From dozens of painted mesh fabric panels, Tomislav Topić creates site-specific installations that transform open spaces into immersive environments....
Artscape
From dozens of painted mesh fabric panels, Tomislav Topić creates site-specific installations that transform open spaces into immersive environments. Layered one over another and suspended with meticulous care from ceilings or outdoor structures, the panels interact with sunlight and with each other to produce vibrant colour gradients.
One of Topić’s latest works, Echoverse, features 57 colours across 451 panels and stretches nearly 100 feet long and about 25 feet wide. It is currently installed in a spacious former chapel that now houses Les 3 CHA, an art centre in Châteaugiron, France, where the piece moves like a wave through the open interior. Other recent works include Nexus Lucis, displayed earlier this year above the altar of a large church in Gisors, France.
This autumn, a new outdoor installation titled Afterburn was unveiled above Intendencia Street in downtown Pensacola, Florida. Geometry, colour, and light combine to create prismatic effects. “Every colour, every layer, every viewpoint responds to another—like lines of a poem extending one another, or like sound waves travelling through the space and refracting in the air,” Topić says in a statement. Hovering independently yet arranged with precision, the installation changes as viewers move around it.
From one angle it may seem more solid, while from another its faceted, translucent nature becomes visible. Topić pays close attention to the character of each space, how people move through it, and how the shifting light throughout the day alters its atmosphere. “It is important to me to create a work that introduces a deliberate contrast, yet still merges with the space,” he says. “I love this symbiosis; for me, it is essential—especially in a place that carries more than 800 years of history.”
