I wasn't a great fan of the 2019 Oliafur Eliasson exhibition at Tate Modern. [Remember exhibitions?] Now the Danish-Icelandic artist - who we last heard of in May extolling the lockdown, which he said gave him a feeling of groundedness for which he was very grateful - has a new installation in Chicago, under the Willis Tower.
Back, I think, to the kind of thing he does best:
[Images: CNL Projects]
It's called Atmospheric Wave Wall:
Almost 2,000 powder-coated curved steel tiles in varying shades of complementary blues and greens are arranged in variegated hexagonal patterns to create the large-scale installation. Like an unfurled, multifaceted prism, the appearance of the work will alter with the changing sunlight, seasons of the year, time of day, and positions of passersby. Backlit at night with glimpses of light peering through the tile fissures, the work can also be viewed at dusk and beyond.
Atmospheric wave wall was inspired by the environs of the Chicago River across the street as well as nearby Lake Michigan—just a short one-mile walk away past Anish Kapoor’s famous Cloud Gate sculpture (colloquially known as the Bean) and the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. The artist details his motivations and inspiration in a release: “Inspired by the unpredictable weather that I witnessed stirring up the surface of Lake Michigan, Atmospheric wave wall appears to change according to your position and to the time of day and year. What we see depends on our point of view: Understanding this is an important step toward realizing that we can change reality.”
He's better at these large-scale installations, I'd say - like the Tate Modern's Weather Project in 2003 - than he is at being some kind of cutting-edge artist.
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