a semblance of the indefinite presents work by Chul Hyun Ahn and Rafaël Rozendaal made within the current decade, focusing on their investigations into light and space while emphasizing the different spatial scales of their work. In Ahn’s Tunnel #7 (2013), the artist created a sculptural light box in which one-way mirrors are placed face-to-face, with fluorescent lights inserted between them. While a physically-delimited sculptural object, the work nonetheless creates an illusionistic sense of infinite space in the viewer’s perception. The exhibition also includes an installation by Rozendaal that combines broken mirrors with shifting light projections that originate from one of the artist’s many websites and artworks. The mirrors reflect and distort the play of images upon the gallery walls, creating an immersive and disorienting experience of physical space.
While relying on different scales and types of space, both Ahn’s and Rozendaal’s work play with expectation and repetition, and explore illusionistic representations of infinite space. This draws viewers into situations where images, understandings, and proportions of space do not cohere, but appear irresolute. These abstract uses of light and space by Ahn and Rozendaal were created both after and in the context of the internet, and more broadly respond to contemporary technological conditions, in which we often view and rely upon discrete electronic devices that allow access to seemingly infinite virtual space.
