This past week I have been installing a new site-specific work, Our Colour Reflection, at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in North Lincolnshire. It has been a massive undertaking both mentally and psychically as it is such an enormous work. I am very pleased with the final work and the opportunity to finally step back and see it as a whole entity.
Our Colour Reflection opens tonight (13th May) and continues until 25 June 2016.
“Our Colour Reflection creates a conversation between the viewer and the setting using more than 700 mirrors made of coloured acrylic. There are 15 colours in all and the mirrors with diameters of 30, 40, 50 and 60cm are set at different heights so that they both reflect the roof space of the old nave, revealing parts of the architecture that would otherwise be invisible, and project colour up into the historic interior. It is playful, elegant and engaging but also thoughtful.
Taking time to research and consider the history of the building and the weight of connotations it holds as a former place of worship, West has thought about stained glass and the importance of light within the space. ‘This has allowed me to make sure the work is grounded within its site but also holds its own voice within the grandeur and information that the space brings to the conversation,’ she says.
There is an element of performance to this work; it puts the audience to the fore, demanding a response, in West’s words ‘physically, emotionally, psychologically or even spiritually.’ Viewers will each have their own perspectives and their own experiences tempered by movement through the space and through time. By going unplugged here, West emphasises that while artificial light can be manipulated it can only, at best, replicate the dynamism, shifting mood and changes in quality embodied in natural light” – Francis Pearce
