Windows to the World

Photo © Jérémie Souteyrat/Louis Vuitton

To an artist whose subject is light, a gallery comprised entirely of windows is both a gift and a challenge. For her Fall exhibition [open through Dec. 25], “Geometry of Light” at Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo, Alyson Shotz addressed this test with an installation, four sculptures, a bespoke wallpaper and an animation demonstrating light’s dual existence as particle and wave.

Her work brings everyday scientific phenomenon to fresh life as beautiful sculptures. Science is her subject because, as she explains, “the world of physics is an inherent part of sculpture since sculpture deals with the physical world.” As a former geology student, she was drawn to science’s beauty. “I loved the mountains, snow and glaciers,” she explains. “I had (and still have) a fascination with the way the earth works.” In past works, Shotz expressed the complex nature of light with beads, a 130-foot long outdoor mirrored fence fabricated, stainless steel, pins and 18,000 plastic oval Fresnel lenses.

For Louis Vuitton, she literally moves this interest into a new dimension. For this show, “There is work in all dimensions, 2-D, 3-D and 4-D (time-based), so the ideas in the work are experienced from many perspectives.” However, Shotz is ultimately less interested in teaching about science than in “simply making work that interests me.” And, by extension, illuminating others.