★★★★by Ifan Llewelyn
The Insta-friendly exhibition has taken hold of London, with immersive, colourful exhibitions taking over several gallery spaces in London. The Tate Modern as a space has fully embraced the shift in what people now expect from a gallery visit, with canvas work and sculpture not quite quenching the Gen Z thirst unless they can take an impressive selfie with it. This latest exhibition of Olafur Eliasson’s work serves up several of them, though experiencing them via a phone screen is doing them an injustice. In Real Life brings together works that are best experienced with undivided attention, giving you a sensory exploration of the natural world.
Born in Demark in the late ‘60s, Eliasson like many of his fellow Scandinavians has a deep connection to the natural world. Whether it’s taking freshwater dips in the buff during the winter months, or hopping into wooden fire-lit sauna directly after, the culture immerses itself in the elements. Having spent many a summer in the breath-taking terrain of Iceland in youth, Eliasson’s appreciation of the natural world came to shape is work, re-igniting those sensations usually only privy to those who have the means to spend a long summer on the Nordic island nation. The over 40 works on display here from the 1990s onwards speak to the artists varied and engaged appreciation of the elements.
You encounter his first works before entering the Tate Modern, as water gushes from atop a large scaffolding structure in Waterfall 2019. The cascading water evokes a bare sense of standing in front of the real thing, though channelling in on the sound and spray of the experience. It succeeds in drumming up real anticipation of what’s to come. As you walk down the corridor of the Tate, you suddenly find yourself in Eliasson’s Room for one colour 1997, with bright orange lights pigmenting everything it touches. In passing the translucent and white reflecting surfaces of the Stardust particle2014, you find your way to the exhibition entrance.
Following the suggested route, you enter the Model room 2003, where an array of his smaller-scale works are assorted in a glass case like artefacts in a museum of curiosities. These pieces are more architectural than natural, giving insight into the inner workings of his large-scale installations. This introduction is one that primes you to take more of an analytical look to the work you’re about to encounter; to question its working rather than just enjoy it for what it is. Eliasson’s play with the mechanisms behind the effects he creates in his instillations is a re-occurring theme, with Window projection1990 clearly and simply showing you how the effect takes place, while the workings of the rising iridescent mist in Beauty 1993 is a little more allusive.
The exhibition has three key installations that truly leave an impression, and those are the most immersive. The first being the coloured smoke of a fogged corridor, with the orange of the Room of one colour re-emerging in Din blinde passage 2010 (Your blind passenger). Surrounded by a dense fog, your senses heighten since you can barely see past your nose, knowing only that you must walk forward. The second is the Big Bang Fountain 2014, where the sound of rushing water issues around a pitch-black room, with flashes of bright light, intermittently revealing a fountain in the middle of the room. The third comes with the installation that features on the materials you’ve seen plastered across London, or on your artsy friend’s Instagram feed, in Your uncertain shadow (colour) 2010 where multicolour shadows of passers-by are cast on a large blank wall.
In real life is a real treat that captures that rare sense of enthrallment in experience. Though a little brief in articulating the work and the artist, you still leave feeling an understanding of what Eliasson has devoted his career to expressing. Closing your eyes and feeling the spray of the Waterfall brushing against your cheeks, ears filled with the sound of crashing water, you’re left truly appreciating nature in its simplicity.
Olafur Eliasson: In real life is showing at the Tate Modern, Southbank until 5th January. Tickets at Tate.org.uk.
