Comments on: Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/ • • • Being a journal by artist and designer John Coulthart, cataloguing interests, obsessions and passing enthusiasms. Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:00:48 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Claire http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/comment-page-1/#comment-50101 Claire Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:39:23 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/#comment-50101 There was one piece in the MOMA show that I did like -- a floor of old, driftwood-like worn wood that made interesting sounds as people walked across it. Making it cooler was the discovery that the floor was actually on top of a shallow pool of water that continued on to the other side of a screen, with a light illuminating the surface of that part of the pool creating interesting reflections from the overlapping waves. But the rest, not so much. There was one piece in the MOMA show that I did like — a floor of old, driftwood-like worn wood that made interesting sounds as people walked across it. Making it cooler was the discovery that the floor was actually on top of a shallow pool of water that continued on to the other side of a screen, with a light illuminating the surface of that part of the pool creating interesting reflections from the overlapping waves. But the rest, not so much.

]]> By: John http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/comment-page-1/#comment-50069 John Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:30:04 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/#comment-50069 Hi Claire. I don't think there's any homework necessary with Eliasson's work, in fact I often complain about contemporary art which requires too much context extraneous to the work itself to be understood. But if you don't respond then that's a perfectly valid thing; no art from any era carries a compulsion to be enjoyed. I was very impressed by Eliasson's <em><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/eliasson/default.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Weather Project</a></em> at the Tate in 2003 and I like the way he varies his approach. Too many artists today find one niche area which they then exploit <em>ad nauseam</em>; once you know that Rachel Whiteread makes casts of objects the only new thing to discover is what new thing she's made a cast of and how it's been arranged. Eliasson is more inventive than that. And I like his use of light, something that bears comparison with James Turrell. Hi Claire. I don’t think there’s any homework necessary with Eliasson’s work, in fact I often complain about contemporary art which requires too much context extraneous to the work itself to be understood. But if you don’t respond then that’s a perfectly valid thing; no art from any era carries a compulsion to be enjoyed.

I was very impressed by Eliasson’s Weather Project at the Tate in 2003 and I like the way he varies his approach. Too many artists today find one niche area which they then exploit ad nauseam; once you know that Rachel Whiteread makes casts of objects the only new thing to discover is what new thing she’s made a cast of and how it’s been arranged. Eliasson is more inventive than that. And I like his use of light, something that bears comparison with James Turrell.

]]> By: Claire http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/comment-page-1/#comment-50030 Claire Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:04:39 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/04/19/take-your-time-olafur-eliasson/#comment-50030 I have to admit, I don't get it. We saw his MOMA show, and, well, I wasn't wowed. It's possible that I just failed to do my homework and had I known more I would have been impressed, but it all felt a bit empty. I have to admit, I don’t get it. We saw his MOMA show, and, well, I wasn’t wowed. It’s possible that I just failed to do my homework and had I known more I would have been impressed, but it all felt a bit empty.

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