Claude Lévêque

Claude Lévêque, War Games (installation view), 1999

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Claude Lévêque (b. 1953, Nevers, France) transforms architectural space with light and colour. His installations, which are site-specific, render familiar environments ambiguous and disorienting. Reflective surfaces where we least expect them bring movement into a room while dissolving the stability of walls and ceilings.

For TRACE Claude Lévêque developed a piece called War Games (1999). Upon entering the main doors to the exhibition the visitor was confronted by a barrage of light.

This luminous assault was entirely unexpected: the windows and glass doors of the gallery space were covered with a dark grey solar filter, mirrored on one side. Claude Lévêque covered a false ceiling with reflective foil, and all the walls were painted with bright aluminium coloured paint. On the wall facing the entrance three rotating lamps projected bright white flashes. The entire inner surface of the room reflected this intense light, which appeared to rebound endlessly into space.

Claude Lévêque at Liverpool Biennial 1999

War Games, 1999
Mixed media installation 
Courtesy of artists and Gallerie du jour agnés b, Paris
Exhibited at Tate Liverpool