I recently visited the Olafur Eliasson exhibit at the Tate Modern, ‘In Real Life’. I visited following my watching of an episode of ‘Abstract’ on Netflix featuring Eliasson’s work, not to mention countless Instagram stories. I was excited to experience the scale of his pieces and some of the physical techniques he uses to make his work.
[1] I started with ‘Beauty’, A mist of water lit with a single light fixture creating a rainbow in the falling particles. I am intrigued by the simple use of light but also how people are interacting with the piece. Viewers move around, trying to find the best spot from which to view the piece, or get the best photo. I enjoy this innate, almost symbiosis between the art and the viewer. While I am sure the angles have been calculated to assure a good experience no matter the position, the fluid motion of the water presents a challenge to people trying to stay in a good spot. When I look into the mist, I see something akin to flames; I guess the fluid dynamics aren’t dissimilar.
[2] Just around the corner from beauty was ‘Your Blind Passenger’, a tunnel of fog that was noticeably narrower than I had expected. This was my third time in an atmosphere like this; I experienced Anthony Gormley’s ‘Blind Light’ in 2007 at the Hayward Gallery and Ann Veronica Janssens ‘yellowbluepink’ at the Wellcome Collection in 2015. Out of these, Eliasson’s work was the most underwhelming. Beginning with his signature yellow sodium vapour light, the space does indeed appear unbounded. Moving through the tunnel, not much changes until at approximately the half way point the colour changes almost abruptly to a grey. Observing people here I found the biggest effect it had on people was apprehension. Everybody trudged, it only took a small movement left or right to reveal a wall, and after walking into one and finding it to be damp it was not an experience that tempted repetition. I suppose this is the purest form of the monochromatic yellow light Eliasson uses, but for me I find it far more interesting when it is used in a polychromatic world to reduce the visible colour space, making the experience more personal.
My memories from the other “Fog” pieces I have experienced are as follows:
‘Blind Light’ made me breathless, perhaps as it was my first experience of such a phenomenon, perhaps because the fog was much thicker than the other two. I remember holding hands with someone inside but not being able to see them. The glass walls of the cube which contained the fog allowed those inside to see out but only if they pressed themselves right up against it. This piece also differed as it was equally viewable from the outside. Silhouetted bodies appear to merge and divide, their uniqueness obscured by the dense fog.
‘yellowbluepink’ was a fun experience as I experienced it with a group from my art class at school. I remember feeling free to roam in the space, If I recall the walls sloped away in a way that made them unthreatening were you to approach them. The colours in the space were also incredibly varied and unnaturally vivid.
[3] I enjoyed the simplicity of ‘Your Uncertain Shadow’ it was easily legible to the audience and the scale of the piece allowed for interaction with/from a crowd of people at any one time. It really inspired me to make a work that can take input in this way. I have a strange idea for a wall that remembers. Eliasson’s wall here is instantaneous. The presence of the audience is immediately reflected on the wall but there is nothing left once they are gone. I imagine a similar wall, which remembers those which stood beside it.
[4] The last piece I want to mention here is ‘Big Bang Fountain’, a water fountain which is frozen in time by a strobing light. This piece is interesting physically but does not lend itself to audience participation the way other pieces of Eliasson’s do. It also does not lend itself to documentation; photographs do not represent the fleeting nature of the visibility of the water, and video systems break down when trying to render strobes that are not synchronised with the shutter of the camera. I increasingly think that some level of documentability is useful if not crucial for art to be successful in the online world.
I am beginning to think of an early idea of a work which is a wall which in some way records the motions and actions of those beside it. Not necessarily in a way quite as explicit as video, perhaps a photoluminescent paint and a powerful lamp to expose silhouettes onto the wall which build up and fade as people move around. This effect might also be created using a camera and projector, and this would open up more options but that might even be too convoluted. I am also aware that whatever I make should really have some digital component so it might be necessary to take this route in order to satisfy that criteria.