Tetrascopes, 2013

Tsvetnoy Central Market, Moscow, Russia

Five mirror sculptures, each 12 metres high, slowly rotate in the atrium of Tsvetnoy Central Market. The Tetra­scopes — fusions of tetra­hedron and kalei­doscope — turn on their own axes at different speeds and propa­gate the surroun­ding space in the form of complex reflec­tions. The dynamic interplay between the sculp­tures and the space produces decon­struc­tivist images in a perma­nent flow that engen­ders a unique, individual expe­rience of the space based on the specific light condi­tions, the proces­ses unfolding in the atrium, the viewer’s per­spective and the ever-changing config­urations of the rotating Tetrascopes.

The sculptures’ steel skeletons are all iden­tical. Mirror facets are attached to the steel frames but do not cover them entirely; the elong­ated trian­gular structures have voids, or openings. Two Tetra­scopes are suspended from their tips, while the tips of the other three point down­ward. Motors attached to the ceiling move all five sculp­tures.

The complex perspec­tives of the space rendered through the reflections are difficult to decode. Looking up into a Tetra­scope from below, a perspective from which the Tetrascopes are very reminiscent of kalei­doscopes, the view is of the seemingly infinite.

Despite the size of the sculptures, the instal­lation does not look monu­mental. Views from all six upper floors and the ground floor provide a vast spectrum of spatial perspec­tives.