A mind-blowing Stroboscopic Light Pod

James Turrell’s Bindu Shards was what I can only describe as an ‘experience’. I managed to obtain an elusive time slot for the exhibit which I have read elsewhere as ‘mind orgasmic’. I approached with some trepidation and the usual stiff, white cube-ness of the Gagosian space on Britannia Street did not help to quell my nerves. I hurried through the white halls to the large room in the corner in which sat a spherical pod – something borrowed from a dated science-fiction movie.

I approached the pod and was greeted by two assistants wearing white coats (of course). I signed a waiver (a little more disconcerting) and listened to the description of the two programmes for my experience: hard and soft. The assistant who was elaborating on these came across as a new-wave-trip kind of girl, her voice lilting in her postulations on the kaleidoscopic strobes of the hard programme as opposed to the soft, with its bloated shapes and melting colours. Of course I went for the hard version – I wanted to experience a heightening of senses.

So I was laid down flat on a trolley bed and propelled into the dome. I had headphones on and all around me was flat colour. What started was a kind of white noise – a droning pitch that screamed steadily up into the high octaves – highly disorientating me as the colour in front of my eyes started to pulsate. I immediately put my hand up into the air to ‘ground’ myself. Then the strobes began. Flashes of colour mesmerising in their rhythm, I experienced a strange sensation (with nothing to focus on), my eyes half-closed and the colour moved as if into my mind. Yes, it sounds a little psychedelic but there’s really no other way to describe it. My mind was tricked – my eyes felt as if they were closed in sleep – I did not blink for most of the duration. I had not known what to expect at the beginning – perhaps a video montage similar to the scene in the 1975 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory when they’re in the tunnel on the chocolate river. A terrifying melee of imagery – spiders and screaming mouths, colour and foam.

But instead it was just stroboscopic light, and I began to see galaxies and orbiting planets in my eyes. It was truly fantastic! I emerged feeling as if my brain had been minced and now scrubbed raw. I was grateful for the grey light of the dim chamber outside the pod. I was then ushered into a side-room with a squat white staircase, at the top of which sat a brilliant square of colour. As I approached I realised that this was a doorway to another capsule – a room flooded with colour! I was transported back to the Millenium Dome, when I visited in 2000 with my school and we all ‘regenerated’ in the ‘Chill-Out Zone’ – a facility I have now learnt was designed by Turrell himself. Back in the Gagosian I hovered for a long while, lost in the slowly-changing palette of light, which soothed my mind and eyes. Turrell is a genius of light – he understands its power to magically alter your frame of mind through the eyes, from electrified to supple and dreamlike. He’s one of the best comtemporary installation artists.

Bindu Shards at the Gagosian Gallery until 10 December