There are not really enough adjectives to describe the experiential world of Kaleidoscope by Keith Courtney. This experiential, spatial artwork has been travelling Australia and showing in Sydney until 10 September.

“Kaleidoscope [contains] internal mirrors, luminous glass, and translucent beads of colour. As the light shifts and the delicate tubular structure rotates, the space is transformed into an intergalactic playground,” says artist Keith Courtney.

Courtney’s Kaleidoscope is an extraordinarily beautiful symphony of sound and light, set across a 700 square meter mirror maze of glass prisms.

“Kaleidoscope scales a deceptively simple optical device to epic proportions, allowing you to step inside a constantly shifting illusion,” says Courtney of the installation work that is specifically designed to be experienced, with each viewer enjoying a slightly different version depending on ambient light, weather, height and so forth.

Specific to Courtney’s work is the idea of portals into other times and spaces. This philosophy centres around the concept of how a constructed physical environment can disorientate and challenge an individual’s senses: “Kaleidoscope provides the brave and adventurous with a new and different space to explore, contemplate and dream.”

Arranged as a six petalled geometric flower, the glass installation sees Courtney in collaboration with visual artist Samantha Slicer, Creative Production Services Group, composer Tamil Rogeon, and The National Boys Choir. Rogeon’s score for the work is hauntingly evocative in the way its pace orchestrates the experience of colour and light inherent to the work. Ash Keating has created the façade artwork.

Garnering well-deserved accolades through his previous installations House of Mirrors, 2017 and 1000 Doors, 2019 Courtney’s work has become a drawcard for festivals and cities throughout Australia. Having previously been exhibited in Melbourne for the Rising Festival, Brisbane for the Brisbane Festival and Adelaide for the Fringe Festival, more than 120,000 have enjoyed the project.

The multi-sensory and immersive work was manufactured in South Geelong by Keith Courtney’s go-to fabricator Robert Lange Engineering and glazier Menzel Glass. Previous works The House of Mirrors and Inverted Crosses for Dark Mofo were also built in Geelong.

Kaleidoscope by Keith Courtney is on show until 10 September in Sydney, more here.

Kaleidoscope by Keith Courtney
kaleidoscopebykeithcourtney.com

Photography
Sam Slicer