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Olafur Eliasson
An illustrated guide to the work of world-renowned installation artist Olafur Eliasson
Conceived as an illustrated a “field guide” to the work of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967), this stunningly produced book features a substantial conversation between the artist and Tate curator Mark Godfrey, as well as a collection of short dialogues with a strikingly varied range of people working both inside and outside the arts—from anthropology, economics, political science, and biology to architecture and urbanism, dance, music, and food.
Eliasson builds such conversations into his daily life and work. They help him not only to understand other people’s unique fields of knowledge, but also to ask, “What does my understanding of your knowledge do to my understanding of the world?” The interweaving of these texts with stunning photography of his remarkable and immersive works provides an insight into what Eliasson calls his ongoing aim of “reaching out into the world.”
Conceived as an illustrated a “field guide” to the work of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967), this stunningly produced book features a substantial conversation between the artist and Tate curator Mark Godfrey, as well as a collection of short dialogues with a strikingly varied range of people working both inside and outside the arts—from anthropology, economics, political science, and biology to architecture and urbanism, dance, music, and food.
Eliasson builds such conversations into his daily life and work. They help him not only to understand other people’s unique fields of knowledge, but also to ask, “What does my understanding of your knowledge do to my understanding of the world?” The interweaving of these texts with stunning photography of his remarkable and immersive works provides an insight into what Eliasson calls his ongoing aim of “reaching out into the world.”
240 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 26, 2020
Curate your own gallery
Update, six months into Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, museums and galleries have only just reopened (partially) and overseas travel is still impractical, so I recently joined Instagram. Not to post nor even comment. I follow artists (including Eliasson), galleries, museums, photo-art, national parks, and a few owl and penguin-related "users". No family or friends, and nothing political. The result is a feed of pure beauty and joy. An eclectic gallery of ever-changing exhibits. Highly recommended.
Modern art
What I love about modern art is its breadth, diversity, and above all, its ability to surprise.
Image: “In real life” - Part of a huge kaleidoscope.
I’ve been fortunate to visit the Uffizi, the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, the Hermitage, and others. I admire and sometimes love the old masters as well as the slightly newer masters. I am awed to see greatness up close, to connect. But there’s a general familiarity, even with individual works I’ve never seen before.
Love it or loathe it, modern artworks invariably provoke a reaction and discussion. You can’t be indifferent. You feel alive in a way that’s hard to express in words. It is an experience. An audience is essential. A reactive involved audience. Non-artists become an integral part of the art.
Eliasson
On a visit to Tate Modern (the one in an old power station) in summer 2019, mainly to see a different exhibition, it was Ólafur Elíasson’s In Real Life that stunned, surprised, disconcerted, and inspired. I experienced it twice that day (“walk through” is too linear and mundane), and want to again.
Image: In reverent, child-like wonder, in “Your spiral view” - one of several times I immersed myself in this remarkably unreal work.
Elíasson is a Danish/Icelandic artist, who creates elemental multimedia multi-sensory installations (light/dark, water/mist, optical illusions, textures, and even tastes). He entices his audience to participate. You can’t not.
Image: Tables of plain white Lego to inspire architectural models.
The connecting concerns are nature, climate, geometry, and perceptions of the world around us. There were time-lapse photos of melting Arctic ice; a huge, living wall of moss; a neon-lit corridor of lightly flavoured mist so dense you could only see 30cm ahead; and a sparsely-lit room with water dribbled from the ceiling in a way that had toddlers to old people dancing, laughing, meditating, praising.
Image: Various geometric models.
The exhibition spans almost 30 years, but the book covers his life’s work to date, including Q&A with Eliasson and collaborators about his life, philosophy, and art, including kitchen he established at his studio to provide family-style lunches with local healthy food. The book is good. The exhibition is better. Best of all - both together.
Image: “A description of a reflection” - This moved, mutated, changed colour, as light was projected through rotating mirrors and lenses. See HERE for the setup.
My photos don’t represent the full range of the exhibition or the book, but they were the ones that combined greatest resonance for me with being photogenic. However, photos are not the point. It’s an experience. It runs till 5 January 2020. Details HERE.
Image: “Your uncertain shadow” - Well, mine and a couple of strangers.
Update, six months into Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, museums and galleries have only just reopened (partially) and overseas travel is still impractical, so I recently joined Instagram. Not to post nor even comment. I follow artists (including Eliasson), galleries, museums, photo-art, national parks, and a few owl and penguin-related "users". No family or friends, and nothing political. The result is a feed of pure beauty and joy. An eclectic gallery of ever-changing exhibits. Highly recommended.
Modern art
What I love about modern art is its breadth, diversity, and above all, its ability to surprise.
Image: “In real life” - Part of a huge kaleidoscope.
I’ve been fortunate to visit the Uffizi, the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, the Hermitage, and others. I admire and sometimes love the old masters as well as the slightly newer masters. I am awed to see greatness up close, to connect. But there’s a general familiarity, even with individual works I’ve never seen before.
Love it or loathe it, modern artworks invariably provoke a reaction and discussion. You can’t be indifferent. You feel alive in a way that’s hard to express in words. It is an experience. An audience is essential. A reactive involved audience. Non-artists become an integral part of the art.
Eliasson
On a visit to Tate Modern (the one in an old power station) in summer 2019, mainly to see a different exhibition, it was Ólafur Elíasson’s In Real Life that stunned, surprised, disconcerted, and inspired. I experienced it twice that day (“walk through” is too linear and mundane), and want to again.
Image: In reverent, child-like wonder, in “Your spiral view” - one of several times I immersed myself in this remarkably unreal work.
Elíasson is a Danish/Icelandic artist, who creates elemental multimedia multi-sensory installations (light/dark, water/mist, optical illusions, textures, and even tastes). He entices his audience to participate. You can’t not.
Image: Tables of plain white Lego to inspire architectural models.
The connecting concerns are nature, climate, geometry, and perceptions of the world around us. There were time-lapse photos of melting Arctic ice; a huge, living wall of moss; a neon-lit corridor of lightly flavoured mist so dense you could only see 30cm ahead; and a sparsely-lit room with water dribbled from the ceiling in a way that had toddlers to old people dancing, laughing, meditating, praising.
Image: Various geometric models.
The exhibition spans almost 30 years, but the book covers his life’s work to date, including Q&A with Eliasson and collaborators about his life, philosophy, and art, including kitchen he established at his studio to provide family-style lunches with local healthy food. The book is good. The exhibition is better. Best of all - both together.
Image: “A description of a reflection” - This moved, mutated, changed colour, as light was projected through rotating mirrors and lenses. See HERE for the setup.
My photos don’t represent the full range of the exhibition or the book, but they were the ones that combined greatest resonance for me with being photogenic. However, photos are not the point. It’s an experience. It runs till 5 January 2020. Details HERE.
Image: “Your uncertain shadow” - Well, mine and a couple of strangers.
May 4, 2022
Having seen an immense, impressive, immersive expo of his in London a few years back, picked this book up that offers some of the pieces in that expo, but is more a multi-pronged conversation with experts in various fields about, gosh, just about every subject under the sun, from food and climate, to buildings and public spaces, and poverty, the poetry of light, right through to the sensation of being alive. Stimulating, pleasurable, a slow boat through ideas.
March 1, 2020
Genuinely interesting collection of discussions between Olafur and his friends, collaborators, and co-creators. Inspiring.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews