Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

In looking at the ways that we can be taken to different places and how our perceptions can shift, an exhibition that had a real influence on me, is Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project. I went to see this exhibition when it was at the Tate Modern in 2003 and was completely overwhelmed by the reaction I had to it. Viewers of the exhibition would come and lie down under the ‘sun’, a habitual reaction to seeing the presence of the sun. There was absolutely no heat generated by this installation. The representation of the sun came in the form of a visual representation of the sun through mirrors, and lighting to mimic the warmth radiating from it. There were also humidifiers that would pump a mixture a sugar and water into the air to create a mist. The illusion of the sun was created by a half circle of light reflecting off of different jagged mirrors placed on the ceiling. This means that the illusion of the sun is fractionally offset which makes it more believable, almost as if it was shimmering. By placing mirrors on the ceiling, sun bathers were shown a reflection of themselves and viewers would be seen to be waving their hands and legs in order to find themselves in the mass of people. All this helped to add to the sense of scale created by the sun and as a viewer you couldn’t help but feel you were dwarfed by this radiating mirage. It actually had a real calming effect, much like you would have on the beach and it worked to make you think you had connected with the energy of the sun in some way. This show stuck me with for its ability to helps me to translate an experience in a certain way. I began to understand what it takes to represent a notion, or an element, without having the substance of the element present. Oddly, having recently visited Photo London on the opening night, I can’t imagine the turbine hall transforming so radically as it did when that show was open. It was a real indication to me at an early age of how immersive art could be.