93-year-old American artist Robert Irwin has exhibited a large-scale installation at Kraftwerk Berlin, a former central-heating power station in Germany.
Entitled Light and Space, the installation was commissioned by Berlin-based art foundation LAS and is a culmination of Irwin’s five-decade-long career as an artist.
“Irwin’s oeuvre has been driven by his continuous inquiry into human perception and use of space,” says LAS. “A pioneer of Light and Space, a loosely affiliated art movement related to Minimalism and geometric abstraction that originated in Southern California in the 1960s, Irwin is one of the most prolific artists to have emerged from that scene.”
Light and Space is made up of numerous fluorescent light tubes that are laid out in an abstract pattern on a massive white wall. Contrasting the blinding white light is a dark blue and purple mix on the other side of the wall. According to LAS, the installation is the largest work of its kind in Europe.
“The exhibition is a testament to Irwin’s ability to transform a space: he intervenes in Kraftwerk’s notable brutalist architecture to create an experience that invites viewers to immerse themselves in his experiments with light and space, challenging our perceptions and how perception can extend beyond a work of art, or, as the artist puts it: ‘How art structures the way we see the world,’” adds LAS.
All images in this article are courtesy of LAS and Robert Irwin.
