Y, 2003
960 lightbulbs, aluminium, wood, cables, electronic circuitry, light signs, mirrors Approx. 1300 x 850 x 320 cm Installation view: Thyssen-Bornemizsa Art Contemporary. Collection as Aleph, Kunsthaus Graz, 2008 Photo: Jen Fong Photography / T-B A21, 2008
Carsten Höller primarily focuses his artistic research on the various aspects of human perception. A significant part of his work explores how the composition of light, whether natural or artificial, has a direct effect on our perception of space and objects in any given environment. Y consists of a Y-shaped catwalk surrounded by aluminium rings, each fitted with dozens of light bulbs. Their luminous intensity seems to change as an effect of the intricate pattern of blinking and dimming of the lights at different speeds and intervals. The resulting fun-fair like tunnel leads to a junction, with one path leading to a mirrored dead-end, while the other leads to the entrance/exit of the installation. Two further reflective walls, standing at a 90-degree angle, reflect the lucid form as well as the viewer moving through the installation. The effect Höller achieves is an infinite series of reflections of both the form of the installation and the viewer. The opposite mirror with its counter reflections confronts viewers with a stupendous number of multiplications of themselves as well as the optical enlargement of the room.
