Kids are entranced by the light installations. Photo / David St George
It's kind of hard to explain the concept of Light Show, Auckland Art Gallery's new exhibition of light-based art, to a 4-year-old.
"Today we're going to the art gallery... to see some art... made out of light ... " Blank look. But then the clincher: "Plus there's some Lego to play with."
And he's sold!
There are three things we want to check out at the gallery: Light Show itself; the interactive, family-friendly installations in Wavelength in the Todd Foundation Creative Learning Centre; and the aforementioned white Lego - which is actually a work of art in itself.
Realising that once we start on the Lego it will be very hard to get my son away from it, we decide to start with the exhibition proper. Not knowing what to expect, we enter the ground-floor portion (six artworks are displayed here, with a further 19 on level one).
The works in Light Show are hard to describe in words, so I am not even going to try. Suffice to say there is light, shadows, colour, optical illusions and, literally, smoke and mirrors. There is neon, fluorescent tubes, light bulbs and sparkly, glittery things. LEDs flash out messages, columns of light glow and fade, and you walk through beams like lasers. The kids are fascinated by the visual effects, with our nearly-2-year-old sitting entranced in the pram throughout. You may not be able to touch, but there is plenty to look at and be immersed in.
Our favourite work downstairs is Carlos Cruz-Diez's Chromosaturation, which is like stepping inside a fluorescent highlighter pen. Coloured fluorescent tubes fill a multi-room area with intense blue, pink and yellowy-green. The longer we spend inside, the harder it becomes to tell if the colours are changing or if it's all just a trick of the light.
Upstairs, the sure-fire favourite is Ivan Navarro's Reality Show (Silver), the size and shape of a telephone box with walls of one-way glass. From the outside you can see in, but once you are inside you are surrounded by brightly lit mirrors, reflecting you to infinity. You've heard the expression 'Dance like no one's watching?' Well, that's what a 4-year-old does in a mirrored box - great entertainment for those watching on the outside!
Light show over, we descend to the mezzanine to get our hands on that Lego. The Cubic Structural Evolution Project by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson comprises thousands of different-shaped white Lego pieces, which visitors are encouraged to use to assemble fantastical buildings and other creations. Apparently this work "comments on community decision-making and urbanism and explores the relationship between maker, spectator and object", but to a 4-year-old Lego freak, it's just good fun.
As predicted, it's too hard to drag him away once he's started constructing, so my toddler daughter and I move into the adjacent space to explore the experiences in Wavelength, a joint project from Colab, the shared (collaboratory) laboratory for AUT's Design and Creative Technologies departments (colab.aut.ac.nz). Natalie is entranced by RGB and the coloured shadows created by the meeting of three coloured spotlights on the wall, and we have a dance of our own in front of Hungry Pixels by Taura J Greig, which "feeds" on movement and reproduces you in brightly coloured, pixellated form on a large screen. Who knows how it works but it's addictive.
Light Show opened on October 11 and is already hugely popular so it was good to visit on a week day, with the space to take it all in. Light-based art is a really accessible form for children - like a lot of adults (if they were honest), kids might not understand the concepts behind the works, but the colours and effects make it a cool experience.
• Light Show is on at the Auckland Art Gallery until February 8, 2015. Gallery hours are 10am-5pm daily , with the last entry to the exhibition at 4pm.
• Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children aged 5-13, and free for preschoolers. Tickets can be pre-booked at eventfinder.co.nz
• To avoid the crowds, especially with kids, try to go during the week if you can. There is also a series of "open lates" and film showings associated with the exhibition. See aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on for more details.