A surreal landscape of ice lollies. That’s what I see here. And these lollies come in the weirdest flavours: strawberry-basil, mango-aubergine, endives and ink. Some of them may not sound particularly appetising… but they sure look the part!
Because it resembles a wave of light. The wave isn’t formed by actual ice lollies, but by dozens of paddles made from semi-transparent, reflective vinyl. The paddles are all mounted on separate flexible posts, of varying length. Together they form the image of a rolling wave. In their work, OBBA purposely uses non-architectural, everyday materials. Because they want to create surreal environments.
Anyway, for me, it looks like a landscape of ice lollies. Because they have coloured shadows – particularly when you see them during the day. As if your ice lolly is starting to melt. Yellow, red, orange and other sticky-sweet colours are dripping on the street. It feels like a warm summer’s day – even though it’s the dead of winter.
Fun fact
The key material used in this work is dichroic film. OBBA chose this film because it combines a mirror effect with transparency, allowing the light to reflect and project rainbow colours on the ground and water. How many paddles (or ice lollies, if you will) do you count?
