Liz West: Our Colour Reflection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

If there are two things we need on a cold, wet, autumn day, it’s light and colour. Particularly vivid colour that lifts the spirit, boosting endorphins and this is exactly what you’ll find at Liz West’s new exhibition Our Colour Reflection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The show opens during Wakefield’s Our Year Light Up festival – you can learn more about the Light Up Wakefield event here.

The artist creates a brightly coloured installation inside the Chapel: the usually bare space of the building lends itself well to reflecting colour off its pale walls. The piece consists of mirrored disks laid out on the floor at different heights, in 15 different colours. The disks emit and reflect light, painting the Chapel in translucent reflections.

Our Colour Reflection changes according to weather conditions and time of day, becoming a dynamic element of the site. Visitors can experience it through a pathway that leads through the installation, adding a performative aspect to this organic light show and seeing it at different angles. Colourful reflections dance on the walls and columns of the Chapel, bringing out architectural details that we would not necessarily look up at otherwise.

Liz West’s practice is rooted in colour theory and an interest in the effect of colour on us psychologically. Light is an essential material when working with colour itself – West does not create images but experiences, often site-specific ones where the work collaborates with its surroundings. You may have seen her monumental piece Slow Revolution (2021) in Salford’s Greengate which consists of geometric columns made up of stacks of triangular forms which are ever so slightly twisted, suggesting subtle movement. Perhaps you’ve walked through her teepee-light structure titled Through No.4 (2021) in Media City. 

West’s work has been in sites and galleries around the world yet she cites YSP as one of the key places for her artistic development: “Living locally, I was taken to YSP as a child back in the 80s and 90s (…) I worked in the shops and as a gallery invigilator during my holidays from art school in the 2000s and have brought my own family and friends to visit as an adult.” She studied in Wakefield and today takes inspiration from artists like Dan Flavin, Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell, whose Deer Shelter Skyspace is one of the pieces you can see at YSP.

A wholesome installation for cold winter days, Liz West: Our Colour Reflection is sure to be popular with visitors this season.