I look To You And I See Nothing

Overview

Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) presents I Look To You And I See Nothing, an exhibition that features immersive sound environments, light installations and contemplative spaces that explore the boundaries of the viewer’s perception. Curated by Olivier Varenne and Nicole Durling, I Look To You And I See Nothing was co-organised by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania, Australia and Sharjah Art Foundation. Participating artists in this exhibition include Michelangelo Pistoletto, Anish Kapoor, Mathieu Briand, Terence Koh, Shezad Dawood, Ryoji Ikeda, Sophie Calle, Ivana Franke, Fabien Giraud and Raphael Siboni, Kurt Hentschläger, Teresa Margolles, Guiseppe Penone, Lawrence Weiner, Gregorio Zanon and Gino de Dominicis. This exhibition will be held in Building P and J at SAF Art Spaces from 16 November, 2013 to 16 February, 2014.

Also part of this exhibition is a monumental light installation by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda who presented an audiovisual concert at this year’s Sharjah Biennial which received more than 80,000 visitors through its duration. For the first time in the Middle East and for a few nights only, the site specific installation entitled spectra will be on view at Flag Island Sharjah on November 15, 16, 21 22 and 23. After previously been shown in major cities including Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Nagoya, Hobart; the Sharjah iteration of this installation will include 49 custom-made xenon lights arranged in a grid pointing skyward and the artwork will form a monumental column of light from sunset to sunrise. The powerful light will be projected thousands of metres as it reaches the Earth’s stratosphere and will be visible in Sharjah as well as neighbouring Emirates. This interactive installation will allow visitors to walk through the lights at ground level, looking up at the clouds, listening to the waves of sound washing over them. Even though Ikeda’s cutting-edge digital technology is informed by mathematics of the utmost precision, every individual’s experience of this work is entirely different.

I Look To You And I See Nothing presents a series of interactive works including Kurt Hentschläger’s ZEE; an installation filled with fog so dense that the space seems boundless and the disoriented visitor feels almost weightless. Strobe lights illuminate the fog in an evenly dispersed manner, creating kaleidoscopic three-dimensional structures in constant animation whilst an ambient and minimal soundscape connects to the imagery. Gregorio Zanon’s Music in the Room is an interactive work that includes 10 tablets and a small set of piano samples, and the viewers will become a part of the composition as they move around the work. Shezad Dawood will present New Dream Machine Project, an immersive kinetic light sculpture that is designed to emit hypnotic light waves towards the audience. Anish Kapoor’s Imagined Monochrome is designed to give the participant an experience of monochromatic colour while receiving a massage. Italian sculptor and conceptual artist Guiseppe Penone will present a striking portrait entitled Rovesciare i propri occhi (To Reverse One’s Eyes), which depicts him wearing mirrored contact lenses he had custom made, rendering him blind and offering the viewer his sight instead. The multi-sensory elements that are included in the works cause a series of events that gather in the viewer’s mind, questioning the ‘real’, and reconfiguring our own physical world. Experiences are synthesised within the viewer’s own brain and each individual’s experience is a component where the viewer becomes a part of the exhibition.

About the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA):

MONA - the Museum of Old and New Art - is Australia's largest privately-owned museum. Built into the banks of the Derwent River, the unique subterranean museum showcases David Walsh's collection: more than 200 artworks, antiquities and ethnographic pieces. The collection ranges from Egyptian funerary objects to some of the world's most thought-provoking contemporary art. As well, Mona has mounted a series of ground-breaking exhibitions since opening, including Theatre of the World, currently showing in Paris.

Since opening in January 2011, Mona has welcomed almost one million visitors. The beautiful 3.5-hectare site, just north of Hobart, also includes a Library, the Moorilla winery, Moo Brew microbrewery and eight contemporary accommodation pavilions.

Press Release

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