I originally attended the Museum of Contemporary Art to review Elements of Photography, but instead fell in love with Olafur Eliasson's show Take Your Time. The show engaged all senses through its use of kaleidoscopes, light, wind, and other natural elements. Take Your Time is an art experience, rather than an act of viewing. Eliasson's work makes for a heightened sense of awareness of not only the apparatus, architecture, but also the viewer in relationship to all these things. The show was fun and exciting, and overall the best art experience I have had in a long time.
Through his use of scale and form, Eliasson creates a heightened sense of self in relationship to and experience of his artwork. This feeling is evoked in many of his pieces including One Way Colour Tunnel and the Mirror Door series, but it is most pronounced in Moss Wall (1994) and 360° Room for All Colours (2008). Moss Wall is self explanatory: an entire wall covered in real moss. The fresh, earthy smell it emits combined with its alluring texture makes smelling and touching the piece impossible to resist. The moss has already begun to turn from green to a whitish color, and as the show goes on it will continue to die. This combined with the large scale of the work, and the smallness of the viewer in comparison, are a reminder of the fragility of life, and the insignificance of the individual. In 360° Room for All Colours, the viewer is surrounded by a round wall with an ever changing color arrangement. The viewer is forced to rotate to view all the changes occurring. The change in color, and direction of rotation alter the perception of color. This gives the viewer some choice, in an otherwise powerless situation. In both works, Eliasson uses architecture and scale to manipulate the way in which the viewer perceives themselves in relationship to the work.
Take Your Time also features works in which Eliasson recreates natural phenomena. In Beauty (1997), the viewer is first struck by the smell of fresh water as they wander down a dark hallway. As they turn the corner, they encounter a pitch black room with a light at the center, highlighting a mist of water. Ventilator (1997) consists of a fan hung from the ceiling that oscillates above the viewers head. In both pieces, Eliasson makes the apparatus clear. The availability of the construction, in conjunction with the inability for a person to recreate the actual experience of mist and wind points to the limitation of human beings in comparison to nature.
The work of Olafur Eliasson tests the traditional relationship to work in a museum, in which you look and do not touch. The work tempts you to physically interact, and by simply walking through the exhibit the viewer becomes a part of the work itself. There is a heightened sense of surroundings, and an awareness of oneself, nature, and architecture that sometimes goes unnoticed in other work. Take Your Time was magical, and I highly recommend you experience it for yourself. It will be on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art until September 13th.
