I enjoy a little bit of science-fiction, as regulars here will know; I also like a little touch of the surreal as well. Given both are in evidence in artist and photographer Ronda Saunders’ Time Tunnel / Eyelands exhibit, I was bound to want to take a look.

These are actually two individual installations linked together to form a whole. The first, Time Tunnel, is where explorations start. The second part of the piece, Eyelands (or Eyeworld), is based upon on a piece Ronda created and exhibited at the Nitroglobus gallery in February / March 2013.

I have to admit, the warning sitting alongside the stargate-like wormhole which forms the starting-point for your journey into these immersive spaces isn’t entirely reassuring. Cybertech industries thanks you for using their intra-dimensional transport systems it reads, kindly enough. However, it then continues, And accepts no responsibility for your safety. Eep! Other warnings are visible which may discourage the faint-hearted; however, follow their guidance, and you’ll be quite safe.

Step through the event horizon of the wormhole, and you enter a rotating tunnel which leads to a further walkway. Beyond the protective walls of the surrounding tunnel strange life forms can be seen: plasma-like creatures, swirling, rising, falling and moving as if on an invisible tide. Between them flit and flicker other creatures, their eyes protruding stalk-like, while groups of lights, mindful of the Phoenix Asteroids1, zoom by.

At the end of the tunnel sits a teleport system, set to deliver you to the second half of the exhibit. It is here that things get very surreal. Rocky outcrops float in a strange sky, the two largest of which can be reached by wood-and rope bridges. Upon these, tall, mushroom-like plants grow, their tops featuring eyes which turn, split, swirl and slide in a series of repeating patterns, and from which more eyes cascade in silent torrents to the ground under them. Between these growths are more eyes, flittering back and forth skittishly, while grass-like expanses of eyes of all sizes seem to ripple in an unfelt breeze.

It’s a strangely hypnotic landscape (more so if you have the music stream on); one I’m not sure words and images really do justice; as such, I can only urge you to go and see this remarkable piece for yourself.

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