It felt like every medium, every concept, and every question was represented in the “Everything At Once” exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London. From Ryoji Ikeda’s hugely immersive “Test Pattern” binary light display, to Stanley White’s graphic block-coloured canvases, I was confronted by an eclectic range of imagery, audio and visuals. I found myself overwhelmed by the conceptual and contemporary range of artworks inspired by John Cage’s quote, “nowadays everything happens at once and our souls are conveniently electronic” – and a poignant message became apparent. After fifty years since this gallery’s opening, the featured artists over the years have teamed together to confront the idea that society has the ability and capacity to access everything in a cursory, superficial instant. Though there have been criticisms that this exhibition appears to have little direction, as there are no parallels between specified concepts and/or mediums, perhaps this reveals how successful these forty-five artworks are. Perhaps, the idea that there is so much accessible for the viewers reinforces the idea that there is, in fact,  everything at once: “time and space are no longer rational” (Cage, 1966) as “linear concepts and great distances can be traversed with an instantaneous click”.

Bibliography:

1. Lissongallery.com (2017) EVERYTHING AT ONCE | Exhibitions | Lisson Gallery [online] Available at: https://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/everything-at-once [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017]
2. Everythingatonce.com (2017) Everything at Once [online] Available at: http://everythingatonce.com/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017]
3. Ikeda, R. (2007) ryoji ikeda  |  test pattern [online] Available at: http://www.ryojiikeda.com/project/testpattern/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017]