It was the most surreal yet amazing experience I have ever had! This was how I felt after I came out from Bindu Shards– one of the latest pieces of work by the brilliant light artist James Turrell at the Gagosian Gallery in London.
After walking through a dark corridor, I was greeted by a lady in a white laboratory coat, standing under the shadow of a gigantic white metal sphere and its platform. After confirming my identity, I was asked to sign a form to confirm that I do not have epilepsy and nor am I pregnant- it sounded like I was about to experience something dramatic! I was also asked if I would like it ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ as if I was going to have an egg! Apparently it was to do with the intensity of the experience. ‘Since you are confident, I suggest you go for hard’, the lady said. ‘Ok! Hard it is!’ I answered with great anticipation.
After taking my coat and shoes off, I was ‘wheeled’ into the sphere on a ‘bed’- exactly like when I had my MRI scan, including the part when I was given a headphone to wear and a panic button to get out if I felt claustrophobic half way. ‘I need a panic button to see an art installation?’ I thought. The whole build-up was exciting but also a little spooky! Strangely, she suggested that I take off my glasses as I would have a better experience. ‘I do not need my glasses in order to “see” an installation?’ I was intrigued.
Even though I was aware of that fact that technically I was lying down, looking up to the inside of hemisphere, I felt that I was engulfed by blueness. There was no beginning and no end. The lady was right about no glasses as my vision would have been framed by them unnecessarily. A lot of dark patterns started to emerge first slowly then very quickly in different rhythms. I felt a bit unease and for a split second, I started to worry what if I actually had epilepsy without knowing it? Before I managed to finish this question in my head, I noticed that tears started to drop alongside my face. Continue reading >>
I have not heard much about Takashi Murakami’s work before, but as I grew up in Hong Kong where Japanese cartoons are shown daily on TV and Japanese manga is pretty much part of people’s life, I am not a stranger to Japanese sexual fantasy, especially how women are usually portrayed as figures that have big breasts, short body and super long legs. Takashi Murakami has ’embraced’ this part of Japanese culture by making two 3 metre high sculptures of what would have been palm size dolls. You can check them out in the Gagosian Gallery, which held an amazing light exhibition of James Turrell earlier this year.
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