Phantasm - Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic-Norwegian artist. His work began as photography, using images as a way to survey the landscape of Iceland through a series of multi-image pieces. Each one was a collection of almost repetitive images. These started in 1998 and continued on well into the late 2010’s. I found while researching Eliasson that his early works, his photographs served as a base for his interests and, as his work evolved, he stepped out of the realm of photography and moved onto site specific installation.

One of his more famous work was from 2003 at the Tate modern. He went through the process of creating the sun in a way that could be tangible to the viewers. He did this by integrating fog into the space. That way more senses were being used to interpret the installation. I think that this work is very successful and helped me understand the vision that Eliasson is trying to achieve in his works.

When Eliasson works he considers the viewer. In his TED talk, he spoke of the responsibility of both the viewers and the artist to communiate. He talks about how we see the work, and what we do after we are immersed in the work. This consideration is apparent in political and ecological issues.

At the Climate Conference of 2015 he imported pieces of glacial ice from Greenland in front of the Pantheon in Greece. Here he is forcing the public, not just the people of the conference to face the realities of our actions as a society. Eliasson is shoving global warming in the faces of the participants in a very concrete way. However, the work still had a visual appeal that wasn’t overly unsettling. I enjoy his work because while it does envelop the public space, it’s in a subtle and gradual way, so as to help illustrate the consequences of the actions we take. 

Another example would be his work pouring non-toxic green dye in the of Rivers in major cities: L.A., Tokyo, London, and Amsterdam. He talks about how as the river flow,s the dye starts to work it’s way through the city and cover more of the river. Again, I feel his ideas circle back on his idea of public responsibility that we have as humans, as well as the definite scientific aspect underlying his work. He works in tandem with scientists to create eologically responsible pieces.

While Eliasson's work often frequents the public space, other work occupies the more formal spaces of museums and galleries. Those works often play more with the fantastical and magic of light play. One of my favorites is titled Your Unpredictable Path (2016). This is a series of colored and/or reflective orbs placed on a black wall. The seemingly random position of the orbs is meant to imitate the cosmos and outer space phenomenons. By incorporating the reflective orbs that also invert the space reflects the viewers' images back in distorted mirror.