Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, was well known for his art works enhancing the viewer’s experience. His large-scale art works incorporated materials such as light, water, and air temperature. “Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. Eliasson strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world”. Nothing prevented him to create the visions he had for his works. “Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice en
gages the broader public sphere through architectural projects and interventions in civic space”. All of his works had a specific purpose and deeper meaning. For example, the “Green River”. Eliasson pour a non- polluting solution that turned the water green in five different cities around the world. “The aim was to challenge the inhabitants’ perception regarding a natural element in their city to which they are so accustomed they no longer notice”. People in the world today are so caught up with technology and materialistic objects that they are blind to what exists around th
em. Because of Elisson, people just noticed something that has been there all along. It really makes you take a step back and look at things differently. The Weather Project was another one of his creations. Eliasson used the open space of the gallery’s Turbine Hall. He used humidifiers to create mist while having a huge “circular disk made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps which radiated yellow light”. The walls were covered with mirrors, “which allowed the visitors to see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. Many visitors responded to this exhibition by lying on their backs and waving their hands and legs”. This is exactly the reaction Eliasson wanted to get from his viewers. “The Weather project is a work about an audience living in a counterfeit environment, mesmerized by dematerialization, tricked by the duplicated space, and subject to its own perception. Once the clouds dissipate the mirrors reflect the image of the viewers beneath caught in the act of seeing”. Eliasson’s art focused on “perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self”. These are the main ideas that drove his works and made them what they are today.
http://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK101541/green-river
https://art1ficial.wordpress.com/2012/06/
file:///Users/Downloads/Jones_Server%20User%20Mode%20(1).pdf
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/unilever-series-olafur-eliasson-weather-project/olafur-eliasson-weather-project