Olafur Eliasson: Your light shadow

The Hara Museum hosts the celebrated manipulator of the senses

Colour Space Embracer, 2005 Courtesy of Jens Ziehe 2005 © Olafur Eliasson

After seeing the installations of Olafur Eliasson, their forms and imagery tend to linger in the mind. His signature manipulations of light, shadow and other elements of nature create permeating moments that enlighten our perceptions and entice our emotions. Eliasson is—in his own scientifically grounded manner—a sorcerer at work with the possibilities of nature, conjuring powerful visions that stream straight to our senses and bloom on impact.

The Berlin-based Eliasson has taken over the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, filling nearly every room with his magical installations. The galleries are transformed by broad washes of color and light into absorptive environments that become meditations of altered perception and heightened reality. “Your light shadow” is his first one-man museum show in Japan and offers a satisfying but all-too-brief survey of his visually seductive oeuvre.

One of the most visceral and affecting works in the exhibit is the early piece Beauty (1993). Centered in a darkened room, this entrancing work, in which a shifting field of prismatic light illuminates a falling spray of cloudy mist, is nothing short of stunning. As one moves around the room, the colors variously waver in and out of view across the quiet and calming waterfall. Only the thick odor of industrial rubber flooring and the shuffling of neighboring visitors break the spell, allowing escape from the negative-ion-charged atmosphere.

Equally mesmerizing, the 1998 piece Room for One Colour and Windy Corner remakes an empty room into an intense realm of orangey unreality. The soft glow of the light triggers an immediate and compulsive need to explore the otherwise blank space as one’s eyes wrangle with the psychedelic sensations created by the blanketing aura of color. There is also the persistent buzz of 22 small computer-cooling fans lined up along the entrance. These rather quirky additions create the title’s windy corner and add a brief moment for reflection to the otherwise overpowering experience.

Two newer works, Round Rainbow and Colour Space Embracer (both 2005), continue to manipulate and alter light, albeit on a less immersive scale. Both pieces use stage spotlights to beam light through spinning acrylic rings that refract wildly geometric imagery throughout the room. The light directly at the center of the projection forms a perpetually undulating eye of shifting circular color; away from the center, spiraling lines of light blaze sleek designs across the walls.

For long-time fans as well as newcomers to Eliasson’s work, one particularly noteworthy part of “Your Light Shadow” is the inclusion of a small maquette and a series of three drawings that detail a forthcoming permanent installation on the rooftop of the Hara Museum later this year. Though somewhat cryptic and presented without detailed explanation, it’s a welcome opportunity to appreciate the intensive consideration and planning that goes into each of the works.

Through these designs, it is possible to come to a greater understanding of not only Eliasson’s works, but also the continuing process and motivation of this leading artist of the contemporary scene. Rooted in thorough investigation of natural phenomena and our interactions with the world, Eliasson’s work continually offers moments of pure sensual delight while at the same time raising questions and illuminating unknown possibilities of existence and vision.

The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, until March 5. See exhibition listings (other areas) for details.

Would you like to comment on this article? Send a letter to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp .