Matthew Schreiber: Banshee 

Thin Air, The Beams, London, UK

2023

Schreiber takes a given volume of space and begins by measuring it and dividing it into symmetrical segments. The dimensions of the room dictate a structure built to mount hundreds of lasers. The lasers visually plumb the space with light and atmospheric haze resulting in geometric patterns that change as viewers move within the sculpture.

A site-specific light sculpture, Banshee 2023 responds to the volume of the room it inhabits. The precise placement of lasers produces a series of geometric patterns frozen in space. 

Evoking the tools of the entertainment industry and its production of spectacle, visitors are invited to move within a static light show, seeing it change as we shift our position in the room, 

Thin Air 

Bringing together a leading group of international artists, the exhibition presents a set of New Media installations at striking scale. All the works on show are temporary and site-specific, their form the result of a complex arrangement of space, audience and technology. 

The artists use materials from the events and entertainment world at "counter purpose", to reveal the unseen rather than create pure spectacle. From network technologies to the black box algorithms that reflect and shape our desires, we find ourselves simultaneously surrounded by more information than ever before and yet experiencing a reality built upon increasingly invisible structures. 

The works presented expand the range of our perception through immaterial architectures, impossible images and intangible sculptures, helping see that, when prompted, our vision extends beyond its common field. 

The exhibition can be experienced in multiple ways, alone or in relation to each other - in dialogue with visitors, the spaces they are set in, and the long history of interplays in art and technology. Some works are ever evolving, others fixed in time, but they are in every case invitations to both active exploration and focused contemplation.