Josiah McElheny: The Crystal Land, White Cube Bermondsey

Reconstructing history at White Cube Bermondsey: Josiah McElheny's 'Crystal Land' contemplates art, science, information and materiality

Josiah McElheny, Island Universe, 2008 Chrome plated aluminium, hand-blown and molded glass, electric lighting and rigging. Heights from floor highly specific, overall dimensions variable © JOSIAH MCELHENY. PHOTO © STEPHEN WHITE COURTESY WHITE CUBE
American artist Josiah McElheny attempts to visualise alternative histories of Modernism, based on the works of artist Robert Smithson, writer Paul Scheerbart and the physicist Andrei Linde, presenting the world, the universe and the multiverse as a set of infinite, individual possibilities and interpretations.

Hmmm. But McElheny's scholarly preoccupations are tempered by the beauty of his works, as you'll see at the White Cube. The artist was apprenticed to master glassblowers, and the results are clear to see. Aluminium chandeliers hang from the ceiling, bursting with rods and lightbulbs. They are at once threatening and eternal; entirely satisfied with their weight.

Elsewhere, we have McElheny's latest work: reliefs constructed out of painted metal and glass mirror with illuminated interior chambers. Inside these chambers, infinitely repeating images of crystalline, abstract reflective shapes recede into the distance. We were mesmerised.
TRY CULTURE WHISPER
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What Josiah McElheny: The Crystal Land, White Cube Bermondsey
Where White Cube Bermondsey, 144-152 Bermondsey Street , London, SE1 3TQ | MAP
When 01 Mar 17 – 13 Apr 17, Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm, Sunday 12pm - 6pm
Price £Free
Website Click here for more information




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