Art Dubai: Artist Focus, teamLab

Flowers and People – Dark by teamLab (Collective created in Tokyo, 2001). Courtesy Martin Browne contemporary and the artist

Art Dubai’s 11th edition is in full swing now and my advice to any visitors is to make sure to check out the TeamLab booth. It is a collaboration between three galleries Singapore’s Ikkan Art Gallery, together with Martin Browne Contemporary of Sydney and Pace Art + Technology, from Menlo Park, California, USA.

The artwork is mind bogglingly cool. It is devised by a team of experts in CGI and sensory technology and is simply entrancing. For the booth at Art Dubai, there are six digital works on show including Flowers and People – Dark, a multi-channel real time computer program which shows flowers springing up, growing, blossoming and then withering away. The cycle of growth and decay repeats itself but the viewer's behaviour affects the cycle - meaning that when you stand in front of it, the flowers will either grow or fade.

There is also Universe of Water Particles – Gold, a 3.5 metre tall cascading waterfall, and Gold Waves, a 4-metre long vista of waves unfolding. To make these programmes, the team used real water in the lab and then simulate the laws of physics to generate the movement seen on screen. The whole way of putting these artworks together and the philosophy behind them takes its queue from ancient Japanese traditions. The Japanese conception of nature is that it includes and enfolds people so we are not separate from it - something that is very clear when standing in front of these works.

* TeamLab (Ikkan Art Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary and Pace Art + Technology) can be found at booth A9, Gallery Hall 1