A GHOSTLY monolith pulses, its varying colours the only source of light in the room. Shades of purple and red waft over its surface, and it almost seems to be breathing, keeping time with the rapt crowd.
But this is no biological rhythm, it is something on a greater scale. The light playing across the 4.5-metre-tall standing stone is that of cosmic particles as they dance through the Earth's atmosphere. Or rather, as they are detected at the Super-Kamiokande observatory at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Cosmic Ray Research in Japan.
This work, Tom Na H-iu II (pictured) welcomes you into Japanese artist Mariko Mori's solo exhibition, Rebirth, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The sculpture uses a live feed from "Super K", transforming incoming data into the ethereal glow of the sculpture. The varied hues reflect the different particles that are detected in the huge water tank at the Japanese facility: pale pink muons are rare; multicoloured neutrino bursts from the deaths of distant stars even rarer.
This celestial dance is a theme throughout Rebirth, which showcases some of Mori's key works from the last 11 years. The exhibition explores death and rebirth by linking our transient existence to the natural rhythms of the cosmos.
The familiar imagery of ancient stone circles anchors the movements of the heavens to our own human history. "Our life was inherited from our very remote ancestors and given to us now, and we will transfer it to future generations," Mori says. The chain of life reaching back through history, and our ancestors' reverence for the natural world, are strong themes in the artist's work - reminding us how interwoven we are with our environment. At the entrance to the gallery, a sound installation makes the point explicit. "We are nature," Mori's voice echoes. "We are sustained by nature."
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