Editor’s Pick: ‘Intangible Forms’ at Artechouse DC
A series of immersive audiovisual installations use controlled light from laser projectors to create different structures, shapes, and lines.
In the series of immersive audiovisual installations currently on display at ARTECHOUSE, Japanese multimedia artist Shohei Fujimoto explores concepts of perception and space — chiefly through his precise and synchronized use of the controlled light emanating from laser projectors to create different structures, shapes, and lines.
Resulting in what appear to be optical and digital illusions, the works aim to blur the line between what is real and what is imagined, as well as to make intangible effects of light and sound more tangible.
“[The] work is centered in bold philosophical questions and materialized through intricate executions,” says Sandro Kereselidze, ARTECHOUSE’s founder and chief creative officer. “Fujimoto’s works are not meant to be explained, but experienced.”
Originally commissioned by and presented at ARTECHOUSE’s New York location in 2020, Intangible Forms is a series of luminescent installations, with nine currently filling the entire underground gallery space in D.C
Aside from the lights and lasers, the exhibition is intended as “a meditative soundscape” inspired by the powerful quietude of Shinto shrines in the mountains of Japan.
Set up in ARTECHOUSE’s main room, the centerpiece installation, simply titled “intangible #form,” is a continuous light show of kinetic red lasers that alternately move in wavelike unison and then splinter off to form distinct geometric shapes — all in a manner, to quote the official description, “[that] invites visitors to pause, reflect, and feel a connection to all living beings of the past, present, and future.”
“I’ve been trying to generate virtual consciousness and, in extension, virtual life in this work, triggering a deeper sense of humanity in ourselves,” the artist is quoted as saying in the release.
Highlights among the other installations include:
“intangible #umbra” in which “the absence of light and shadows acts as a dimensional extension of the visuals that are seen here.”
“dynamic light statics,” set up with five monitors displaying various lines of light that obey physical constraints.
“power of one #empty” shows how a line and bright light can create and define space, and also “aims to re-create emptiness in two-dimensions.”
“power of one #surface” plays up the effect of light on one-way mirrors, or those used for police lineups and in interrogation rooms, as seen when two lasers hit two rotating as well as two stationary one-way mirrors.
“power of #extrude” explores the interplay between a single laser projector and a motorized apparatus with 10 individual strips of one-way mirrors.
In addition, ARTECHOUSE’s XR Bar features a custom menu of cocktails and mocktails, inspired by and named after select installations, with Extended Reality activations offering complementary onscreen visuals when using the gallery’s XR app.
On display through March 5. ARTECHOUSE is at 1238 Maryland Ave. SW. Tickets are $20 to $30. Visit www.artechouse.com.
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