Left/Right Slide was the centrepiece of the '21st Century' exhibition (2010). Specially commissioned by the Gallery, it belongs to an ongoing series of slides created by Höller for prestigious venues internationally and is among the most ambitious works by the artist to enter a museum collection.
Höller worked as a biologist before becoming an artist, and his art works might be thought of as experiments that act on the viewer in surprising ways. Left/Right Slide is a sculpture designed for GOMA's foyer that provided an efficient and 'green' method for travelling between the third level and the ground floor, its elegantly curved form contending with the straight lines and right angles of the Gallery's architecture. Beyond these considerations, it is the effect of the work on sliders that most interests the artist. Höller described his slides as devices for eliciting ‘an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness'. The sensations generated by sliding are central to the work and visitors are invited to observe their own inner spectacle as they hurtle through space.
