'Art...? Sorry, but I just can't see it' - Hayward Gallery to show exhibition of invisible work - News - Art

Lung: I thought they wanted a chat…but they offered me a record deal

A lot can happen in the space of twelve months, just ask Lung. Today, he’s the latest wunderkind sig...

Edward Norton: I wrote Wes a letter about Rushmore and that’s how we met

Against the glam and flashing bulbs of Cannes, Edward Norton strolls up to the table at the private ...

Brighton Fringe: Is literature the new rock ‘n’ roll?

First thing's first, literature is quite clearly not the new rock ‘n’ roll, just as pink is not the ...

It is fair to say that a good proportion of the British public fail to see the appeal of modern art.

It is, however, usually the case that they can actually see it.

The same cannot be said for the pieces to be 'shown' in a new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London.

The top London gallery is attempting to push the boundaries of visual art with an exhibition of invisible work.

On display will be 'invisible' works by Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Yves Klein, Sander Veenhof, Tamiko Thiel, John Craig Freeman Mark Skwarek and Will Pappenheimer.

Gallery bosses believe the £8 a head show (presumably to be paid in actual, rather than invisible money) is the first exhibition of its type to be staged at a major institution in the UK.

Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957 - 2012 opens on June 12 and includes an empty plinth, a canvas of invisible ink and an unseen labyrinth. With locations in Paris, New York and London, “Décharge de Rebut Toxique” by John Craig Freeman consists of sprawling radiotoxic waste dumps at a time when the world is reconsidering its policies on nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. "Invisible ARt," by Sander Veenhof challenges the augmented reality community with the same issue the community is often confronted with by non AR-community members: "is it real, if it is invisible?" After occupying the Tate Modern, the spirit of Damien Hirst spreads his bounty to the Hayward Gallery in "All Hail Damien Hirst," by Tamiko Thiel and Mark Skwarek will draw a line from one side of the gallery to the other. Dose, by Will Pappenheimer is an invisible hallucinatory experience initiated through the users mobile device.

Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery, said, “I think visitors will find that there is plenty to see and experience in this exhibition of invisible art. From the amusing to the philosophical, you will be able to explore an invisible labyrinth that only materialises as you move around it, see an artwork that has been created by the artist staring at it for 1000 hours, walk through an installation designed to evoke the afterlife, and be in the presence of Andy Warhol's celebrity aura.

“This exhibition highlights that art isn't about material objects, it's about setting our imaginations alight, and that's what the artists in this show do in many varied ways.”

Among the exhibits will be 1000 Hours of Staring, which is composed of a single, blank piece of paper which the artist Tom Friedman has stared at repeatedly over five years.

The exhibition also features Warhol's 'Invisible Sculpture', which is an empty plinth which, he once briefly stepped on.

The exhibition forms part of the Southbank Centre's summer-long Festival Of The World with MasterCard.

(DISCLAIMER) This article is an intervention by the international artists collective ManifestAR. We were not invited to participate in the Invisible exhibition, but we did anyway. To view the work go to the Hayward Gallery and enter http://manifestar.info/haywardgallery/ in your smart phone's web browser.