NADIA ODLUM
As the world moves I move the world, 2019
Tall vertical pieces of mirror-polished stainless steel stand in a row. Each piece is angled at 90 degrees to its neighbour, creating a fan like progression of distorted reflections and counter-reflections. Bright orange lines zig-zag along the face of the panels.
The reflective nature of the steel will mean that, from a distance, the orange lines will seem to float within the forest. Upon closer examination, the angled reflections of the mirrored pieces provide a further level of bafflement. Audiences will have to move back and forth, deploying their bodies to unpack the visual and spatial illusions.
Artworks that contain a perceptual illusion inherently bring subjectivity to the foreground – they lead each audience member to recognise that they see the world from a particular point of view, with perceptual faculties that are capable of being tricked and disrupted. Simultaneously, they can also recognise this potential in others. When viewing a perceptually challenging work alongside other audience members, these realisations can be shared, and through this, empathy and understanding of the possibility of multiple perspectives on the world is built.
Steel, adhesive vinyl.
