 9,000 flocking spectrum is the discipline and concept all in one – pushing to the touring show [Infinite Obsession] a day – making her the lines between figuration, abstraction and representation, exhibitions the most visited in the world.” Few realise that Kusama’s Infinity Rooms have been exand asking viewers to reassess their perception of the world. A new book titled Lust for Light tracks the evolution of hibited since the early 1960s, when she was an underthis genre in all its complexity. Edited by Hannah Stouffer – recognised but active member of New York’s East Village whose writing and artistic credits include VICE, Juxtapoz, art scene, famously swapping letters with Georgia O’Keeffe. New York Times and Microsoft – the title profiles numerous The rooms are still shown today – with Victoria Miro’s The practitioners who are using the medium in progressive ways, Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe open until 21 exploring how we place something so fundamental to our December 2018 in London – demonstrating an iconic ability existence on such an elevated cultural pedestal, and increas- to give form and structure to psychedelic colours, repetition ingly so. Stouffer notes: “Light causes our planet to flourish – and reflection and – crucially – light’s tangible, endless and it is associated with growth and warmth.” Indeed, without it, completely uncontainable qualities in nature. It’s difficult to find another artist that inspires such devoour vision of the world would be impossible, so its associations are vast and tied to our surroundings. She continues: tion to the craft. Access to one of the Infinity Rooms requires “Visible rays enable our sense of sight, and although we most to stand in line for any number of hours. And whilst
84 Aesthetica