Lisson Gallery, Milan, presents Spencer Finch’s series of new works including a site-specific LED installation, a suite of photographs and a large watercolour that explore memory, colour and the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. At the core of Finch’s practice is his on-going investigation into the nature of light, colour, memory and perception. He uses scientific method to poetic effect, examining the mechanics and mystery of perception. Finch is fascinated by the process of taking a beautiful, natural phenomenon and re-contextualising it in the cultural space of the gallery: a transformation that provokes a meditative observation that in turn inspires wonder. It is an arguably crude, theatrical animation that, in this suspension of disbelief, becomes a serene and mesmerizing experience.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a large, outdoor installation that comprises a forest of barely perceptible vertical brass rods of varying heights, each with a tiny LED at its tip. Like fireflies against the night sky, the LEDs light up intermittently and in different configurations, choreographed to ‘perform’ a scene from Shakespeare’s play. The spectator is invited to track these blinking LEDs in their jerky, unpredictable trajectory.
