Thursday, April 1, 2010

Take your time - Olafur Eliasson

Get in quick, it is the last days of the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art!

This show is not to be missed, because it is also the first ever solo show of the Icelandic artist in Australia. Renowned for his Waterfall, superstructure installlation on the East River, New York, in 2008 and other large scale public architectural sculptures throughout Europe, Eliasson is worth the effort to see on local turf. This exhibition is a survey of more manageable and intimate proportions and shows work spanning his carreer from 1993 to 2008.

Looking at the exhibition as a whole, it appears Eliasson is somewhat a minimalist at heart, right down to the spacial planning and 'no labels' policy of each exhibit, but this doesn't diminish the visual feast and extraordinarily sumptuos experiences throughout. Eliasson is a master investigator and recreator of what often seem like highschool physics experiments and artistic creator of trompe l'oeil-like presentations. Believing there is some trickery at play, when all is in fact bared, is half the revelation of Eliasson's work.

I don't want to give too much away, but agree with the curators and recommend visitors do "take your time", particularly at the Mosswall 1994, to breath in the earthiness of the gigantic curtain of imported raindeer moss and at  Beauty 1993, where the continual shimmering mist of water develops rainbows before your eyes while the tunnel of volcanic ash still lingers on your senses.

Beauty 1993 Collection Museum Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Image courtesy and copyright the artist. Photography: Poul Pedersen

Even in the white cube gallery environment a strong identity of place prevails and a sense geological forces firmly roots the viewer in an Icelanding experience. Hopefully visitors will get swept away as much as I did, feeling this ominipresent environment, maybe then looking, seeing, sensing the exhibition rather than simply walking through it as a passive observer. The retinal shadow effect of Yellow versus purple 2003 is so simply presented  but so beguiling I revisited it again on the way out...(as I did with many of the exhibits).

Eliasson questions us as viewers and in turn assists us in questioning ourselves and our environment.  The exhibition provokes us to; take a new approach, enquire about our world, experience our surroundings differently for a change and make us realise that seeing as a process is a lot more complex than just 'looking'.

(NB: take your time also to read the room brochure!!!it will add a dimension to your overall enjoyment)

Museum of Conemporary Art
10 December 2009 - 11 April 2010
 $15 adult ticket
Circular Quay West
Sydney NSW 2000