Commissioned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, this text provides an overview of how artists have embraced holography within their practice. It was published to coincide with Deana Lawson's solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in which she included holograms alongside her photographic work. The exhibition ran from May - October 2021.
Holography: How Artists Sculpt with Light, Space, and Time
Illusion has been practiced in art for centuries. The painted effects of trompe l’œil, for example, have long been employed to highlight our thirst for trickery and demonstrate the artists’ technical prowess. In recent decades holograms have emerged as a new means to achieve such effects, and artists have begun to use them to explore opportunities beyond simple gimmickry.
Originally devised as an attempt to improve the resolution of electron microscopes in 1947, holograms have developed into a visual and technical phenomenon that provides scientists, engineers, researchers, and artists a new tool to explore the display of objects and spaces around them. Holograms fascinate us partly because they offer a novel way of sculpting with light and partly because they can reproduce three-dimensional objects in staggering high fidelity so convincing that they seem real.
