Review: Space Shifters, Hayward Gallery, London ★★★★★

As you climb up the Brutalist concrete staircase of the Hayward Gallery to its upper gallery, you will find yourself standing before a panel of glass overlooking Waterloo Terrace. To your left is the River Thames, and straight ahead the Oxo Tower stands tall. But what will immediately catch your eye is something far more extraordinary: Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror, Blue (2016). Upon initial view, this concave, satellite-shaped disc appears to be a large sphere embellished with a mural of the skies above. Look a little closer, however, and you will find that this is no painting, but a mirror on to which the sky and clouds are projected and saturated in a cobalt blue. Save for the roof’s glass pyramids that peer over the disc’s edge, this could be the earth as seen from space.

Featuring a myriad of innovative sculptures and installations from twenty artists of ten nationalities, Space Shifters at the Hayward Gallery explores optical art and the power for our perceptions to be challenged and stretched. With the dates of the works spanning from 1966 to 2018, this exhibition boasts a great diversity in its art. And yet rather than disruptive eclecticism, there is a strong flow between the works on display. The space appears minimalist, but each piece is multifaceted, allowing its spectators to reconsider the capabilities of light and space in different ways.



What is most striking about Space Shifters is the way in which it blurs the boundaries between subject and object. The roles of the viewer, the viewed and the surrounding space are fluid, as demonstrated in Jeppe Hein's 360° Illusion V (2018), two large right-angled mirrors that rotate above you. There is something strangely unsettling and voyeuristic about sitting in a beanbag watching yourself from opposing angles before you disappear from view. As with the majority of works displayed in Space Shifters, you the spectator are integral in making this art come to life.

The overriding atmosphere is a sense of the uncanny, as familiar images are twisted and subverted. The best example – and possibly the best piece in the exhibition – is Alicja Kwade’s WaltenLinie (2017). Meaning ‘world line’, this steel-framed structure is made up of both empty doorways and double-sided mirrors. Seen from certain angles, objects will suddenly disappear or transform colour, demonstrating both the power of reflection and how easily our eyes can deceive us. The impact is simply spellbinding.



However while each piece in the exhibition has its own qualities, the narrative gets progressively harder to follow the further on you go. Unlike the lower galleries that focus on mirrors, light and colour, the upper galleries do not have as clear a trajectory. Fortunately Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror and Richard Wilson’s 20:50 (1987), a room filled with engine oil and a metal walkway, end the exhibition on a thought-provoking note.



If you do find the end of your visit anti-climatic, return to the lower galleries and look at Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden (1966-2018) once again. These seven hundred stainless steel orbs scattered across the floor create a sparkling sea of endless reflections, deftly capturing Kusama’s preoccupation with ‘infinity, self-obliteration, and compulsive repetition.'

Narcissus Garden and the other pieces in this exhibition will dazzle you to the point that you won't want to leave. You will have never seen your own reflection quite like this before.