Playful Exploration
Acclaimed Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s first major survey exhibition in Southeast Asia debuts at Singapore Art Museum.
By Art+ Magazine
August 21, 2024
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Multiple shadow house’ (2010), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
Singapore Art Museum (SAM) announces the opening of the highly anticipated exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey, the first major solo exhibition in Southeast Asia dedicated to the work of internationally celebrated Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Featuring 17 artworks that employ diverse media to reflect the expanse of Eliasson’s wide-ranging oeuvre, the exhibition will touch on major themes of his three-decade-long practice—embodiment, experience, perception, as well as the urgency of climate action and more- than-human perspectives. Included in this stellar line-up are also never-be- foreseen works and Singapore-exclusive installations only available at this leg of the travelling show, as Your curious journey moves on to four other venues in the Asia-Pacific after making its debut at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark from 10 May to 22 September 2024.
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Circumstellar resonator’ (2018), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
Internationally renowned for his wide-ranging, genre-crossing works, Eliasson has exhibited his works in major museums and public spaces around the globe since 1997. Eliasson is known for his captivating installations that make the ungraspable tangible—heightening our awareness of our senses and playfully challenging our experience and perception of the world around us. Beyond that, Eliasson’s work continues to find meaningful resonance with contemporary audiences through his deep engagement with society and the environment. Eugene Tan, CEO and Director of SAM says, “SAM seeks to inspire change through art and cultivate spaces for collaborative dialogues to occur, and is delighted to bring the works of visionary artist Olafur Eliasson to Southeast Asia for the first time, at such scale. Taking over the museum’s galleries at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, audiences familiar with Eliasson’s iconic works can anticipate a broad range of works that unpack his unique aesthetic and the major themes that underscore his practice over the past 30 years. We also look forward to connect new audiences to Eliasson’s work in Your curious journey, where they can immerse themselves in Eliasson’s interactive installations and discover the varied perspectives that contemporary art can bring to some of today’s most press- ing social and environmental issues. Along with our partners Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Museum MACAN, and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, we are excited to see how the global story of Your curious journey unfolds as it travels across Asia-Pacific.”
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Yellow corridor’ (1997), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
From the moment they step into Level 1 of SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, visitors will be immediately greeted by Yellow corridor (1997). A row of mono-frequency yellow lights illuminates the passageway of Galleries 1 and 2, inviting an uncanny somatic experience of the space where one’s visual spectrum of colors is desaturated and washed in shades of gray.
Notably, the work is representative of Eliasson’s interest in co-creation with his audiences, where their unique first-person perspective completes the experience of the work. Beauty (1993), one of his most iconic works on display, epitomizes Eliasson’s interest in challenging our awareness of our own perception, as well as emphasizing our unique, subjective experiences. In the work, a fine sheet of mist is illuminated by a singular spotlight in a darkened space, and when viewed at just the right angle, a prismatic reflection of light reveals itself as a luminous rainbow.
Detail view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Symbiotic seeing’ (2020), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist and Singapore
As light is refracted and reflected on the water droplets differently, no two viewers see the same rainbow. Bringing into focus the role of the viewer and the very act of perception and experience of seeing, the work begs the question: Does the rainbow exist independently, or does it exist because we perceive it?
The spirit of co-creation with audiences and creating communal experiences is also prevalent in The cubic structural evolution project (2004). One of two Singapore-only exclusives, the work invites active participation in the envisioning and transformation of a Lego cityscape and is only made complete with the audience’s spirited engagement. Comprising heaps of white Lego bricks amongst imaginative complexes, Eliasson creates space for play and creativity, encouraging visitors to build shared worlds with others.
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘The cubic structural evolution project’ (2004), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
The exhibition also explores Eliasson’s use of ephemeral and intangible materials such as light, wind, fog and water to conjure evanescent phenomena, allowing visitors to experience invisible elements of our surroundings palpably. In Symbiotic seeing (2020), the other Singapore-exclusive work, colored laser lights come into contact with periodically released fog to create a captivating marvel that appears to occupy a liminal space between physical states. As ripples and currents of fog swirl above our heads, flowing along with our movements within the space, we become directly involved in the production of our surroundings, personally and communally.
Similarly, in Object defined by activity (then) (2009), strobe lights flicker ceaselessly in rapid succession, illuminating a water feature in a pitch-dark space for a mere fraction of a second at a time, creating the illusion of water being frozen in time in a series of still, fleeting frames.
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Object defined by activity (then)’ (2009), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
Many of the artworks on display in the exhibition also reflect Eliasson’s deep engagement with the places and ecological systems in which we exist. Drawing from his connection with Iceland, Moss wall (1994) sees reindeer cup lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) woven into a wire mesh that blankets an entire gallery wall. Also known colloquially as “reindeer moss,” it covers immense areas in northern tundra and taiga ecosystems. The living and breathing wall disrupts an otherwise homogeneous museum space, collapsing the boundaries between interior and exterior by bringing one of nature’s great wonders directly to audiences in tropical Singapore.
Through two brand new, never-be- fore-seen works, The last seven days of glacial ice (2024) and The seismographic testimony of distance (Berlin–Singapore, no. 1 to no. 6) (2024), Eliasson also prompts visitors to reflect on pertinent environmental concerns and the ongoing climate catastrophe. In The last seven days of glacial ice (2024), a fragment of ice from a nearby glacier at Diamond Beach in the south of Iceland was visualized in its various stages of melting.
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘The last seven days of glacial ice’ (2024), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the artist
A bronze cast representing each stage is paired with a clear orb of glass – a volumetric representation of water that was lost – conjuring an evocative image of its steady degradation and loss that stresses the urgency of climate action.
At the core of Your curious journey is The seismographic testimony of distance (Berlin–Singapore, no. 1 to no. 6)—a series of unique seismographic sketches created by Eliasson’s drawing machines installed in the shipping crates that carried most of the artworks shown in this exhibition, tracing their journey from Berlin to Singapore by sea instead of air. The work thus not only necessitates sea travel, but also demonstrates a mindfulness of the exhibition’s carbon footprint in both his content and process of creating his artworks and exhibitions.
Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Life is lived along lines’ (2009), as part of ‘Olafur Eliasson Your curious journey’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark; Photo Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures; Image courtesy of the arist
The seismographic testimony of distance will continue to develop as
the exhibition travels over a three-year timeframe and unite each distinct iteration of the exhibition as part of a larger, global story. Following its first stop in Singapore at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the exhibition will travel to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand (Dec. 2024 – Mar. 2025); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (May – Aug. 2025); Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia (Nov. 2025 – Apr. 2026); and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, the Philippines ( June – Oct. 2026)
