Dan Graham’s works are deliberately disorientating. Constructed from two-way mirrors, steel and glass, the Illinois-born artist’s freestanding, walk-in pavilions create optical illusions and reflections that play on people’s voyeuristic tendencies, giving viewers elusive glimpses of themselves and others as they step through them. The effect is a little like trying to chase your own shadow.
Part of a series begun in the 1980s, the pavilions and models at London’s Lisson Gallery were inspired by the two-way mirror glass used in office buildings. Graham’s architectural creations are a light-hearted play on the surveillance aspect of the material, as well as on corporate culture.
Based in New York, multi-disciplinary Graham – whose work also includes photography, live performances and video installationa and who has exhibited at everything from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York to London’s Tate Modern - often experiments with optics, implementing fish-eye lenses and small pools of water to reflect the interior of his structures. His new body of work extends this trickery on an impressive scale.
Deliberately disorientating, the walk-in pavilions are constructed from two-way mirrors, steel and glass, creating optical illusions and reflections that play on people’s voyeuristic tendencies, giving viewers elusive glimpses of themselves
Part of a series begun in the 1980s, the works were inspired by the two-way mirror glass used in office buildings
Graham’s architectural creations are a light-hearted play on the surveillance aspect of the material
Graham often experiments with optics, implementing fish-eye lenses and small pools of water to reflect the interior of his structures
Based in New York, Graham' work also includes photography, live performances and video installations
ADDRESS
52-54 Bell Street
London, NW1 5DA
-
Seven designers rethinking wood at London Design FestivalAt this year’s London Design Festival, wood proves itself anything but static. We highlight seven designers shaping, colouring, and engineering it in surprising ways
-
Inside Kazakhstan’s brutalist Tselinny cinema – now a hub for contemporary cultureTselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, a modernist landmark redesigned for its new purpose by Asif Khan, gears up for its grand opening in Kazakhstan
-
Oliver Spencer’s orbiting installation offers a meditative shopping experience during London Design FestivalAt Oliver Spencer’s Shoreditch store, a sensory light installation by Studio Rhythmics offers a calming moment during LDF
