Constant Motion

The starting point for the artist's lighting installation Soul was a simple observation: ‘Before any idea becomes real, there's a moment when it exists only inside a person, as a thought, a dream,” he says.

Mykola Kabluka looked to EEG research on daydreaming, prayer and contemplation, states in which alpha activity rises. He then used the ratio between brainwaves to define the curvature of the glass lenses and the structure of the soundtrack. ‘The light effects are meant to read as the emotions, thoughts and connections that usually stay invisible,’ he explains.

Mykola Kabluka will also be showing The Point of Unity. Here, inspiration was drawn from the drive to keep creating even when times are hard. The sculpture is a way of holding onto that idea; the mirrored surfaces reflect the sky, the clouds and the people standing beneath it, while the piece itself stays grounded. ‘It became a way of saying that the impulse to reach for something larger than yourself doesn't disappear in difficult times; if anything, it's what keeps you moving,’ he explains. 

He acknowledges that the choice of glass presented something of a technical challenge. For Soul, he had to develop a custom system of twelve glass filters mounted in mirrored housings, precisely angled so that a laser passing through them refracts into caustic waves rather than a flat beam. There were also an enormous number of variables, not least the weather. ‘But that's exactly the point. I don't think a static object can hold the kind of state we were after with either piece. Light gives you that constant motion.’

 It is apposite that Soul will be projected onto St Paul’s Cathedral façade and that Point of Unity will stand nearby. ‘This isn't just a striking façade to project onto; it's a place built around exactly the kind of question these two works are exploring: how a building can hold something beyond its physical structure.’ Point of Unity is designed to be seen both day and at night. During the day, the effect is achieved with polished steel, at night, more than 3,500 optic fibres embedded in the piece are joined by a caustic laser projection and a soundtrack built from astronomical ratios. Soul, on the other hand, is really an evening piece; it’s a projection, so it only exists in the dark, when caustic light is read against the façade. 

Mykola Kabluka is clear that Soul isn't 3D mapping but is rather regenerative: the pattern you see never repeats because it's produced by the actual physical construction. ‘That's a fundamentally different, more demanding way to build a light piece than projection, but it's the only way to get something that genuinely behaves like a living process rather than a recording,’ he explains. The Point of Unity works with change differently. It doesn't generate a new pattern in the way Soul does, instead relying on the shifts of light that constantly change depending on the time of day, the weather, and the people engaging with it.

Beyond the light and physics, both pieces carry a message for Mykola Kabluka that is deeply personal. ‘Although the starting points were technical and philosophical, both works ended up carrying the compulsion to create and connect, even, or especially, when circumstances are difficult,’ he says.

Words by Tamsin Kingswell