RSS

Contact us

Thursday 4 December 2008

Big space, small space

Liliane Lijn: Stardust
Riflemaker, 79 Beak Street, London W1,
until 5 July

The Riflemaker gallery is, as its name implies, an old riflemaker’s shop in Soho and it still has a Dickensian appearance and atmosphere. The ground floor is filled with a concourse of Lijn’s signature cones, large, small, still or gracefully revolving, plastic, wooden, marble, striped with painted colours or spirals of coloured light or words and letters. On the first floor, approached by a narrow wooden staircase which might be leading you to a den of thieves and whores or perhaps only a store of second-hand books, are three glass cases containing what Lijn has appropriately called ‘Heavenly Fragments’. She has laid out the pieces of Aerogel — some still organised in their broken form as cones or discs, some just small lumps — over mirrors and lit them from above with videos made in India and Burma. The aerogel, however, will have nothing to do with the images of temples or market-stalls or just plain human life recorded on these videos, but absorbs them into itself and transforms them into soft coloured lights, a continual play of iridescence. The small lumps glow like jewels, the larger forms suggest indeed otherworldly ruins. The effect is altogether magical, mesmeric, far out. Riflemaker’s problem during the weeks ahead may be to get the customers who have climbed up to that small upstairs room to leave it again and make way for others.

More articles from: John Spurling | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved