Wander Between Reality and Trickery in Leandro Erlich’s Uncanny CAFA Installations
A house where people can climb walls, a swimming pool that won't get you wet, and a floating hutong house... these are just a few of the optical illusions and visual paradoxes enveloped in Leandro Erlich’s extraordinary art installations.
The Argentine artist is currently showing at the CAFA Art Museum with a career-spanning exhibition that includes some of his most iconic installations that have helped garner him fame across the world.
Titled The Confines of the Great Void, the exhibition encapsulates the best of Erlich’s output and methods, creating illusory worlds where everyday objects are given another meaning.
Two of the embodiments of this style can be found in "Architecture" (pictured above), where viewers are allowed to “walk” on the building and see their reflection in the mirror and Changing Room where the viewer enters a labyrinth and interacts with both the space and other visitors.
One of Erlich's Beijing site-specific pieces is titled Pulled From the Root, a repeating artwork that Erlich tailors to the location he is exhibiting in. It's only fitting then that the floating house, suspended by a crane outside of the gallery, depicted here takes the appearance of a hutong dwelling, similar to the hundreds you'll find in Beijing's winding central alleyways.
The installation is, of course, open to infinite interpretation, but we like to think that this is Erlich's way to highlight the importance of protecting buildings with historical and cultural importance, especially given the rapid demolition and remodeling that Beijing's treasured hutongs have witnessed over the past decade.
The masterful reproduction of the peeling walls and gray tiles also work to remind us that Erlich started out as an architect, the skills from which he also utilizes to play with viewers' perception via well-placed mirrors, angle-play, and sense of depth.
There is always a trick to be found somewhere in an Erlich artwork, making the interaction between the viewer and each installation not only encouraged but necessary – the audience is not an outsider but rather a part of the installation itself.
The interaction doesn’t only make Erlich's exhibitions fun but also leave a lingering impact thanks to the visually confounding images that we'd been presented: reminding us just how easily our perception can be hacked, and how seemingly simple changes can draw a line between reality and imagination.
Leandro Erlich's Confines of the Great Void is showing Tue-Sun, 9.30am-9pm at CAFA Art Museum until Aug 25. Tickets are RMB 108 (available at the gate or book it here).
READ: 5 Beijing Wanghongdians to Help You Live Out Your Most Narcissistic Selfie Fantasies
More stories by this author here.
Email: kuang@thebeijinger.com
Instagram：beijinglights_
Photos: Art Express, CAFA Art Museum, Duan Duan