Normally when you walk into a room you have a general sense of its geometry – an instinctive understanding of where the walls, the floors, and the ceiling should be. It’s not something you think about, you just know it. Until you step into the Circa gallery, that is. The work of Pierre Gallais, currently on show there, plays with our comprehension of space by plunging Circa’s large exhibition room into total darkness and then tracing random lines throughout the gallery using red laser beams. The precise, glowing slices of light bounce off plinths, columns, the ceiling and the floors, creating random loops and angles. When I first stepped into the space I was completely disoriented. I felt like I was floating in the cosmos, and mildly paranoid about bumping into something important. I found myself gingerly stepping across the long, diagonal laser beams which slice across the floor as though they were solid lines and I was about to trip over them. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I began to walk around the room. It feels like being inside an abstract painting, like strolling through an psychedelic Cy Twombly. I was in there by myself, but gallery owner Maurice Archard tells me that it’s an even more interesting experience when the room is full of people, because then the light beams cut across their bodies and distort the geometry of the room even more. So, I suggest you visit this installation with a couple of friends.

I was also particularly taken with the installation in the gallery’s small room. A series of glowing strings are suspended in the space at an angle, forming a massive ellipse reminiscent of a Spirograph drawing. The piece has a minimalist elegance to it; at once fragile and imposing.
Both installations are worth the visit. Hint: wear something white.

Centre d’Exposition Circa, space 444
Pierre Gallais
MatHérialisation
June 11 – July 9, 2011
www.circa-art.com