Ever heard the saying “dreaming with your eyes wide open?” I have, but I didn’t understand what it meant until just a few days ago when I got to experience the Asian Art Museum’s new immersive art installation straight from Tokyo, Japan.
Sure, I might sound a bit dramatic, but dramatic is exactly what this experience is. Blooming flowers, swirls of butterflies, streams of light that dart across the walls like it’s a massive canvas. The Asian Art Museum’s new exhibit is alive with light, colors, and feeling, and you get to be a part of it.
The Tokyo-based art collective teamLab has brought its uniquely spectacular immersive digital experience to the U.S. for the first time and is making its debut at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum this coming weekend.
Trust me when I tell you, it’s worth it. My coworker and I spent over an hour walking around this exhibit in complete and total awe of the beautiful array of projections, and that was before we even realized we could interact with them. The digitally projected artworks are movement sensitive and flow along with every move you make, truly making you feel like you’re Alice in Wonderland herself (at least I did).
The Bob Cut Editors stepping into a world of pure flowers at the Asian Art Museum. Photos via BC Editors.
The blooming flowers filling the space were by far my favorite part. From red and pink roses to bright yellow sunflowers, all constantly sprinkled with butterflies, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized. The “space room” gave me a mini existential crisis (in the best way). Endless streams of light flowing around me on all sides paired with soft, but dramatic, music reminded me how beautifully small I am in this gigantic universe of ours. The visitor-drawn ocean life periodically floating through the rooms provided a quirky, personal touch to the entire exhibit (and definitely brought me back down to earth after the space room).
Needless to say, this exhibit will provide a unique experience for everyone. Clearly, it was a mind-blowing one for me, but you won’t know until you see it for yourself. Believe me when I say I’ve been gushing about it to everyone I know for two days straight, and I’m not even being paid to.
“A blend of jaw-dropping aesthetics and technological sophistication”
Take your family, your friends, your significant other, go alone for all I care, just go! This once-in-a-lifetime experience is well worth the $20 ticket ($15 for kids, college students, and seniors), and might even make you want to go a second time. If my description and these pictures can’t convince you, check out their website for more details on the exhibit and ticketing info.
// 200 Larkin St, San Francisco. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Friday – Monday, 1 to 8 p.m. Thursday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. asianart.org. Feature photo courtesy of the Asian Art Museum.
