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Spin Cycle

In the gallery, in a darkened room at the NGV, lying on what is an interactive, rendered body of water. Watching the people and my boots in silhouette, feeling the floor beneath me, swipes and swirls moving, watching the waves. Get up off the floor! the gallery attendant demands. Get up! Then, Get up, please! She moves around the vortex and we comply, lifting ourselves back upright, to stand rather than lie in the pull. 
Artist Toshiyuki Inoko and his collaborators at Team Lab explore the pull of currents, the dissolving of ‘the borders between the individual human body and the forces of nature’ in this installation as part of NGV's Triennal.

Why is lying down forbidden in the vortex? Is it the risk of being pulled under?



Swirls of the vortex move around and underfoot, light moving through and over. The waves move to our human shape, interact with our force, adapt to move away and envelop us. It is the whirlpool and the universe, the sea and the air. It’s the last gasp for oxygen as the bubbles leave the lungs, going upwards, massing, coiling at the frothy surface, cut through by sunlight, or here, cut through by downlights in our black box.

 There are mirrors all around me. I stand adrift yet encircled. It’s dark, it’s light, I’m alive, I’m breathing, others aren’t, and I’m heaving. Mirrored back and dappled in light and shade, the music gently urging. There’s a curious comfort in going down, deep down. 

No one can see me cry in here. 


The next week, our foster care puppy visited the Vortex. L plates on, a stand-off at the mirrors. She didn’t bark, just watched, fascinated, at her reflection, the people, and the light, the swirls moving underfoot, light and dark enveloping. 

 It’s a spin out, and you might not know on entering what will come out in the wash. The first time, it was an immersive drowning. The next time, it was marvelling at the curious L-plater, lapping up the waves. Dogs, or fish, or the originating amoebae, what mysteries we humans can learn from flowing with and against the currents, and working with nature's forces.


 You can see a video of the installation here or at NGV until April 15th, and read more at the official NGV Triennal site.

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