INNER [DEEP] SPACE Chris Levine 5-9...

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INNER [DEEP] SPACEChris Levine

5-9 OctoberPark Village Studios

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01. FOREWORD

02. BIOGRAPHY

03. WORKS

04. ELTON JOHN AIDS FOUNDATION

05. THANKS

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CHRIS LEVINE FRIEZE SHOW

INNER [DEEP] SPACE

Chris Levine offers a spectrum of works

from the cornucopia of his imagination and

prodigious workshop: light/sound installations,

holographic portraits, sculptures, laser etchings,

silkscreens and prints. His inspiration is rooted

in contemplative practice, pondering qualities

such as focus, openness, equanimity, composure,

grace, steadiness, imperturbability, prudence,

fairness, peace, acceptance, passion, compassion

and stillness. He investigates attention itself.

What we pay attention to is our time, our life, as

much as heartbeat and breath.

“In modern life we are bombarded with all

manner of information and sensory input and

we become overloaded, we get sick, tired and

numb. Meditation is the key to refuge from the

crazy world we live in as we restore balance

and become liberated from fear and anxiety.

In my work, I’m looking to take people, even

momentarily, into a fast track meditative space

which can be healing and transformative.

Stillness is a portal to a divine realm where the

bandwidth of perception opens up and Truth

reveals itself.” - Chris Levine

This show is about attention and presence,

sharing the artist’s experience of who we are as

individuals, who we are as a species, our relation

to other beings, and how we are connected in

the cosmos.

THE ROCK THAT FELL TO EARTH

We are all made of itinerant cosmic dust.

Our bodies are a pause in the journey of matter,

in its minuet with energy and life. The Russian

biogeochemist, Vernadsky, described a continual

migration of atoms from inert matter to living

matter and back again… biogeochemical

phenomena are the basis of the biosphere.

A space rock falls into the gravity well, heats to

incandescence, and blazes to earth. “Le Saut dans

le vide” (Klein). In Levine’s central installation,

an Argentine meteorite from Campo del Cielo,

is a fragment of a hundred ton meteorite made

of iron and nickel. Lasers bounce pure colours,

FOREWORD

5Dark Mofo / iy_project 136.1hz

Courtesy MONA

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single wavelengths of light, off the reflective

electro-plated meteorite into the mist-filled

space, creating three dimensional light patterns,

dance of stillness and of restlessness, of

invention and playfulness, dynamic calligraphy

of pure laser frequencies, an artistic rendering of

the vastness and complexities of inner and outer

space. Levine lifts a wee corner of the cloak of

sensorial invisibility which occults the full spectra

of cosmic electromagnetic theatre.

An elder from the Colombian Kogi tribe, Mamo

Luis, told me that during 18 years of his youthful

initiation, living in complete darkness in a cave,

he travelled the galaxies. I asked him what it was

like out there in the cosmos. “What is out there is

the same as what is in here. Inside, outside, they

are the same.” Inner (Deep) Space.

WOMB OF TRANCE

The exhibition opens into a deep meditative

ambience. You are invited to sense, connect,

with the artist’s intuition. Levine manipulates

frequency to create new experiences; his palette

contains frequencies of light and sound, and not

the sort that one encounters in everyday life. He

transmits a heightened, mystical sensibility by

tapping into primal audio and visual pathways in

the body, such as the “MT” pathway, very deep

in the brain, that detects movement in our visual

processing system. He crafts all-body sense

impressions which are interpreted by the brain

as calming and centring meditative experiences.

Levine’s light work contains proprietary optics,

the same laser technology he has employed in

installations that encompass several miles. One

such work, iy_project, began in collaboration

with Robert del Naja for a concert of Massive

Attack, and developed into a sound and light

installation shown at the Eden Project in Cornwall

to record breaking attendance figures. iy_project

will feature at Glastonbury in 2019 and again in

2020, for the 50th anniversary of the festival.

These installations are like turning a pre-

psychedelia Jordan Belson film, Allures, into

an immersive experience of drug-less exalted

perception. Levine’s impulse mirrors Belson’s, “a

trip backwards along the senses into the interior

of the being.”

In Inner (Deep) Space, continuous rich tones

of gently permutating frequencies by Sacred

Acoustics fill the room, like a devotional chant

that focusses the mind. Music is a time-based art.

But with these carefully modulated frequencies,

like plainchant, like overtone singing, like musical

drone, like the repetitive tempo of a shaman’s

drum, the temporal aspect of the sound is

diminished, and with it the sense of time passing:

a trance of timeless space.

7iy_project at Eden Project

Photography - Steve Tanner

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Trance is often defined as differing from an

ordinary state of mind, which begs the question,

what is “ordinary”? Our days are replete with

trance states; society operates in a consensual

trance. Sometimes the trance state is beyond

consciousness, sometimes it calls attention to

itself with heightened awareness. Attention

flickers in and out, continuously. In a sense, all

types of consciousness are trance, an immersion, a

focus. The tying shoelace trance, the work trance,

the trance of love, the trance of oblivion. Shamans

use specific perceptual input to facilitate focus;

sound and light in Levine’s work could be said to

facilitate a meditative trance in those open to the

experience. One such work, Stillness at 136.1Hz,

was recently presented by the Saatchi Gallery

during the Edinburgh Festival.

Achieving stillness is not as easy as it may seem.

This subtle ambient sound environment is

designed to act as a tuning fork, equilibrating the

psyche and relaxing the body. The soundscape

is composed with the mathematical principle of

the Fibonacci sequence (golden ratio, golden

section), a formula known since the Iron Age, if

not before. The Fibonacci sequence can be

discovered in the structure of many natural

phenomena, and is often employed in the

construction of fine musical instruments, crafting

of poesy, sculpture and in architectural design.

Regent Park’s old Victorian equestrian school

radiates with esoteric sound frequencies, with

streaming three-dimensional pure colour, with

“religious” iconography without the religion. The

sacred has no dogma and is accessible to anyone.

Levine creates a tabernacle, temple, cathedral,

mosque, chapel, sanctuary, refuge, shrine, altar,

a collective 21st Century meditation space. Pre-

dating Homo Sapiens, Neanderthals painted cave

art, inhabiting resonant subterranean chambers

as sound and light installations in Chauvet,

France, over 65,000 years ago. There, painted

figures were animated by the flickering of flames,

a shadow dance, Lanterna Magica.

Streaming colour in immersive, interactive

architectural spaces has been used for millennia

by the Persians, Arabs, Moors, Byzantines, and

Europeans. Dazzling hues pour in through stained

glass, as if one could breathe pure colour - blue,

crimson, golden yellow... Canterbury Cathedral;

Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba; Dom Mariä

Heimsuchung, Augsburg; Nasir-al-Mulk, Shiraz;

Hagia Sofia, Istanbul; Cattedrale di Santa Maria

del Fiore, Florence; Cathédrale Notre-Dame de

Chartres; Rothko Chapel; Matisse’s Chapelle

du Rosaire; Josef Albers’ grid of colours; Dan

Flavin’s row of Icons light sculptures; James

Turrell’s magical spaces, Yves Klein’s freedom

of pure colour, his blue of the void. Colour has

its own meaning and experience. Robert Irwin,

“We know the sky’s blueness even before we

know it as “blue”, let alone as “sky.” Collective

spaces, containing objects and bodies, glow with

incandescent splendour. The sacred icon is light

itself. We are all children of the sun.

9Dark Mofo / iy_project

Courtesy MONA

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VIBRATING MATRICES, WHIRLING MANDALAS

Equilateral crosses sign to us from several works.

The equal-armed cross is a symbol of the Sun, of

light, of the chariot or the wheel of light, as well as

a meeting of spiritual and material in the eternal

Now of the present moment.

An LED centre-point pulses, an invitation to focus,

to become aware of your focus of attention onto

a focused and specific point in time and space.

What is the world that surrounds this point?

There is a meditation exercise to look intently

at a specific focal point. The reality is that the

fovea of the eye is very specific, the focus of

what we actually can see is exceedingly narrow.

Most of what we “see” is a blur: the content is

surmised, an extrapolation of memory and rapid

eye movement. I focus on a glint of light, a corner,

a dot, a kind of ‘x marks the spot’. What is in it

for me here? Register an impression, develop an

intentional relationship with it, and you create a

world. The act of registration is intimate, a private

act, yet with enough distance or abstraction to

register the category, I create what I see, I enjoy

what I create.

It takes a mental leap to actually see something

new, to ‘create a new world’. In a way, we can

only see what we’ve already seen. That’s a table

because I know what a table is, I’ve seen plenty.

Some think that reported sightings of UFOs

and religious apparitions are instead the brain

reinterpreting and contextualising anomalous

phenomena into culturally recognisable

categories. “Seeing is forgetting the name of

what one sees.” (Paul Valery)

The cross could also be immersion, interaction,

the arena of action and of personal psychic

space, what systems ecologist John Allen

dubs an “experience-ment” – the experiment,

experimenter, experience and ex-periculum (risk).

His new laser etchings on paper are illuminated

mandala-like diagrams of crystals, with actual

crystals embedded at node points. One of Levine’s

inspirations is scientific drawings by Matthew

Forster in The Minerology of Scotland (pub 1901).

In referencing the meteor and the crystals, Levine

releases the thrall of a helter-skelter, harum-

scarum world, instead contemplating the nature

of time, reminding us of geologic epochs. As Lao

Tse quipped (Tao Te Ching trans. Witter Bynner)

“Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if/He

once has heard stone growing in a cliff!”

Levine also takes inspiration from astronomical

drawings, natural patterns of plants, ley lines,

brain scans in a meditative state – his works are

heavily researched but the art-making process is

instinctive and from the heart. Levine’s intuition

is that we live in a cosmic matrix, a resonant

geometry of laws and patterns, like the vibrating

air between strings of a musical instrument.

11Antony and the Johnsons at the Teatro Royal Madrid

Photography - Louis Hudson

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Levine’s parabolic disks are mandalas (circle in

Sanskrit). The laser display refracted through

the crystal is a nadichakra, (chakra=wheel,

nadi=flow), turning. The defining property of

a crystal is its inherent symmetry, unchanging

amidst change. Multifaceted Swarovski crystals

direct pure frequencies of laser light into

the arena of the disks, producing trajectories

and whorls of attention and energies, inner

journeys amidst fundamental patterns of light

and materiality.

His prints of soft orbs of colour are reminiscent

of James Turrell’s glass circles, but rendered in

ink on paper. The spheres are Tantric in their

boldness and intention, they are about focus and

energy, and, of course, pure beauty, a smiling

pond of colour.

THE GAZE, INWARD

Iconic portraits reveal very public figures in

repose. In new 3D portraits of Kate Moss, Naomi

Campbell and Grace Jones, Levine marries the

glamour of spectacle with the mesmeric focus

of a meditative state. Eyes open, eyes closed,

the Gaze sees inside, a unity of consciousness,

a consciousness of unity, negotiating between

universal and particular. To capture this, during

each photographic session he designed a

personalised meditative space. When Levine

asked the Dalai Lama to close his eyes in

meditation, His Holiness commented that in his

tradition, meditation is done with open eyes. He

carefully aligned his fingers in repose, focussing

on meditation. This Dalai Lama is noted for his

moments of lightness and wry humour; at one

point, he also voluntarily closed his eyes, in the

flow of the work’s positive intent.

THE SECRET OF LOVE

The unconscious does not respond to directness.

It does not respond to commands, to orders,

but rather to vague suggestions, to indirect

invitations, opportunities, allusions, veiled

meanings, contradictions, musings. Levine’s light

sculpture, playfully called ‘blipvert’, can only be

viewed indirectly. This message to our hidden

selves teases, jests, like a Sufi joke or a koan

or the flirtatious flutter of eyelashes. The word

LOVE appears in light, mid-air in the peripheral

vision, like a merry will-o’-the-wisp tapping you

on the shoulder to share its secret: Light is Love.

Kathelin Gray

2018

13Portrait of Chris Levine

Michael Fung

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Chris Levine is a light artist who works across

many media in pursuit of an expanded state

of perception and awareness through image

and form. Levine’s work considers light not

just as a core aspect of art, but of human

experience more widely. A spiritual, meditative

and philosophical edge permeates his work.

Levine is perhaps best known for producing

what is already being described as one of the

most iconic images of the twenty-first century,

Lightness of Being. With light and stillness at

its core, the sensational portrait of Her Majesty

Queen Elizabeth II presents an utterly fresh

depiction of the most famous woman in the world.

The National Portrait Gallery stated it was the

most evocative image of a royal by any artist.

Levine’s practice is differentiated by the cross-

fertilization across many creative fields including

music, performance, installation, fashion and

design in a multitude of projects.

His exhibition Hypervisual 1.2, completed a

tour of 12 countries with the British Council.

In 2012, his work featured in the major exhibition,

Queen and Image, at London’s National Portrait

Gallery. He has had artwork in London’s Science

Museum and has staged light performances

and exhibitions internationally in spaces such

as Radio City in New York (commissioned by

MoMA), The Eden Project, The Royal Opera

House, MATE museum in Lima, London’s Fine

Art Society and Tasmania’s MONA museum,

where he created the headline installation for

the MOFO festival.

Levine’s status as one of the world’s leading

light artists has led to a number of high profile,

cross media collaborations with luminaries

such as Massive Attack, Hussein Chalayan,

Antony and the Johnsons, Kate Moss, Grace

Jones and Jon Hopkins. In addition, he has

undertaken commissions for select brands such

as Chanel, BMW and Swarovski. He has recently

completed a historic portrait to commemorate

the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday and raising funds

for the victims of Nepal’s recent earthquake.

He is only the second artist to take a formal

portrait of His Holiness, the previous being

Annie Leibovitz.

BIOGRAPHY

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CATALOGUE OF WORKS

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Attention on the dot, just the dot

Anodised aluminium disc with Ultra Violet LED

750 mm diameter

Edition of 10 + 1AP

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Space Rocker

Parabolic Aluminium Dish

Campo del Cielo Meteorite

3 off 488nm Blue Lasers

1590 mm diameter

Edition of 3 + 1AP

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Parabolic 1.2 [Orange]

Parabolic Dish with UV dye

Laserpod

1590 mm diameter

Series of 3 each with unique optics

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Parabolic 1.3 [Pink]

Parabolic Dish with UV dye

Laserpod

1590 mm diameter

Series of 3 each with unique optics

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Wave Form Dish

Fibreglass and Aluminium

Laserpod

1590 mm diameter

Edition of 3 + 1AP

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Inner Space

Dichroic Cube on plinth

LED modulator

300 mm cubed

Edition of 5 + 1AP

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Geometry Of Truth | Series 2 | 1

Laser Etched Screen-print with Crystals

600 mm squared

Edition of 10 + 1AP

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600 mm squared

Edition of 10 + 1AP

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600 mm squared

Edition of 10 + 1AP

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Kate Moss [She’s Light] Magenta

Lenticular Lightbox

1300 mm x 980 mm

Edition of 3 + 1AP

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Naomi Campbell Transcendence

Lenticular Lightbox

1500 mm x 1000 mm

Edition of 3 + 1AP

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Light Is Love | 2018 Edition

LED Blipvert with Semi Silvered Glass

500 mm squared

25 + 1AP

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Cross Print 1

Silkscreen print with Jealous. Crystallised with

Swarovski. 500mm squared. Unique

Cross Print 2



Cross Print 3



Cross Print 4



Cross Print 5



Cross Print 6



Cross Print 7



Cross Print 8



Cross Print 9



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Cross Print 10



Cross Print 11



Cross Print 12



Cross Print 13



Cross Print 14



Cross Print 15



Cross Print 16



Cross Print 17



Cross Print 18



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Cross Print 19



Cross Print 20



Cross Print 21



Cross Print 22



Cross Print 23



Cross Print 24



Cross Print 25



Cross Print 26



Cross Print 27



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Cross Print 28



Cross Print 29



Cross Print 30



Cross Print 31



Cross Print 32



Cross Print 33



Cross Print 34



Cross Print 35



Cross Print 36



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Cross Print 37



Cross Print 38



Cross Print 39



Cross Print 40



Cross Print 41



Cross Print 42



Cross Print 43



Cross Print 44



Cross Print 45



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Cross Print 46



Cross Print 47



Cross Print 48



Cross Print 49



Cross Print 50



Cross Print 51



Cross Print 52



Cross Print 53



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Laser Etched Paper with Crystals

740 x 460 mm

Unique

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740 x 460 mm

Unique

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570 mm squared

Unique

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570 mm squared

Unique

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570 mm squared

Unique

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570 mm squared

Unique

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Inner [Deep] Space

Main installation with Laser

and Meteorite

Unique

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The funds raised from the exhibition will go towards supporting the charity’s work with

young people around the world. This is the only age group for whom HIV infections are

rising, with more than 200,000 young people infected with HIV last year alone.

David Furnish

Chris is perhaps best known for producing what is already being described as one of the most iconic images of the twenty-first century, Lightness of Being which he very

kindly donated an edition of to our auction at our annual Academy Awards Viewing Party.

He is a great supporter and friend of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and will be generously donating a portion of

the sale of the works featured in this exhibition.

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Our mission is to create an AIDS free future.

We believe AIDS can be beaten and

work alongside a range of local projects,

organisations, government officials, celebrity

patrons and brand partners to make this

a reality. We measure our success by our

ability to prevent HIV infection, provide

treatment, end discrimination and drive

social and political change. Established

in 1992 in the USA and 1993 in the UK, the

Elton John AIDS Foundation is one of the

world’s leading international not-for-profit

organisations working year-round to support

those affected by HIV.

Chris Levine’s support of the Elton John AIDS

Foundation during our 25th Anniversary

year will help fund our work with young

people around the world. Chris is a great

supporter and friend of the Elton John AIDS

Foundation and will be generously donating

a portion of the sale of the works featured in

this exhibition.

Our achievements to date include:

• Reaching millions across 26 countries

with the HIV information, support and

care to save their lives and protect those

they love.

• Preventing almost a million babies being

born with the HIV virus.

• Helping to leverage more than £300

million in additional funding from

governments and funding partners.

We are proud to have played a part in

expanding HIV treatment over the last

quarter century from less than 300,000

patients to over 20 million people today.

This has changed HIV from a virtual death

sentence to a manageable condition.

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Andy Altman and Why Not

Andy Atkinson

Adam Rutherford

Angelika Buhler

Beanie Hayward

Branch Arts for locating Park Village

Chau Digital

Chris Barton

Dario, Adam, Nick, Jess,

Ben and Jealous

Dickinsons

Doug Stokes and

Design on Impulse

EdenLAB

Elton John Aids Foundation

Emma, Kit, Thea, Jago

+ Clover Levine

George Hayward

Goenka

Gordon Young

Grace Jones

Helen Chislett

Her Majesty The Queen

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Hugh Devlin

iy_project

Jeff Robb

Kate Bryan

Kate Moss

Kathelin Gray

Katy Wickremesinghe and KTW

Koop Design

Lucy Rogers

Marco Perry

Mireille and Mazen Masri

Nadja Swarovski

Nico Kos

Naomi Campbell

Park Village Studios

Peter Hampel

Pommery

Ricardo Pauli and Pauli Frames

Richard Bainbridge

Robert Del Naja

Roger Klein

Sacred Acoustics

Sarah Hibbert

Seedlip

Sennheiser

The Cultivist

The Eden Project

The Elton John AIDS Foundation

The Office of Tibet

Toby and Gaby Grafftey-Smith

TwelveArts

WITH THANKS

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Inner [Deep] Space

Park Village Studios, London W1

from 5th - 9th October 2018.

Catalogue © Twelves Arts

Images © Chris Levine

Text © the authors 2018

Photography by Luke A Walker

Design by KoopDesign.co.uk

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