Iteration 57: Asking a Deeper Why
10/14/19 • 8 min
Earlier this week, Adrianne and I watched the first episode of the new season of Abstract on the Netflix . For those of you who haven’t seen it, Abstract is a fantastic show about art and design. It follows roughly the same format as something like Chef’s Table — which is also an excellent show — where each episode profiles a specific artist or designer. Last season included Tinker Hatfield, Paula Scher, and Platon among others and this season starts out with someone who I’ve never heard of by name though I have seen his work. Olafur Eliasson is an artist and architect whose large scale works are focused and really dependent on the user or viewer’s experience of them. Many of his works center around light — specifically, the effects and manipulation of light. For example, one of his earlier pieces is called “Beauty” and it was his attempt to create a rainbow by lighting a gentle waterfall of very fine mist. The effect was such that no two people experience exactly the same rainbow, since the color and intensity are based entirely on your viewing angle relative to the mist.
“This is a space totally dependent on you being there,” Olafur says. “When you leave the exhibition, and there’s no-one in the room, there’s also no art.” This idea is really core to Olafur’s art — the Why of his art, if you will. Each piece he makes is a sort of challenge. As he puts it, “do I trust my own eyes and my own capacity to engage in the world?” His work is completely dependent on the spectator. It’s a collaboration –maybe even a conversation – between him as the artist and us as the viewer. Even his episode of Abstract is a collaboration, beginning with Olafur breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the camera — to us — as he presents the conditions of our collaboration.
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If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show.
LINKS
Abstract: The Art of Design
https://olafureliasson.net
Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0
Earlier this week, Adrianne and I watched the first episode of the new season of Abstract on the Netflix . For those of you who haven’t seen it, Abstract is a fantastic show about art and design. It follows roughly the same format as something like Chef’s Table — which is also an excellent show — where each episode profiles a specific artist or designer. Last season included Tinker Hatfield, Paula Scher, and Platon among others and this season starts out with someone who I’ve never heard of by name though I have seen his work. Olafur Eliasson is an artist and architect whose large scale works are focused and really dependent on the user or viewer’s experience of them. Many of his works center around light — specifically, the effects and manipulation of light. For example, one of his earlier pieces is called “Beauty” and it was his attempt to create a rainbow by lighting a gentle waterfall of very fine mist. The effect was such that no two people experience exactly the same rainbow, since the color and intensity are based entirely on your viewing angle relative to the mist.
“This is a space totally dependent on you being there,” Olafur says. “When you leave the exhibition, and there’s no-one in the room, there’s also no art.” This idea is really core to Olafur’s art — the Why of his art, if you will. Each piece he makes is a sort of challenge. As he puts it, “do I trust my own eyes and my own capacity to engage in the world?” His work is completely dependent on the spectator. It’s a collaboration –maybe even a conversation – between him as the artist and us as the viewer. Even his episode of Abstract is a collaboration, beginning with Olafur breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the camera — to us — as he presents the conditions of our collaboration.
Subscribe: iTunes | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS
If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show.
LINKS
Abstract: The Art of Design
https://olafureliasson.net
Music in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0
Previous Episode
Process Driven 29: Olga Karlovac
“We are all unique in the way we see things — the worst thing is to copy. The best thing is to be who you are.”
As I sat down to write the intro to this episode of
Process Driven
, I struggled a little trying to come up with words that would convey some of my thoughts and feelings about the work of photographer Olga Karlovac. I then realized that the words had already been written by Koci Hernandez in his beautiful foreword for Olga’s latest book,
the disarray
.
“You’re about to embark on upon a fantastic journey. It’s one of boundless time and space and it’s compressed with the pages of the book you now hold. I only wish I could experience again, for the first time, the disarray — visual poetry as a master work.
Let me assure you, the sign posts on your journey will be stunningly clear and mysteriously opaque, filled with blurry lines, half made worlds and the formless. Olga wouldn’t have it any other way. Don’t be fooled by what you think you see, because dancing within these pages is an unbound energy — an energy that at once can overwhelm the spirit and set eyes ablaze in wonder. You have been warned.”
That’s an excerpt of the foreword from
the disarray
.
CONNECT WITH OLGA
Website: https://www.olga-karlovac-photography.com/
Instagram: @olga.karlovac
Facebook: @olga.karlovac
MUSIC
Please Listen Carefully
(Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0
Next Episode
What’s a Mentor Got To Do With It?
I got an email a couple weeks ago from a listener asking if I had any advice for finding a mentor. Now, while I have been incredibly fortunate to have had – and frankly still have – some amazing people in my life who have in one way or another taken on the role of a mentor, I can’t say that it’s ever been intentional in the sense that I want to connect with this person or that person so they can be my mentor. In my experience, mentors find their way into my life at just the right moment – and it may only be for a moment. Here’s a piece of a conversation with my friend and not so occasional mentor, Jon Wilkening.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS
Music in this episode: Brain Power (Mela) / CC BY-SA 4.0
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