Lights! (unlit)
Art! (or is it?)
The fundamental conditions of human perception! (An Irwin classic)
Stepping off the elevator into Pace Gallery’s new sleek, eight-story headquarters in Chelsea, we are welcomed into Robert Irwin’s show. Guided by Oliver Shultz, Curatorial Director and Research at Pace, he also introduces us to the exhibits of Nigel Cooke and Lucas Samaras, other artists featured at the expanded Pace location , a mega-gallery space with museum-like elements.
Irwin has been exploring art and its possibilities since the 1950s, beginning with painting but soon expanding into multimedia, sculptural, and site-specific works. His art is often labeled as “conditional”—it is best experienced in person, drawing attention away from the actual material work and emphasizing our means of perception in the process. Unlights references Irwin’s history of work while furthering his exploration of “the fundamental conditions of human perception.”
The art itself is simple—this exhibit consists of light fixtures adorned with layers of translucent colored gels and electrical tape. It’s clean, colorful, and pleasing to look at. However, learning more about Irwin and his work brought me a greater appreciation for his art, as well as an enhanced understanding of what it means to see and perceive. It is interesting to consider that the usual purpose of a light fixture is to provide light—Irwin himself has worked with light and light fixtures in the past. But this unlit exhibit removes electricity as a medium, reducing the fixture to its structure and form. For Irwin, this work is not about the object, but about changing and shaping the viewer’s perceptual experience—and when he is successful, that in itself becomes the art.
Why can’t spaces, places and moving through them be considered just as valuable of a perceptive experience as staring at a framed painting hung up on a wall?
Irwin is known for challenging his viewing audience—you may look at his work and not even know that it’s art. For instance, in the 1970s he created a site-specific work titled Scrim veil—Black rectangle—Natural light. The room was mostly empty, with a black rectangular line framing the wall and a sheer scrim hanging from the ceiling in the middle. Describing responses to this work, Irwin said, “People looked into the room, didn’t see anything and walked right back out.” It would be natural to feel that there was not much worth looking at in such a room, especially with the expectations of visiting an art museum. However, it was the experience of the room that Irwin wanted to shape—dynamic elements such as the natural light coming through the window or the other people’s bodies moving through the room all contribute to an individual’s perception of being physically present in a fabricated space.
What does it mean to make art that makes you aware of the fact that you’re perceiving?
This brings us to the site-specificity of Irwin’s work. It is meant to be perceived in-person, as a photograph of a room or a work from only one angle couldn’t possibly express the entire experience of the work. In our digital age, it is easy to uproot images from their original, physical context and reproduce them indefinitely. Irwin’s works make this much less effective, as it is especially important for his art to be a part of the viewer’s space. The images featured with this article may seem to convey a sense of Irwin’s exhibit. However, the art is not simply in the light fixtures. It is the light, shadows, reflections, colors, patterns, and the ways in which these elements change as your body moves around the work. The art lies in the visual experience of looking.
