How are technological advancements offering modern artists a new chance to reinvent optical illusions and challenge our perspectives? 

In a world of mobile phones, AI and Instagram likes, technology appears to be an ever present addition to our realities. Modern artists, such as Asot Haas and Refik Anadol are seeking to explore our ingrained perceptions and challenge our ocular capacities by combining art, science and technology.  It’s really intriguing to see how the use of light, projection and sound can offer new methods and interpretations of illusion.

Haas works with modern technology to create a bridge between the real and virtual worlds; albeit structurally minimalist, the works contain a complex equation that creates new perspectives as the viewers are required to walk past the work to fully appreciate its potential. In particular, Balance by 360, at almost two metres in diameter is a visually outstanding piece that leaves the spectator in an inquisitive position, questioning the solidity of the walls, the depth of the art and the boundaries of our own logic.  

Anadol specialises in immersive environments created by projected installations in an attempt to deconstruct the surrounding space and erode the traditional viewing experience. Infinity Room has been one of his many successful creations, wherein the delicate sentiments of uncertainty and inquiry culminate to challenge the audience’s awareness of their physical self through the manipulation of an artificial environment. The use of light blurs the boundaries between the physical, the virtual, the fictional and the actual, resulting in a space that enables one to momentarily perceive our surroundings without perception. 

By breaking with the traditional stable and social space of the gallery, the exhibition reaffirms concepts of active participation, through the facilitation of experience and the removal of expectation. Rene Magritte sated that ‘everything we see hides another thing [and] we always want to see what is hidden by what we see’. Therefore, reality is informed by the perceptions held by the individual, and only by altering this perception, which is informed by social surroundings, can the reality be altered. 

 Far from enforcing a particular concept, the exhibition offers a springboard for deeper thought, individual experience and the transcending of constructed realities. From the historical to the present moment of 1960s ‘Op Art’ to the boundaries of modern technologies, we are witness to this progressive display of art that challenges one’s own perception of reality. This exhibition seeks to question our absorption into this increasingly mechanized world and the risk of losing our ability to perceive beyond social constructions.