As I wanted to work with light and projection in my work it was recommended to me to go see the installations by Anthony McCall at the Tate modern. His work was simple yet effective. Slowly evolving white outlines of various shapes projected in a dark, blacked out room with some smoke in the air (now from a smoke machine but originally cigarette smoke) created beams of light that gradually connected. The shapes forming not just on the screen but in the air made the simple image 3d and almost sculptural.
I liked the time based element of the gradual process until the shapes were complete – the original circular one from the 70’s using analog film projection taking 30 minutes. He expanded the work slightly with each installation: one adding mirrors; a pair with one projecting from above and one from below; you could walk behind some of the screens that were projected on too.
I was inspired by this to consider light and dark in my work as well as time and of course space. Also how effective something so simple can be as I have perhaps overegged my installation work in the past. Cycles and process is something I think to be important in my work and it was reassuring to see it done in such a straightforward yet impressive way and at this big scale at the tate modern. Obviously I do not have this level of space and resources so one challenge I look forward to working around is how I can use and transform a space in LCC to aim for a similarly powerful effect.
