360 Video | Explore a Rainbow Artwork 🌈

Why It Matters

Kasuba’s multisensory installation redefines gallery engagement, illustrating how integrated light, sound, and scent can deepen visitor immersion and set a benchmark for future experiential art projects.

Key Takeaways

• Immersive tent structure spans 4 m height, 10 m length.
• Seven neon-lit sections represent rainbow colors sequentially inside.
• Integrated scents and sounds enhance multisensory experience for visitors.
• Concept originated 1975; full-scale realized 2014 after decades of research.
• Artist Aleksandra Kasuba explores light diffusion and contemplation.

Summary

The video walks viewers through "Spectrum, An Afterthought," a monumental, tent‑like installation by Lithuanian‑American artist Aleksandra Kasuba. Measuring roughly four meters tall and ten meters long, the piece consists of a white, semi‑transparent fabric stretched over a series of rings and columns, forming a long, curved passageway.

The work is divided into seven sections, each bathed in neon light of a different rainbow hue—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet‑pink. As visitors move through the space, the fabric glows with the corresponding color, while atmospheric sounds shift and bespoke scents, created with perfumer Danutė Pajaujis‑Anonis, accompany each hue, turning the visual journey into a full‑body sensory experience.

Kasuba first conceived the concept in 1975 after years of experimenting with light diffusion and contemplative environments. The full‑scale realization arrived in 2014, marrying her early research with contemporary technology. Notable details include the use of bourbon geranium essential oil for the violet‑pink section, producing floral, spicy, and melon notes that linger as visitors exit.

The installation signals a growing trend toward immersive, multisensory art that engages sight, sound, and smell simultaneously. For museums and galleries, such works offer new avenues to attract audiences seeking experiential encounters, while artists gain a platform to explore how color, light, and scent shape perception and emotional response.

Original Description

Enjoy a detailed description of the artwork and learn about how Lithuanian-American artist, Aleksandra Kasuba made the work.

This 360° Video lets you look around the artwork in every direction. Click and drag your mouse on the video to change your view. Take your time and explore - there’s no single “right” way to watch.

Having studied applied arts in Lithuania, Aleksandra Kasuba’s work evolved from small-scale ceramics and paintings to monumental public installations. In parallel, she conceived futuristic architectural shelters to engage the senses, often using stretched fabrics to create environments without right angles.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Kasuba developed a practice of making immersive interior environments. She created Spectrum, An Afterthought, after years of research into stretched fabric, the spectrum of colours, and sensory experiences. Kasuba imagined the work as a space for contemplation and sensory immersion.

Though Kasuba made a model for Spectrum, An Afterthought in 1975, the environment was only fully realised in 2014 for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Lithuania, her country of birth. Recreated at Tate St Ives, it is accompanied by six scents corresponding with the spectral colours created by Lithuanian-American perfumer Danutė Pajaujis-Anonis.

Kasuba was a visionary thinker whose artwork and ideas helped shape the currents of twentieth-century art and continue to inspire artists and architects today. Her unique vision of a future built on social unity, technological innovation and harmony with nature remains ever relevant in the contemporary world.

Credits

Aleksandra Kasuba, Spectrum An Afterthought, 1975/2014. Lithuanian National Museum of Art

With thanks to Lithuanian National Museum of Art

Voice - Susanna Webster

Script - Giles Jackson

Production - 3deep Media

Producer - Saskia Mercuri

Online Edit - Menna Kamel

Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl

To license Tate films please email [e-mail]