ANTHONY McCALL @HAMBURGERBAHNHOF, BERLIN

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Anthony McCall, Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Installation view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Photograph courtesy of Hamburger Bahnhof, taken by Deborah Wargon, 2012

Artist Anthony McCall recently had an exhibition titled Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which closed on August 12th. The show was held in the main large gallery located on the ground floor. The space is massive and offered a perfect expanse for McCall's light based sculpture. Entering the first room, each viewer was greeted by bright streaks of light cutting into and through the otherwise completely dark space. Shadowy silhouettes were evident in eerie intervals as people walked into and out of the lit areas. Being present in the exhibit was mystical and unpredictable as light patterns changed based on a faint, malleable fog that was being pumped into the air and dispersed when interwoven within the projected sections of light.  I attended the exhibition with Berlin based artist Deborah Wargon. The previous visit we shared together at the Hamburger Bahnof was for Carston Höller's SOMA which I included in my article: Top Ten for Twenty Eleven. This time, rather than experience the olfactory intrusion of reindeer urine and sound of tweeting canaries (a Höller fixture), we instead found ourselves sprawled out on the floor in circular, metamorphosed patterns of light.

Anthony McCall, Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Installation view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Photograph courtesy of Hamburger Bahnhof, taken by Deborah Wargon, 2012

Anthony McCall is a British born, American artist, who first became known for his light sculptures in the 1970s. He moved to New York in 1973 and continues to pursue the technique of white drawings on black surface. The methodology of his process has evolved and after twenty years, the artist has chosen to re-investigate these works, using computer animation allowing him to make new shapes and alter the perceived perception of space. Using digital projection for his most recent works, McCall made curved lines that envelope the viewer when projected from the gallery ceiling creating a virtual cone shape of light. His work merges draftsmanship with an ephemeral quality that is usually not found in drawing. By using light the sculptures can be interrupted by those who are in the space or step into the projected areas resulting in a formidable installation of ever changing continuity. The magic is in the intrusion of human form into each lit cavity. Moving through the blackness, one can't help but be beckoned by the slinky white projections caressed with haze. They almost beg for audience participation, silently requesting a hand or leg to break the otherwise perfect linear illusion. 

Anthony McCall, Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Installation view at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Photograph courtesy of Hamburger Bahnhof, taken by Deborah Wargon, 2012

Only one piece in Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture contains ambient sound, a double projection titled Leaving 2009. The artist used recorded noise from the West Side Highway in Manhattan corresponding with shipping traffic in the Hudson River (also on Manhattan's west side). However not knowing the origin of the atmospheric sounds when heard, I never would've placed them back to the city where I had traveled from.  What Anthony McCall does is animate two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional environment. The distinction of light installation based art is that it is time-specific and fleeting, allowing for a different level of interaction, referencing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or incredibly...nothing at all. 
Anthony McCall, Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture was on view at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie from April 20th- August 12th, 2012.
More soon! xo