I Look To You And I See Nothing

Overview

Curated by Olivier Varenne and Nicole Durling, I Look To You And I See Nothing will open on November 16, 2013 and continue through February 16, 2014.

Originally titled A Beam in Thine Own Eye for its presentation at MONA in Tasmania, this exhibition features immersive sound environments, light installations and contemplative spaces that explore the boundaries of the viewer’s perception. Varenne and Durling’s selection of works is an attempt to ignite the viewer’s inner world, causing that person to constantly create new visions in his or her mind.

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. 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. Previously 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. The artwork will form a monumental column of light from sunset to sunrise. The powerful light will be projected thousands of meters as it reaches the Earth’s stratosphere and will be visible in Sharjah as well as in the 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 also 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. Viewers will become part of the composition as they move around the work.

Shezad Dawood will present New Dream Machine Project, an immersive kinetic light sculpture that emits 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.

A striking portrait by titled Rovesciare i propri occhi (To Reverse One’s Eyes) by Italian Sculptor and conceptual Artist Guiseppe Penone depicts the artist wearing custom-made mirrored contact lenses, rendering him blind and offering the viewer his sight instead.

The multi-sensory elements that are included in this exhibition provoke 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.

Participating Artists

Mathieu Briand, Ivana Franke, Fabien Giraud and Raphael Siboni, Kurt Hentschläger, Ryoji Ikeda, Anish Kapoor, Terence Koh, Teresa Margolles, Guiseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Lawrence Weiner, Gregorio Zanon, Gino de Dominicis, Shezad Dawood and Sophie Calle.