'Rebirth' on at the Royal Academy of Arts until 17 February 2013

Mariko Mori’s exhibition at Burlington Gardens, the annexe to the Royal Academy of Arts, centres on the themes of life and rebirth and references to Buddhism and the Jomon culture (around 14,000 to 300 BCE). It is a luminous, playful and uplifting experience which mixes lights, works on papers, digital technology and installations.

Burlington Gardens, is an intimate and beautiful space which is perfect for this iridescent exhibition.

In a darkened room, the exhibition’s first piece, ‘Tom Na H-lu II’ (2006) is a glowing glass menhir, 5 to 6 metres high lit by hundreds of different-coloured LED lights. These are connected to a computer at the Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Japan which records energy emitted from a supernova, a dying star.

The pulsating installation, shifting in colour as it feeds off the computer data, is set in a totally white room, mesmerising and seemingly alive. The silent spell of entranced viewers was only broken when one bold visitor went up to inspect it at close range – immediately beginning a trend. The peaceful room suddenly started resonating with the sound of curious and now vocal viewers.

‘Flat Stone’ (2007) fills another room and consists of smooth and beautiful stones laid on the floor in a pattern suggestive of a path to a Japanese teahouse set within a Japanese garden or to bathhouse, surrounding a translucent acrylic cast of a prehistoric Jomon flame pot.

‘Transcircle’ (2004) is an installation of nine stone-like objects positioned like a mini-Stonehenge. The stones change colour from purple to green to orange, each stone representing a planet.

A hanging pendulum of 108 glass crystals, evocative of Buddhist prayer beads or a rosary, casts rainbow-coloured shadows on a bed of stones below. It signifies reincarnation.

Mori’s selection of works on washi paper (Japanese paper made from fibres of the bark of Japanese plants such as mulberry) feature pictures of what seem like hundreds of little suns or constellations or sphere.s Many have glitter pasted on them and if you look closely at some of the spheres, you see that in some cases, Mori has carefully protected tiny sections from the glitter. Disarmingly simple, observed from a distance they seem to radiate warmth and colour.

The exhibition, on until 17 February 2013 is the perfect antidote to the gloomy rainy winter.