Dynamic Light Installations by Nicky Assmann
As part of the two-part exhibition *Water & Light*, the Dordrechts Museum is presenting a brand-new light installation by Nicky Assmann, created specifically for this exhibition. This monumental work, titled *When the brilliance of light refracts a thousand times by the water*, is on view as part of a two-part series in which Nicky Assmann offers a contemporary take on the 19th-century paintings of J.M.W. Turner. The exhibition also features other light installations by Assmann, including the overwhelming kinetic sculpture *The Abysses of the Scorching Sun*, which has returned to the Netherlands following international presentations. This sculpture, shaped like a telescope combined with a solar cannon, moves in real time with the sun’s path and reflects the light directly back: it fills the space and bathes the audience in a warm glow.
Like Turner (1775–1851), Assmann (1980) explores natural phenomena such as water and light. Whereas Turner paints nature on canvas or paper, Assmann uses technology to transport the audience into a three-dimensional landscape filled with swirling colors. In her new installation, she works with glass for the first time. A meter-wide circle of color appears as a luminous celestial body, suspended in the darkness, within a cinematic setting featuring light projections and reflections. The work evokes associations with a deserted planet—perhaps Earth itself—under the influence of climate change. Assmann invites visitors to reflect on nature and our place within it.
Sound vibrations from the deep sea and the universe In her new work, Assmann employed numerous experiments. Together with glass artist Rahmi Schulz of Derix Glasstudios, she imbued her fictional planet with texture and color using chemical processes and natural pigments. She tilted the glass to allow colors to bleed and incorporated sound vibrations from the deep sea and the universe. To do this, she used a homemade eidophone—an instrument that transforms sound into images—in homage to the 19th-century inventor and vocal artist Margaret Watts Hughes. Among other things, Assmann incorporated whale songs. The result is an immersive installation in which nature and culture, light and water, time and space, sound and image converge. Just like Turner, Assmann combines the beauty and sublimity of nature, but now in a three-dimensional experience: a poetic perspective on ecological threats and human vulnerability in the 21st century.
Water & Light
The two-part exhibition *Water & Light* shows how artists throughout the centuries have remained fascinated by the elements of water and light. What took shape in the seventeenth century through Aelbert Cuyp and other Dutch painters continues in this two-part exhibition, from Turner to the contemporary work of Nicky Assmann.
*When the Brilliance of Light Refracts a Thousand Times by the Water* was made possible with contributions from the Mondriaan Fund and Fonds 21. *The Abysses of the Scorching Sun* was made possible thanks to support from the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie NL and the Flemish Government.
The two-part exhibition *Water and Light* is made possible by the Yale Center for British Art and the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation. It is also supported by the Vriendenloterij, the Mondriaan Fund, the Province of South Holland, the Countess van Bylandt Foundation, Fonds 21, and the Lancey Foundation.
