Particles/Partículas, originally created for an IMAX format in an exhibition curated by Marisa Caichiolo at the Sol del Niño Museum in Mexicali, Mexico, as part of Reencuentro Binacional, has a haunting beauty that guides the viewer through suggestions, taking them from a very arid and dry space towards one where each drop of water is celebrated as a source of life.
The archetypal work taps into Lutyens’s explorations of synesthesia, a condition in which certain people experience an involuntary cross-over of the senses. His work in this field has included olfactory-haptic projects with neuro-diverse children, as well as elderly stroke patients. He has also applied this research with celebrated neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran at the Istanbul Biennial. A project was created for over 30,000 visitors based around Theosophist Annie Besant’s book Thoughtforms, in which shape and color were explored in relation to given emotions.
Particles/Partículas also draws on Lutyens’s practice of hypnosis performances which he has showcased in many places around the world such as Culture Summit in Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim NY, the Centre Pompidou, and the Venice Biennial. For Lutyens, hypnosis and synesthesia are intimately linked and point to the possibility of expanding our consciousness through the rewiring of the mind at subconscious levels. He sees art as a transformative process in the audience.
The theme of water has been explored many times by Lutyens, particularly with his large-scale sculpture The Droplet which was exhibited at the Musée de la Monnaie in 2017 in Paris. The project explored the theme of water security in a historical context and the threats we face today through climate change. He gained the support of eight of the world’s top water scientists, whose words were integrated into the 45’ high sculpture.
The narrative content of Particles/Partículas evolved from a recent trip to the desert area of Al’Ula in Saudi Arabia, in which cultures including the Nabateans have for centuries venerated water as the most precious element that is at the fulcrum between us thriving on the one hand and on the other, our own ecological collapse. Lutyens was inspired by working with students of the Turquoise Mountain School and particularly with how they decorated their hands and used them in different craft making processes. The video, featuring artist Yi-Ping, is an allegory of a larger picture that is happening at planet scale, and hopefully in its own way influences the viewer to value each drop of water with which we come into contact.