Exhilarating Artistry

There’s art, there’s adrenaline and there is adrenaline in art. Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol and Opera Gallery’s Stéphane Le Pelletier would concur in a heartbeat.

- Rachel Ang

THE ARTWORK WRITHES. Waves of coloured particles slosh and swirl restlessly, cresting high above before tumbling down and out towards you, surging towards its pristine white frame, only to dissolve just before it makes contact. The hues shift into semblances of ephemeral landscapes: a pink sunrise, a blue ocean, a green forest, a golden field, a purple sky.

So mesmerising is this spectacle that you forget you aren’t actually within this shapeshifting world of changing shades. In reality, you’re standing in front of a 10m x 10m LED screen watching Quantum Memories, one of the many intricate, immersive works created by Turkish-American new media artist and designer, Refik Anadol.

Works like Quantum Memories are born in Anadol’s studio from awe, inspiration and questions, and evoke those very same forces within the viewer. His works, while presented in a way that anyone regardless of age and background can enjoy and relate, are deeply emotional as well. Another project, Melting Memories, draws on Anadol’s shock and sadness when he learnt of his uncle’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2017.

“While we are surrounded by geniuses and collaborating with wonderful people, at the end of the day, the memories still melt,” Anadol shares. “Memory is the most precious information in the world and the idea of losing a memory in life is very painful to me. Melting Memories is a celebration of that moment of remembering.”