Watch now: Video walkthrough with Mary Corse

23 October 2020

WARNING: This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

"Nothing is static in the universe, so why make a static painting? It's an unreality." This narrated walkthrough of Mary Corse's second exhibition at Lisson Gallery, entitled 'Variations', reveals the artist's innovative use of materials that capture, reflect and refract light, ensuring that our perceptions of her paintings change as the lighting shifts or as we move about the space. These techniques enable Corse to create a dynamic interplay between her paintings and the viewer.

In a studio interview, Corse describes her revelation in the face of the one-to-one experience with these works: "I wanted to put the light in the painting, so I found the glass beads. I knew the painting changed as you moved, it wasn't static – the microspheres provide a prism not a reflection, it feels like it comes from within. I've never really been its interested in surface. I always wanted to go deeper and the light in the painting does that. I now have an inner band that appears and disappears depending on where you are so your perception creates the experience of this other dimension."

Click through to watch the film containing archival footage and audio from the 1968 film, White Light, directed by Greg Corse and from a 2011 interview conducted at her Topanga Canyon studio, courtesy of the Getty Institute: © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2012.IA.114). Filmed by Laura Bushell.