Gallery visits: Unexpected inspiration for moiré experiments

Some highlights from my recent visits to Saatchi Gallery and The Photographers’ Gallery that provided an unexpected direction for developing my current experiments.

I had been planning to develop my early moiré effect tests by introducing colour, texture, handwork, and organic patterns – but I wasn’t sure exactly how to approach this.

Olafur Eliasson: Mirrors and participation

^{_{Olafur Eliasson, Seeing Tilted Mirrors}}

Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Seeing Tilted Mirrors’ instantly caught my eye. The work “invites us to re-examine how we perceive reality – fractured, multiplied, and constantly shifting. The installation, composed of vertically ridged mirrored panel, challenges the viewer to move, to explore, and to accept ambiguity as part of perception. Reflections fragment and recombine, distorting what seems fixed. Nothing stays still, and nothing appears entirely clear. It reminds us that seeing is never passive – rather it is an act of participation.”

What particularly struck me was how the piece was constructed – mirrors tilted at different angles and mounted securely on a metal frame. This presents an alternative to the acrylic fabrication and three-dimensional structures I’d outlined in my original plan.

I’ve long admired Yayoi Kusama’s mirrored infinity rooms, and seeing Eliasson’s work here confirmed what I’d been sensing: experimenting with mirrors together with the moiré effect acetate feels like a natural next step. The fragmentation of the patterns through reflection could intensify the perceptual experience.

And as part of my portfolio application in the summer, I created my own mirrored box experiments:

This also reminded me of Simon Periton’s ‘Silver Jack’ piece which I saw at Frieze this year, which can be inspiration for some subtle colour variations.

^{_{Simon Periton, Silver Jack, 2024 (Frieze)}}

Boris Mikhailov: Layered imagery

Boris Mikhailov’s slideshow with sound, “Yesterday’s Sandwich,” shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, sparked another direction entirely. The artist explains: “I inadvertently threw a bunch of slides on the bed, and two of them stuck together. Fascinated by the resulting image—I began to layer one on top of another like a sandwich. I continued the experiment, randomly substituting other slides and coming up with new combinations that reflected the dualism and contradictions of Soviet society.”

^{_{Boris Mikhailov, Yesterday’s Sandwich, mid 1960’s-1970}}

This gave me the idea to introduce organic texture to the backgrounds of my moiré patterns by layering photographs of nature I’ve taken with my Canon AE-1 film camera. The contrast between geometric precision and organic texture could create interesting tension.

Next steps

These pieces have clarified my next steps: experimenting with mirrored surfaces to multiply the moiré effects, and introducing organic photographic elements as backgrounds to create tension between the geometric and natural.