Anthony McCall: Solid Light Works, opening today at Hepworth Wakefield, is the artist’s first major UK exhibition in over a decade, his last being a 2008 Serpentine Gallery show. The artist has been experimenting with solid light installations since his career began in the early 70s. Darren O'Brien/Guzelian
Doubling Back (2003) is the first of three works receiving a UK premiere at the exhibition. The curator Andrew Bonacina says that it "is the first work made using digital technology after Anthony’s return to making work in the early 2000s". LAC; Lugano; 2015. Photograph by Stefania Beretta.
Leaving (with Two-Minute Silence, 2009) is one of only two of McCall’s works to include sound, and has two parallel soundtracks of a harbour and ambient traffic. Bonacina says, “the audible components become most apparent when the work and sound freeze for two minutes”. The two-minute silence references Armistice Day. This is a working sketch of the work. Anthony McCall, 2006/8
The final of the three UK premieres is Face to Face (2013, also depicted in the first image), perhaps the exhibition’s most immersive. Bonacina describes it as “a double projection that incorporates two large-scale floating screens that allow the viewer to walk entirely around the work”. Anthony McCall. Face to Face (II) (2013). Installation view, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, 2014. Photo: Hans Wilschut
Different rooms will emphasise the parts of McCall’s creative process. The circle, straight line and wave underpin his artistic practice, as shown in rooms of sketchbooks that depict his original ideas before they are developed into more elaborate visuals for the projections. McCall says the unique shape of the Hepworth Wakefield venue has helped him realise his artistic vision. Guzelian Ltd
“Obviously, light can’t be solid,” says the artist in a video for the exhibition. “But one’s experience of one of these installations, was to feel it was as if it were, and the membranes of light are difficult to walk through, you feel as though you’re invading something.” The exhibition Anthony McCall: Solid Light Works opens 16 Feb - 3 June 2018 at The Hepworth Wakefield. Guzelian Ltd