ART

THE QUESTION OF THE WEATHER

the incredible artificial vision of Olafur Eliasson

By Shannon Chung

This man is thinking of something big

As soon as a piece of art goes public, everyone's a critic: the general public, critics, administrators, everyone, even the artist’s family. But interpretation, specifically, the artist’s or museum’s interpretation is always suspect to other possibilities. This is certainly true of one of my favorite artists, the Icelandic-Dutch phenom Olafur Eliasson. His sculptures and installations are intensely beautiful. If you have the luck to see any of his works, you will not only be overwhelmed by how great they are, but also, rather strangely, you will be subject to Eliassson’s, his curators, and critics telling you what they’re about. He claims and his many supporters do, too, that his main subject is climate change, but the question is: is it really, or is it about something else? I’m going to choose something else, but with a caveat. Of course, it’s about climate change. However, it’s more about the process by which art attempts to address the most memorable concerns of human consciousness than whatever subject matter it supposedly addresses.

Eliasson was born in Denmark and spent his childhood in Iceland where he studied from 1989 to 1995 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He visited Iceland every summer when he was young. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, the Icelandic government would shut off the power every evening as a way to save energy. The light would disappear in an instant and the world would suddenly go dark. For a moment, people could not see anything, but gradually their eyes would slowly adapt to the change, and people would realize, including little Eliasson, that light still existed. This unexpected experience was an important part of his development as an artist.

Why is this man bathed in gold?

Now that’s one interesting story of Eliasson as a young person, but I want to tell you one more story, because of how important it is to understand his art. He enjoyed dancing, going at almost any time and place. What’s clear is that he learned a new way of thinking about space, especially the human body in space, and the radical uncertainty that that feeling produces. We don't often think of our bodies as being something to think about, for us, they just are; but Eliasson became obsessed with who we are in space and time. Thanks to this realization, he was able to understand how space frames experience, and this insight eventually became an important feature in his work.

Dancing as a model for art

Unlike other artists, he isn’t just concerned with the visual but how all the senses can be incorporated into his art. His speciality is providing us an opportunity to face nature in the controlled environment of the gallery or museum. For viewers, they can experience the future environment without actually experiencing the world. It’s art as a mode of free thought.

The Weather Project (2003) at Tate Modern is the most representative project of Eliasson's career. It’s a monumental work and so let me try my best to describe it. When you walk into the empty gallery, Eliasson puts you right in front of a gigantic artificial sun. The sun dominates the inside of the exhibition hall with bright yellow and red lighting. Especially for “Londoners,” who often encounter cloudy days, the opportunity to lie on the floor and enjoy the light pouring in is an unexpected joy. It is as if they are sunbathing without the sun. A semi-circular screen made of approximately 200 industrial lights, lines the ceiling of the gallery with mirrors that exaggerate the volume of the hall in a dreamy, hazy atmosphere of suffused light. It’s as if Eliasson puts us in a world of unlimited space, which is quite an achievement when you consider that you’re in a museum.

What do you see when you see Eliasson?

Furthering the dreaminess of the piece, the artist uses a humidification device to fill the room with a slight fog. All these elements stimulate viewers’ emotions, not only visually, but also emotionally. The hall provides us with a broader meditative spatial experience than most science-fiction’s “space” movies. While laying down on the floor, people see themselves reflected in the mirrors. It creates the illusion of actually looking directly at the sun, which you should never do in real life. The effect strengthens your imagination and allows you to feel the difference between vision and reality. By darkening the surroundings and brightening the sun, Eliasson challenges our perceptions. Although Eliasson’s techniques are complicated, the audiences’ experience is simple: we are only watching artificial warm lights. This project encourages viewers to understand and experience the artist’s work fully rather than just passively watching. Encountering artificial weather, the work raises questions and allows for a compelling curiosity.

While seated in the exhibition hall, we could wonder why Eliasson wanted to create such a dark dreamy atmosphere. I would say that he wants to address Climate Change without addressing it. Eliasson said that the difference between politicians and artists is that the artists express problems in long-term solutions and ways in which the public can feel alert. By making climate change artistic, audiences feel a greater sense of vigilance and awareness. The falling mist surrounding the viewers refuses the idea of a frame and supports the scale of art of such gigantic scale, Eliasson explores the meaning of the climate crisis with tremendous focus and force. Most people are less aware about their surroundings especially when the environment is so familiar. However, his artworks shift people’s viewpoints in dynamic and dramatic ways. If there is a little change in daily life which is specifically related to the destructive environment, we can be sure that most people might feel cautious.

Don't look at the sun, maybe

By providing an experience of encountering natural phenomena that are usually difficult to see and feel directly in a daily life, The Weather Project shows the sublime aesthetic value of nature by giving aesthetic rather than realistic life to the climate situation. Light and shadow, colors and movements like non-material effects interact with each museum goers. These days exhibition trends change fast. There are more and more digital-based artworks and online exhibitions opening successfully. Even though virtual worlds are dominating current society, The Weather Project (2003) inevitably makes people visit the gallery because it makes the intangible real.

©Shannon Chung and the CCA Arts Review