Shape Shifters exhibition at the Hayward Gallery

Jeppe Hein, Josiah McElheny, Anish Kapoor, Alicja Kwade, Fred Sandback and Yayoi Kusama were just some of the artists who exhibited as part of the show and it was great to be able to explore the different interpretations each artist brought to the exhibition. Works were created from glass, resin, mirror, oil, and more, and worked to comment on minimalism and the psychological and physical processes that go into interacting and understand a space.

The exhibition design integrated the artworks into the fabric of the building, with Monika Sosnowska’s work being twisted around one of the gallery’s staircases to find its way onto a wall in the upper gallery of the Hayward. Josiah McElheny’s work focused on using mirror and wood, and included dancers wearing mirrors as they walked around the gallery. Another highlight was Richard Wilson’s 20:50, which was a room flooded with perfectly reflective, densely black oil. Walking into the severe, cut out path was disorientating and fascinating at the same time, with the space reflected so perfectly in the expanse of oil filling the room it could at first be mistaken for a black mirror.

With our images and reflections regularly being distorted throughout our journey through the gallery, Space Shifters was a playful and thought-provoking way of considering and exploring the senses, and how we interact with the spaces around us. The exhibition included works that were created during the last 50 years, and it was interesting to experience an exhibition that was as much about the viewer as the artworks themselves.