Anthony McCall

Anthony McCall is usually better well known for his avant-garde film work in the 1970’s. However, due to his fascination with the mechanics behind film projection his work branched into experimenting with light and in particular projected light. McCall has realised from his filmmaking career that the light from projectors can often appear solid when smoke or dust is passed through the beam. From this allure McCall produced ‘Line Describing a Cone’ and more recently ‘You and I’ both of which featured at his exhibition at The Serpentine Gallery.



The slow tracing of the circle on the screen gradually creates a gleaming white cone of light that stretches back from the screen to the projector. As the cone slowly completes itself in front of you, a room that previously contained only darkness ends up with a huge geometric shape hovering astonishingly in its centre.
What was particularly interesting in this piece was how the light entered the room, and at even though you could see the projector creating the light, it remained difficult to resist checking to see if it were solid, the light was actually in the same space, shifting and ‘living’. You know, of course, that they are not solid, but some internal perceptual instinct in the brain insists otherwise.

There was certainly a level of interactivity within the piece, as members of the audience enjoyed ducking in and out of the beams, stepping transgressively across the panes of light, and generally exploring the illumination. It was this level of interactivity that enthralled me, as other similar works seemed to lack willingness to adopt a relationship with the audience. McCall’s work invited you to ‘play’ with it, something that was thoroughly enjoyable. I do however, believe that this could be taken even further, and the introduction of sensors and allowing the audience to influence what actually happens regarding the light would produce a more enchanting piece.