• Tate Britain, 2018, photo by Joe Humphrys

  • Photo by John Webb

Space Displace Koan

1969

170 x 102 cm diameter

Perspex, fibreglass, turntable, fluorescent light; kinetic.

Tate Gallery collection 1986, Gift of Linda and Louis Tanner

Belonging to a series of conical sculptures Lijn started in 1965, Space Displace Koan is layered with elliptical coloured sections lit from inside. The cone spins slowly at a constant speed; so that the viewer’s eye focuses on the lines, which in turn appear to dissolve the volume of the sculpture. It is as if the lines move through the volume, whereas in fact the volume is spinning as a whole.