California light artist Doug Wheeler’s current installation at David Zwirner’s 20th Street location in New York is mesmerizing, even before you enter the space. The exhibition is approached through a small hallway that has been transformed into a rectangular portal of light, a trademark Wheeler illusion. Then, after surrendering your shoes—hospital footies are provided to keep the floor pristine—you subsequently surrender your spatial orientation.
Wheeler’s piece is an immaculate white dome that feels more akin to open air, where all points of reference have been buffed and polished away, leaving you pleasantly disoriented. Soft LEDs encircle the room like a bright twilight horizon and diffuse across the ceiling so seamlessly that there appears to be nothing overhead. The convex floor, modeled after a pilot’s-eye view of the earth below, makes it difficult to discern the distance you have traveled and have yet to go. As you approach the rim of light, how far the installation extends is obscured by a haze.
Anticipating a big audience, the gallery is now accepting reservations to view the installation in 15-minute intervals. “This piece allows you to be present in the moment and experience your own existential place in the world,” Zwirner partner Kristine Bell explained. And like any form of meditation, it’s best done alone.