The Wednesday Lecture, Documentary: Artist Olafur Eliasson
Wednesday 14th October 2020, Willow Fisher
Netflix. Abstract: the art of Design. Episode: Olafur Eliasson: The Design of Art
Olafur Eliasson is a Icelandic artist who focuses his artistic trajectory on sculptures and installations, he grew up in a place where culture was a part of everyday life. He creates immersive installation pieces that encourage the audience to interact and become a part of the artwork itself. The documentary I watched was on Netflix under Abstract: The Art of Design. I found the documentary episode informative as it revealed more of Olafur as an artist, his artwork and more context into the thoughts behind the ideas. I watched the documentary twice. The first time I watched it with no interruptions so that i was completely immersed in it, and on the second viewing I made quick notes which I then transferred into more detailed notes. I found that re-watching it I could properly receive all of the information provided for me and could allow myself to have a deeper understanding of the artist and his work. I find this to be a very helpful approach to note making and research, repetition.
Collaboration is something that Olafur values a lot in his artistic career. Whether it be with his team or the spectators of his artwork in exhibitions. To reinforce this strong passion of interacting with his audience he began the Netflix episode directly addressing the viewers through the screen, encouraging our involvement. He introduced a little experimental piece I would call it to us, where he asks us to switch off all the lights in the room so that the only light source is the television. He would then hold up coloured pieces of paper in front of the camera transforming the atmosphere in our rooms with these sole colours illuminating our environment. He acknowledges the TV as a lamp, and follows this hope for us to read it the same way, and during this episode and this little experiment to look at the space around the screens. More specifically how it's being manipulated and changing. Our rooms change colours due to his actions, red, yellow, blue, altering our experiences. He informed us that colours have unprecedented ways of influencing us, through its connotations and presence. Throughout a lot of Olafur’s artworks he encourages the audience to accompany him as the protagonist. Imploring that what we experience when viewing his work is completely up to us, we as his participants can create our own experiences of perceiving his artwork. The artist is now working on a global scale introducing his work to a wider more diverse audience, furthermore opening himself up to more varied experiences from different individuals across the world. In doing so Olafur is changing the world and how we experience life. He is primarily fascinated in the potential of art being connected to the world, and to furthermore be socially engaged with the world, and to begin to criticise the world.
He's an artist that likes to interact with his environment, always looking at different approaches and artistic directions. In many ways incorporating the environment he experiences into his artwork. Therefore creating immersive spaces as well as experiences and opportunities. His studio is situated in Berlin, and describes it as a place where he and his team can work together and create intelligent pieces of art. He also states that the space is both fun and beautiful in the means of the atmosphere that is produced there which then impacts the context and quality of the work created. Upon entry of the studio you are provided a conceptual insight of the real world in their artistic microscope, where they depict it and try to further exploit it in a creative sense. The studio’s environment offers a real honest portrayal of the artist's reality, experiencing it in their spaces, witnessing the truth of the creative process of many of the works.
Differentiating materials have appeared throughout Olafur’s career in art, he's made it quite evident that he is open to working with new and unusual mediums. For him he interprets this as a broader way of structuring ideas, which incidentally led him down the path to producing this new art style. As an artist he likes to explore the notion of what we consider to be the truth, in various forms. Implying that us as individuals create a reality as we go through space, suggesting our experiences help to orchestrate the world around us and how we perceive it. Olafur informed us that we are looking at art; it personifies itself with the indication that the artwork is looking at us, and that in an unusual way the art is listening to us. Both being captured in that intimate silence of observation creating a platonic relationship between the person and the piece, allowing the viewer again to interact with it and relate to it. Due to this approach to his artwork Olafur believes his work is dependent on spectators, encouraging them to wonder what they are actually looking at. It is very much constructive, as is the structure of this Netflix episode. Through the direct addressing of the audience through the screen from the artist he;s in a way acknowledging us and metaphorically listening to us.
When he first began as an artist his initial practice looked at exploring the concept of what was between the walls, that empty space. An entrapment of nothingness. Is it dense? Is it cold? These are the questions Olafur asked himself and this is what motivated him to create a response through a project. He was fascinated with the impression of capturing the nothingness and depicting it in a form visible to all in an artwork. His first works were attempts to create a rainbow. He implied that there wasn't really much to it as the nature of it was so unpredictable. For instance how the rainbow appears to the audience is completely up to the audience members themselves. With strong contributions and reliance on our eyes and angles. These factors decide what we can and can't see and can be applicable to this particular piece of artwork. The space is entirely dependent on you being there, where you stand decides what you will see and experience. We were informed that if no one was to be in the display room, then there simply would not be any artwork. The artist stated that he wants to enable himself to trust the capacity to engage in the world, and responds to this through his artistic career.
The installation is called Beauty, I find this piece truly astonishing in the portrayal of it and its conceptual nature and behaviour. For instance I admire that the work isn't so predominantly depicted by Olafur, in a way acting more independently and reliant on itself in order to perform. It is unique in the sense that each spectator can perceive alternating displays of the art, again due to its unpredictability. I would describe the tone of the artwork as being enigmatic as it's unknowing what you will expect when entering the work. I just really find the simplicity of it the most appealing because although Olafur has taken an ordinary space, the area between the walls, he’s managed to reintroduce it to the world empowering its beauty. It's heavily reliant on the environment as well, specifically the lighting which is the most dominant factor of the piece to depict the imagery and quality of the rainbow. Reinforcing that significance from the artist of incorporating the environment into artwork. The rainbow itself traditionally is considered to be one of the world's phenomena so it is enlightening to see Olafur bring in that natural beauty into his work for the audience to fully appreciate.
Olafur Eliasson grew up in Denmark with his father and throughout his childhood spent a large amount of time with him in Iceland. During his time there he became more familiar with the area's atmosphere with the presence of water, and light becoming natural to him. These experiences turned out to be significantly influential in shaping Olafur into the man he is today as well as his interest in art and his work. It was implied that for the artist nature allows him the opportunity to create a language for people to relate to, incorporating this sense of maturity and intelligence into his artwork. He regarded water as a form of capturing the passage of time, this is particularly evident in waterfalls, which inspired his next project. The waterfall’s intense existence in our environment is often looked over with its determination and utter speed going unappreciated for more modern approaches. Olafur wanted to deal with this matter and attitude toward nature, so he created a waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge. He stated that the waterfalls attendance in the heavily man made space made people realise how enormous the bridge actually was. Encouraging the varied audiences to stop and really look and engage with their surroundings, that they so often take for granted. It also really emphasised the size of the waterfall as well, as well as making the public realise how big our bodies are as well and just the powerful statement coming from the gigantic structures. That it isn't so much about the landscape presented, it's more consistent of us. The structure was one of four man made installations in New York City.
Waterfall, Palace of Versailles, 2016. This installation displayed in France really enforced the position of architectural pieces in the art world, prominently conveying themes emerging from water. Positively portraying its value and unprecedented beauty. The structures appear to create the illusion of water personifying itself and appearing from the air in an unnatural position. The piece's primary theme conveyed is consistent environmental issues, and I think its placement in this area is really significant in reinforcing this issue. Also its sheer height and volume stands out for all to see, I believe forcing spectators to gaze upon it in its forced like appearance in the middle of a public place. Thoughts that I associate with this installation is that Olafur is bringing these grave ecological issues to us to oblige us to listen and understand. We are the primary cause of these natural problems and are the only ones capable of making change, but I believe we are too preoccupied with our makeshift reality that we are ignoring these issues. So Olafur has taken this and transformed it in a way that will get our attention and hopefully force us to listen and act. I think this architectural piece of artwork is really powerful in its isolated stance among the public. I believe its intended messages and meanings are conveyed appropriately appealing to us and allow us to accept these pressing ideologies relevant to our current reality. I've already learnt that Olafur Eliasson admires incorporating nature and his surrounding environment into his work and this installation boldly reinforces that. A journalist in the episode implied that in order for an artist to produce work on the gigantic scale they have to be confident in their ideas and in themselves, which I think Olafur is.
In his studio Olafur visualised for us watching the episode the creative process behind his work. Starting with an idea, then the problem that the idea doesn't have any words, so they have to translate it. The space before the idea is even conceived is of high importance to the artist because that in itself verbalises it. He encourages us to let our mind roam over this crucial stage, wondering where these ideas come from? What happened for it to appear to us? He describes that all of his ideas come not from his mind, but from his heart. He provides the ideas with a language, so that they can be translated into the finalised artwork that spectators can understand and engage with. Again he encourages us to always ask questions, emphasising us to always ask, why? He begins in the space with an initial drawing of his concept that has no words, then introduces the language to it, giving it life and purpose in my eyes. From there him and his team produce models from these to drive the creative process forward. He describes in doing this he is contributing to the ideas and drawings dimensional.
Room for one colour, 1997. One of Eliasson’s earlier works consisted of a powerful lamp, it had the capability of removing all colour from the environment when switched on because there is no white light in the space to bounce the colours off of each other. Creating a brooding atmosphere in the room with all of its colours drained. The colours are present in the room; it's just that the yellow lamp removes them from the spectators' eyes. His first exhibition was a huge yellow room. The heavy absence of the colours made the viewers more aware of their surroundings heightening their senses. I would describe this unusual room as being quite sensory provoking because Olafur with his role as an artist has removed one of our significant abilities to register colour, introducing the audience into an enigmatic atmosphere in a metaphorical and literal way leaving them in the dark. He was asked to add something into the space so that it wasn't just an empty yellow room, a suggestion was made to put a red rose on the floor completely drained of colour. He simply declined, stating that if he were to input an item then the piece would become about the rose instead of the yellow light. I think this decision is very bold of Olafur because despite unnerving implementations from others he has stood with his idea and presented it with a varied positive response form the audience. Olafur achieved this
I find this exhibition to be truly sensational in the context in which the artist has managed to manipulate the spectators' senses creating this illusion of them entering an unequivocal atmosphere. As a whole the piece is challenging our optical capabilities of acknowledging colours which will lead to varying responses from the participants. I find the monochrome manipulation so fascinating and complex in its nature but in its presentation as art is so simplistic and it works in capturing the audience's attention. In the episode we could see the impact of the yellow light reducing the colours of the audience members clothes and you can begin to notice them change in how they present themselves. They appear more observant touching their clothes and their associates with them, looking at strangers also in the room. It really encourages the interaction between the artwork and the audience, furthermore exploiting a rather intimate relationship between the two. I'm not sure if the room featured sound or not so I interpret that if it did not require sound then again Olafur has taken control of our senses depicting what we will experience in the room he has created. I also like the connotations the colours have more specifically the yellow juxtaposing the monochrome presence. There is a dominant theme of the manipulation of colour perception and how it is perceived by the participants of the artwork.
Eliasson used the yellow light frequently in later works, the Weather Project, 2003. This project brought about a vivid consciousness and self awareness of climate to the artist. He believed that incorporating the yellow light was the key factor in creating this artwork. Olafur described the project as being a long process, his intention was to reproduce the atmosphere from our largest natural lightsource, the Sun. He produced an enormous model of the space and reproduced the air of the atmosphere with fog to reinforce the experience and visualise it. In order for it to enable a pure experience he made sure to have no interference from the natural environment, so he blocked out the skylight, therefore warping the reality they were experiencing and their light perception. Mirrors were also placed within the space in order for the model to appear larger, following the understanding that the audience's eyes and brains can be easily fooled enabling him to re-create and produce this phenomenal experience.
It was implied that the monochromatic yellow light created an other worldly experience for the audience interacting with the work, with the piece solely relying on Olafur’s interference and introduction of artificial light. The responses from the piece varied from the participants, with some conceiving negative opinions and others positive. Many compared the atmosphere and tone of the space of capturing the essence of an apocalyptic time and sensed danger and felt vulnerable. I can understand the vulnerability with the prominent juxtaposition of size between the audience members and the model. On the other hand many associated it with spirituality and positive energy, creating a relaxing space for them and found it calming. Olafur intended for the audience to interpret it however they wanted, imploring that there was no right or wrong answer; it was truly down to your own experience in the environment. He also implies that nothing has to be the same to share a space, which I read as people with dividing opinions can still experience the work in a shared space, there is no room for division between ideology or artistic ideas. Due to this enormous project Olafur Eliasson has become known worldwide as a bold contemporary artist.
Further context to him as an artist appears from his earlier life and experiences. He informed us that he grew up in Iceland with his father who was also an artist. However although the two shared an interest and passion in unusual artistic approaches, his father was less successful and discovered that he could not live off his artistic career through his playful and experimental work. Olafur’s parents divorced when he was a child and he lived with his mother. However to reinforce that artistic connection he had with his dad he frequently exchanged drawings with him. When he was a child he was always drawing and enjoyed it a lot. His father would often encourage him to doodle and in doing so encourage him further by feeling how it feels to do the action, acknowledging not only the work he is producing but also how it is making him feel in that duration of imagination driven doodling. These moments in his early life made Olafur realise that the artwork didn't have to be successful for it to be of quality, it's more consistent of focusing on how you feel whilst you produce it. He began to feel curious about what exactly makes space tolerable, with the thought recurring to him. He concluded it was the body, that the body is an excellent indicator to allowing space to be tolerable. But then he wondered, who knows about the body? And it was dancers. He saw dancers mimicking robots and this early experience in his words blew his mind when he was younger. It inspired him to practice it himself and he became quite good at it at a young age and implied that the powerful motion really helped with his self confidence and taught him a lot about physicality. This is where his interest and pure fascination with space began.
An interest in movement and geometry developed from this experience for Olafur. In his studio in Berlin now he has a slow mirror, which he presented in the episode and demonstrated how it worked. Its time sequence was off, which was what he admired because that controlled the reception of it. It was able to slow the item in the reflection down, but not outside of the mirror in our reality. The mirror is called an Ellipse mirror, he’s been experimenting with that a lot. I also learnt from this informative episode that the first mirrors were created from black obsidian.
Throughout his life Olafur has been interested in ideas resolving around space and time, and the relationship between nature and design. These factors drove him to look at architecture. A famous architect that he admired was BuckmInster Fuller. In Iceland Olafur came across an architect called Einar Thordteinn who actually knew Fuller. This proved to be helpful for Eliasson because he wanted to create an architectural piece influenced by Fuller’s work, and Einar knew the formula for it. This is one of the primary reasons why the artist chooses to work among scientists and architects, familiarising himself with them and their techniques which he can then incorporate into his own work. He suggested that working alongside these people has helped him to grow with geometry, and to grow as an artist in the world.
Olafur has personally concluded through his independent experience and practice that special systems can be devised by nature, again reinforcing the artists strong ideology of engaging the environment with his work. He was invited to create a structural building for a concert hall and conference room in Iceland, Harpa, Reykjavik, 2005 - 2011. For inspiration for the architectural design of the structure he referenced the environment in Iceland. In particular the crystalline basalt columns in Iceland. The intense geometric structure of these natural phenomenons in the south coast of Iceland captured Olafur’s mind and inspired the design of the building. He was predominantly working with combining nature and geometry searching for how it organises space. The artist compared the appearance of the building to a mirror, it brings in the sun from the front as well as the ceiling transferring light into the space. He described the whole long process of creating the piece of architecture as amazing.
After Harpa was concluded Olafur moved onto his next architectural project, Fjordenhus, Denmark, 2009 - 2018. Despite its complex exterior participants in the making of it described it as being quite simple to build. Olafur revealed to us that circular surfaces are capable of altering our perspectives in order for it to appear explicitly, with this present in his mind he chose to incorporate circular surfaces in the formulation of this building. He stated that he has had a long lasting interest in perception and finds pleasure in incorporating it into his projects. He finds it fascinating that we choose to use our eyes.
When he was a young artist he moved from Denmark to Germany, during this time he explained that he gave up everything he had to pursue a career in art. In 1989 a historical event took place, it came about the Berlin Wall being brought down, Olafur wanted to experience this so he and a fellow student drove there to witness the event firsthand. He described the experience as truly astonishing seeing all the civilians coming through the wall from the East, reconnecting people that were once divided for so long. “Din Blinde Passager”, Your blind passenger, 2010 was a project inspired by this historical experience that Olafur involved himself in. The artist described the ordeal that took place during the artwork as touching, he also suggested that it was difficult to understand the scope of what he was seeing in his work, perhaps because it was so intimate with his experiences. In a way the artwork and events that inspired it relate to Olafur’s own personal challenges in his life, when he first moved to Germany he thought he thought he was going to enter the world as an artist, but frequently doubted himself. It was during this time that he realised that in order for him to make something of himself as an artist he had to simply be himself.
I find this exhibition to be really substantial in its connotations and reminiscence. I really admire the emotive qualities it conveys in its enigmatic atmosphere that Olafur has created with the mist and light. He has yet again introduced these prominent materials in this work, but I believe in this artwork they have a more meaningful and effective impact on its audience. The dense mist I believe represents the clouded thoughts and minds of the people at the Berlin Wall when it was taken down. I think during that time they were so occupied with this empowering action taking place, I also think it symbolises the mixture of emotions. Many would have felt happiness, shock, perhaps fear or anger. But I think collectively there was a mutual feeling of familiarity and community with this faith in humanity restoration through political action. Just from the images of the artwork you already immediately come up with these assumptions of the piece, I myself associate it with being an enigmatic atmosphere with its participants in a daze not really knowing where they are going, with the only knowledge that they are all sharing the same experience. The images provided I think carry such emotional aspects and are powerful themselves as works of art as well as the installation. The various colours the audience are engulfed in entrance them overall impacting their experience. They are really in unknown territory experiencing this for the first time, experiencing and reminiscing what Olafur experienced in 1989. Therefore I think this is a monumental piece of art. I prefer it to the other light installation The Weather project because of its contextualisation. Overall its impact is heart-felling. Lafur has managed to capture a true sense of enigma's in this work through his manipulation of light which I feel entranced by.
Olafur Eliasson’s installation Reality Projector, 2018, gave the experience of the artwork directly to the participants. It consisted of an enormous space that exposed the structure that held up the ceiling. Taking advantage of this Olafur installed lights up there that then produced these large vivid shadows that danced along the walls, I interpret as talking to the viewers. When the lights moved the shadows also moved creating the impression of life in the rather dark space, in a way bringing the shadows to life. The atmosphere in the room was described as dreamlike and could be identified by the audience as an area found in our imagination, fulfilled with fantasy with the immaculate shadows cast and vibrant colours. During the creation of this project Olafur wondered whether or not he would introduce sound to the space, he decided he would and used recording from a friend of the delivery and construction of a piano. The combination of the enormous dynamic shadows, intense colours and overwhelming sound resulted in a sensory driven environment encouraging the audience to fully engage and express themselves in the empowering space. The responses from the audience differentiated from some associating it with industrialisation identifying modernism in skyscrapers and cranes. Whereas others experienced a more psychedelic feel from the expressive motions and appearance. The manipulation of the senses from the artist really does transform the audience in what they are experiencing allowing them to come to terms with their own recollections of the work and from their own ideologies and searching for the contextualisation behind the piece. The artist has taken into consideration the exposure of the structure and incorporated its qualities into his work, recognising the abnormalities I would say in the rooms architectural design, embracing the difference and transforming it into art.The piece was depicted as an opportunity to empower its audience, encouraging them to not only relate the piece as it is presented to them, but also to relate to the narrative it is expressing. It made Eliasson feel accomplished as an artist knowing he was enabling ordinary people to feel this way and experience his art in intelligent means.
During this time in his artistic career Olafur Eliasson began to work more diversely. Introducing different themes and issues into his work, combining the normality of art with politics. Assuring his focal point to be transforming thinking into doing. Everything he learnt from his personal experiences and provision of others he applied to this project. He wanted to discover a way of re presenting the climate explicitly, which inspired his ice project. Ice Watch, 2014, which consisted of positioning glacier ice into the streets. Because of its spontaneous appearance in the dense streets the public were enforced to view it and motivated to engage with it. This interaction with the artwork ranged from touching, to listening and talking to the huge chunks of glacier ice. It melts on the street reinforcing the crucial reality that they are melting due to our current climate. This is what all the environmentalists and sane people in our society are talking about, but I believe that in order for them to make people realise and experience what is happening in the world they have to physically bring the problem to them. Only then in their presence will they be willing to engage with it and organise their ideologies on the matter. It captures the art of change, through its engagement its establishing an intimate relationship between the spectator and the artwork.
I think this piece is so powerful and moving with just its limited presence in our space, during its time on the street its melting and the audience are unable to do anything to help these particular pieces of ice. But it's allowing them to see the bigger picture, they can't save this piece of ice but they could help make changes to the remaining glacier that is suffering. I like the vulnerability the huge rocks of ice convey that they can only stay stationary whilst its spectators are free to roam around it fully immersing themselves in the experience and with their touch and voices. It's a beautiful piece of installation art with an even more beautiful intended meaning conveyed.
Olafur Eliasson’s most recent exhibition is in Los Angeles, California in the Tanya Bonakoar Gallery at the time this Netflix episode was aired.
