Illusion
Installation
Projector, mirror, spotlights, grid lights,
and an office room with its ceiling removed
6 × 6 × 2.4 m (room dimensions)
2023
Installation
Projector, mirror, spotlights, grid lights,
and an office room with its ceiling removed
6 × 6 × 2.4 m (room dimensions)
2023
is a site-specific installation created for Millbank
Tower in London. The work begins with an element that
is almost always overlooked, yet continuously governs spatial experience — light.
In conventional exhibition spaces, lighting is typically fixed to the ceiling and operates as an “invisible
presence”: it illuminates the room without ever becoming the subject of attention. In this work, I removed all of the ceiling light grids from the exhibition space and relocated them onto the floor — the very place where artworks are usually presented. The lights no longer function as sources of illumination; instead, they are dimly lit by other coloured light sources. Through the reflective properties of the aluminium grids, light is fragmented into multiple colours and cast onto the surrounding walls and corners, rendering the space unstable, ambiguous, and difficult to read.
This inversion of vertical order disrupts the existing logic of the exhibition space. A system that once silently controlled the room from above is brought down to the scale of the body, becoming something that can be stepped over, navigated around, and physically perceived. In one corner of the room, a “No signal” projector casts a small patch of blue onto a metal grid, suggesting a system that continues to operate but no longer fully functions.
When the structures that support spatial operation are displaced from their original positions, the space no longer appears efficient or transparent. Instead, it reveals its internal gaps and uncertainties.
is almost always overlooked, yet continuously governs spatial experience — light.
In conventional exhibition spaces, lighting is typically fixed to the ceiling and operates as an “invisible
presence”: it illuminates the room without ever becoming the subject of attention. In this work, I removed all of the ceiling light grids from the exhibition space and relocated them onto the floor — the very place where artworks are usually presented. The lights no longer function as sources of illumination; instead, they are dimly lit by other coloured light sources. Through the reflective properties of the aluminium grids, light is fragmented into multiple colours and cast onto the surrounding walls and corners, rendering the space unstable, ambiguous, and difficult to read.
This inversion of vertical order disrupts the existing logic of the exhibition space. A system that once silently controlled the room from above is brought down to the scale of the body, becoming something that can be stepped over, navigated around, and physically perceived. In one corner of the room, a “No signal” projector casts a small patch of blue onto a metal grid, suggesting a system that continues to operate but no longer fully functions.
When the structures that support spatial operation are displaced from their original positions, the space no longer appears efficient or transparent. Instead, it reveals its internal gaps and uncertainties.