Doug Wheeler

The American artist Doug Wheeler’s light installation LC 71 NY DZ 13 DW is a domed structure, approximately 20 meters in diameter and 8 metres high. The immersive installation is inspired by the artist’s life-long experience as a pilot and his perception of the horizon and vault of the sky from the 180-degree vantage point of a plane.

With its raised and doomed floor, the work creates a subliminal analogy to the curvature of the earth. Inside the environment, you will see the light change almost imperceptibly along the “horizon”, evoking an impression of the earth’s rotation. Challenging your perception of time and place, the installation invites you to a seemingly infinite space that affects and defines the experience of light in the natural world.

Doug Wheeler – pioneer of the “Light & Space”-movement

Doug Wheeler is an American artist and pioneer of the so-called “Light and Space” movement, which flourished in Southern California in the 1960s and 1970s. His works include drawings, paintings and installations characterised by a unique experimentation with the perception and experience of space, volume and light. In his works, the artist’s controlled use of light and sound to create a sensory impression of infinite space. By dematerializing, Wheeler transforms these spaces into abstract worlds.

Doug Wheeler, LC 71 NY DZ 13 DW, 2013 Reinforced fiberglass, flat white titanium dioxide latex, LED light, and DMX control 556,3 x 1958,3 x 2060,9 cm © Doug Wheeler Courtesy David Zwirner Light & Space, Copenhagen Contemporary, 2021. Photo: David Stjernholm