“It’s Like a Lighthouse”: DOUG AITKEN's Green Lens for SAINT LAURENT

What is the future?
Such was the question posed by the performances and conversations animating GREEN LENS, a large-scale installation by artist DOUG AITKEN presented in Venice this July.

A “living” artwork and cultural stage for ecological thought, Green Lens was commissioned by Anthony Vacarello for SAINT LAURENT, and provided the backdrop for the label’s Spring/Summer 2022 Men’s presentation on the Venetian island of Isola Della Certosa. The work’s crystalline interior immersed visitors in a dense, kaleidoscopic botanic environment. Exterior reflections combined clouds, mist, and vegetation evoking a mysterious landscape, its shifting sky and surroundings mirrored and abstracted within the sculpture, which sought to create a space in which to contemplate and empower nature, and our shared future.

True to the changeability of the natural environment, Green Lens remained on view for two weeks following the show (July 14 – 30, 2021), before receding below the horizon.