In the early 20th century, a new aesthetic was introduced to galleries. As modern art became increasingly abstract, with an emphasis on colour and light, groups like De Stijl and the Bauhaus sought to present their work against white walls to minimise distraction. It is this form of exhibition that is perhaps most likely to come to mind when we’re asked to picture an art gallery. White walls. Hushed tones. Minimalist design. But recent years have seen a surge in art that invites you in, dissolves the invisible and social barriers between art and audience. Consider the huge popularity of shows like Van Gogh and Monet’s work projected onto walls – literally allowing viewers to step inside paintings. For some, their work is not complete without audience interaction. Anthony McCall, Anish Kapoor and Yayoi Kusama are pioneers of this type of installation and works like McCall’s Line Defining a Cone (1973) have defined modern ideas of immersive art. Elsewhere, Lauren Halsey and Danielle Brathwaite-Stanley are continuing to push boundaries, utilising modern technologies to create unique experiences that touch on identity and morality. These are works that only exist only in the context of their audiences.
Lauren Halsey (b.1987) describes herself as obsessed with material culture. She gathers objects, posters, flyers, commercial signs, slogans and tags that celebrate the local businesses and community activism of her home town. Her visual vocabulary is deeply rooted in the South Central neighbourhood of Los Angeles, where she and her family have lived for generations. Her installations and sculptures act as archives of the location. The maximalist exhibition at Hayward Gallery will see visitors move through technicoloured sand dunes before physically entering the installations. The walls and floors are covered with the mirrored side of discarded CDs, transforming the gallery with a prism-like effect. Scaled up figurines originally collected from ‘swap meets’ and community members in and around South Central have been crafted to allow people to step inside colour drenched, life-size dioramas.
This autumn will see the 14th solo exhibition of Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) with Victoria Miro, 26 years since her first presentation with the gallery. Every Day I Pray for Love premiers a new infinity mirror room, as well as introducing work from a new series of paintings. Kusama continues to explore line and form, her work is minutely detailed with bold accents of colours, evoking both microscopic and macroscopic universes. After experiencing a relative lull in her success during the 1970s and 1980s, it was the success of the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993 that saw her return to notoriety. There, the mirrored room was filled with small pumpkins. The vegetable has since become a hallmark of her work, but it is the visual language of the mirrored room which we see echoed at Victoria Miro – offering visitors the chance to step inside the elaborate mind and world of Yayoi Kusama.
Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) reminds us of our existence on Earth in a landmark exhibition at Liverpool Cathedral. It is the first time his work has been displayed in the northern city since his show at the Walker Art Gallery in 1983. Here, Kapoor models his work on life’s significant moments – birth, marriage, death. In an era where digital distractions are abounded, he uses the spiritual environment to bring us back to our bodies and to an inner space that invites audiences to pause, reflect and connect with inner dimensions. It is a collection that echoes the Cathedral’s daily explorations of faith and existence. The space encapsulates all aspects of the artists oeuvre, traversing painting, sculpture, and installation. The artist said: “It is a space that is alive both with the physical and spiritual. As such it is resonant with a powerful sense of body and the disembodied.”
Anthony McCall (b. 1946) transports visitors to a different time and place in a new exhibition at Nevada Museum of Art. Swell sees a darkened gallery filled with beams of light that intersect with a hazy mist to create a mesmerising interplay of light and shadow. It can evoke the experience of slowly floating across an ocean current, or perhaps soaring through an expansive galaxy beyond our university. McCall is known for his installations which began with Light Describing a Cone (1973). The piece reversed the typical film viewing experience, encouraging people to turn to watch the projected light rather than the final picture. His work exists at the intersection between sculpture, cinema and drawing, and shifts the relationship between audience and moving image. Here, we see this lifelong fascination continue and evolve, as he immerses viewers in the otherworldly experience of entering a beam of light.
Game-based installations and fictional universes are what greets those entering LAS Foundation. Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s newly commissioned work builds on the artist’s established exploration of the audience-as-medium. They invite visitors to explore their ethical, political and moral decision-making and consider the broader structures and histories of marginalisation. Upon arrival, each person received a ‘soul card’, a token enabling them to track their progress and choices and they move through the exhibition. The work tells the story of cataclysmic events in a society parallel to our own, where a revolution has been led against globalised slavery and the enslavers overthrown. In tailoring the experience depending on the choices of those involved, Brathwaite-Shirley examines how individual choices are as critical as collective, political responsibility in the context of marginalisation.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
Installation view of Lauren Halsey. David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles 25 January – 14 March 2020 © Lauren Halsey Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery Photo: Jeff McLane Studio, INC.
Anish Kapoor, Liverpool Cathedral. ©
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THE SOUL STATION, 2024. Installation view at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation. Photo: Alwin Lay.
