Steina Vasulka's magnificent video and sound installation Borealis (1993) will be presented at the National Gallery for the first time since it was last shown in 1993, over three decades ago. Borealis, meaning “northern”, dates from a period when the artist turned her attention outside the studio to the natural world. Opening is set on 4 April, 2024.

Here, she returned to her native Iceland, where she made the field recordings Arctic flora, and of water cascading over rocks and soil that form the basis of the work. The videos are projected at an immense scale – each of the four screens measuring nearly four meters high – such that the viewer becomes immersed in a realm of turbulent images and polyphonic sound. Moving back and forth between clear focus and blur, the imagery seems by turns representational and abstract. The work has been called “an ode to nature and its elemental forces.”

The exhibition is on view until 15 September, 2024.