Light may be the life force of fine art, but light itself takes centre stage in Hiro Yamagata's imposing exhibition in the Japanese seaport of Yokohama.
In a display co-hosted by NASA, a pair of 20-metre cubes covered with holographic panels (right) make art out of sunlight, refracting its beams to shower coloured rays over surrounding buildings.
Nearby, Yamagata's dizzying NGC6093 installation, which is named after a dense star cluster in the constellation Scorpio, consists of an enclosed room with holographic walls and floor, filled with dangling mirror cubes. Rotating lasers bounce beams through this maze of light sources. In one of the most beautiful — and unintentional — effects, green light catches the nylon that is used to hang the mirror cubes, and pours down like electric rain.
Yamagata says that his laser shows mark a deliberate attempt to distance himself from the commercial paintings for which he is best known in Japan.
“The World of Hiro Yamagata and NASA” can be seen at Yokohama, Japan, until the end of September.
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Cyranoski, D. Seeing the light. Nature 424, 726 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424726b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/424726b
