Things We Love: Teamlab’s Latest Melbourne Exhibition
International art collective teamLab are back in Melbourne for the first time since its digital phosphorescent whirlpool made waves at NGV’s Triennial in 2017. You might remember the playful room of projections in which artists used light to simulate ocean currents. The Australian premiere of teamLab’s latest work consists of four screen works experimenting with movement, waves and calligraphy.
Reversible Rotation at Melbourne’s Tolarno Galleries explores the relationship between humans and nature, and between oneself and the world; one is in the other and the other in one.
Tolarno Galleries has described the experience of viewing the works: ”…people may feel that the barrier between themselves and the waves disappears. They feel immersed in the work, perhaps even feeling life in the collection of lines, as if the waves are luring them in”. In this way, digital technology has allowed art to liberate itself from the physical and transcend boundaries.
teamLab are an interdisciplinary group of various specialists – including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects – whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design and the natural world.
The hype around teamLab is intense. teamLab Borderless – the permanent museum in Tokyo – opened in 2018 and in its first year was the world’s most visited single-artist museum, attracting 2.3 million visitors. But for good reason – the collective focus on achieving a perfect balance between creativity, art and science and their complex installation pieces are an impressive and an awe-inspiring sight to behold.
The exhibition is on until 2 November at Tolarno Galleries down Exhibition Street. If the opening weekend is anything to go by, prepare for queues.
