physics, optics, and environmental art by lachlan turczan

There’s a moment in Lachlan Turczan’s work where the space shifts – a desert at dawn, a mangrove reserve at night, or a gallery in Milan – and the viewers soon realize that what they’re looking at is a moving light . It has volume and stands in the air like a wall or a column, and when they move toward it, it responds, flowing like water yet diaphanous like a thin, translucent fabric. From here, the realization comes through: light can behave like matter, and Lachlan Turczan has mastered the ways it bends, shifts, and dances.

The Los Angeles-based artist’s practice sits in the space between physics, optics, and environmental art , as he works with lasers, water, mist, and custom-built lenses to produce sculptures made entirely from light.…