Out of this world: TeamLab adds another dimension to Pace Gallery
Stepping off a bustling Mayfair street into Pace Gallery for the much anticipated preview of TeamLab's 'Transcending Boundaries', we are plunged unexpectedly into darkness. Hands trace along blackout curtains, until one gives way, and we are ushered into a large room filled with disorientating light and music.
We've travelled into a parallel world, or at least, a future version of this one. The rules of nature are different; butterflies glow neon, flowers bloom on demand, and, as TeamLab's founder Toshiyuki Inoko explains, 'In order for ideas and concepts to be expressed in the real world. It is necessary to have a physical material substance through which they are mediated. We are seeking to eliminate these boundaries.'
In the first of four rooms, the real world is left behind. A waterfall of light pours from the ceiling and across the floor, parting where gallery-goers walk. With the lightest touch of the hand, the water's direction mesmerically changes, turning torrents into syphons. Around this, a kaleidoscope of butterflies grows in number as more people enter the room. But they die when touched, 'serving as a reminder of the destructive side to humanity,' explains Pace London director Tamara Corm. When left alone, they dance to the soundtrack of therapeutic music.
In the second room, we are plunged once again into blackness, and for the first time, into silence. Unlike the preceding room, it's vacant of life, except for a panorama of rolling, tumultuous waves. 'It's almost like you're inside them, swimming under water,' Corm explains.
The calm after the storm, the third room is a small, square box overwhelmed by white light. It feels like stepping inside an Edmund de Waal installation. 'Digital technology allows art to break free from the frame,' Inoko explains, emphasising that despite the novel techniques and interactivity, the installations are still very much artworks. They're grounded in artistic heritage. In particular, they reference traditional Japanese art. Themes of flowers, cherry blossoms and woodblock waves are re-actualised for today.
At first, it seems there's nothing at all of note in the final room, until you see your sleeves lighting up and realise the artwork is being projected onto yourself. Stay still, and flowers will grow like ivy across your arms, chest and face. Move too quickly and, like the butterflies, they will shrink to nothing.
Visitors become playfully caught up with interacting with the installations, that how they're achieved seems quite unimportant. But afterwards the question returns and lingers. Inoko lets little on. 'The optimal technology is selected and developed accordingly,' he offers, cryptically. 'We do not think that technology is the most important element. We are interested in how art can be extended through the use of digital technology.'
INFORMATION
’Transcending Boundaries’ is on view until 11 March. For more information, visit the Pace Gallery website
ADDRESS
Pace Gallery
6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.
-
Colourful card game wins Design Museum’s Design Ventura competition
Annual design competition Design Ventura was won by students from The Piggott School, who created a fun Eye Spy-inspired card game
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Tour a Chilean pavilion perched on the coast: a sanctuary for sleep and star-gazing
Algarrobo-based architecture studio Whale! has designed a Chilean pavilion for rest and relaxation, overlooking a nature reserve on the Pacific coast
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Step into Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron's dreamy photographs in London
'Portraits to Dream In' is currently on show at London's National Portrait Gallery
By Katie Tobin Published
-
Step into Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron's dreamy photographs in London
'Portraits to Dream In' is currently on show at London's National Portrait Gallery
By Katie Tobin Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Meet the Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists
The Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas
By Hannah Silver Published
-
London gallery Incubator’s six emerging artists to see in spring 2024
Incubator's spring programme features six artists in consecutive two-week solo shows at the London, Chiltern Street gallery
By Mary Cleary Published
-
Kembra Pfahler revisits ‘The Manual of Action’ for CIRCA
Artist Kembra Pfahler will lead a series of classes in person and online, with a short film streamed from Piccadilly Circus in London, as well as in Berlin, Milan and Seoul, over three months until 30 June 2024
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Yinka Shonibare considers the tangled relationship between Africa and Europe at Serpentine South
Yinka Shonibare‘s ‘Suspended States’ at Serpentine South, London, considers history, refuge and humanitarian support (until 1 September 2024)
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Gavin Turk subverts still-life painting and says: ‘We are what we throw away’
Gavin Turk considers wasteful consumer culture in ‘The Conspiracy of Blindness’ at Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
By Rowland Bagnall Published
-
Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: Bloomsbury’s untold story
‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story’ is a new exhibition at Charleston in Lewes, UK, that charts the duo's creative legacy
By Katie Tobin Published